Monday, December 14, 2015

A letter from ISIS to Donald Trump

Alaraby TV

A Letter From ISIS to Donald TrumpPosted: 12/14/2015 12:48 pm

"Dear Donald Trump, leading candidate for the Republican nomination:

Thank you for your cooperation, we sincerely hope it continues.

You, and what you represent, make our job so much easier, and truly make our quest for war without end between Islam and the West a reality."

***

The above is how I imagine the Islamic State's leadership (Da'esh or ISIS) responded to Donald Trump's latest remarks calling for a ban upon all Muslims' entry to the United States. Little more than unadulterated racist hatred, Trump's anti-Muslim diatribe must have greatly pleased ISIS's delusional leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Billionaire Trump announced his pledge to prevent all Muslims from entering the United States only a few short days after terror attacks waged by an American-born Muslim and his Pakistani wife in San Bernardino, CA. Trump, who styles himself as an expert of public opinion, justified his proposal on the grounds that, as a matter of religious principle, all Muslims hate Americans.

Trump's remarks were so outlandish that fellow Republican presidential candidates, as well as senior party leaders felt, compelled to condemn them, stating that Trump's invectives contravened both American and GOP values. As of yet, Trump has neither rescinded nor apologized for his comments; if anything, he has only become more consistent in his vitriol. Though Trump clearly does not represent every American, his remarks have placed millions of American Muslims in danger, engendering hatred and stoking the flames of Islamophobia.

Since its foundation nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, Muslims have played a crucial role in American society. Originally arriving as African slaves, Muslims have consistently immigrated to the United States since the end of the Civil War. Today, Muslims work in such prominent industries as diverse as film, literature, sports, and space; thousands even serve in America's armed forces. Though the US Government does not account for religion when conducting its census, independent analysis estimate close to 7 million Muslims reside in the United States. There are about 3000 mosques spread across all 50 states.

Furthermore, most American Muslims enjoy a higher standard of living than the norm, with 66% earning more than the United States $50K median household average yearly income. Unlike their counterparts throughout Europe, American Muslims do not live in poor, isolated, and ghettoized neighborhoods; instead, Muslims in the US reside wherever they desire, in the exact same areas as their Christian, Jewish, or Hindu neighbors. Though few are politically active at the national level, two members of the House of Representatives are Muslim, Keith Ellison (D - MN) and Andre Carson (D - IN).

One day before Trump announced his xenophobic proposal, President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office about his strategy for confronting terror and defeating Da'esh, enlisting Muslims in the fight against Islamic extremism. During his address, Obama categorically rejected the notion that Muslims should be treated differently than other American, noting that "American Muslims [have long been] and are prepared to fight and die for their country." Despite Obama's repeated assurances that terrorists do not represent Islam or Muslims, as well as has continued to refusal to refer to Da'esh as "Islamic" so as to deny it any semblance of the religious legitimacy it so desperately craves, Trump's remarks were considered more important and more meaningful.

Trump's provocative sound bite proved far more resonant than Obama's conciliatory speech for a variety of reasons, chief among them the fact that Trump's message of religious intolerance echoes ISIS' strategic goals of initiating a sustained conflict with Western nonbelievers, most notably the US. Da'esh will exploit Trump's foolhardy remarks to deepen the divide between Muslims and the US and recruit more disaffected youths to its ranks, just as it did when criticizing America's hypocritical response to the Syrian refugee crisis; Trump's statements legitimizing hatred and causing more instances of anti-Muslim violence and harassment will only lead to similar results.

Lest Trump's recent statements be dismissed as an inarticulate slip of the tongue, we should remember that his campaign has been chock full of diatribes against nearly every other minority group, regularly insulting women, Mexicans, the poor, and the disabled. As of this writing, Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, garnering at least 30% of the vote in recent polls of likely voters in the Republican primary. Most troublingly, Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the US does not seem all that dissonant with views of the American public; recent opinion polls conducted over the past several weeks indicated that 37% of Americans view Islam negatively and 28% of American's believe Islam is a religion that promotes violence.

Despite the fact that the US is by far the most religious society in the West, its constitution is purely secular, as is its executive branch, legislature, and judiciary. In fact, the words "God" and "Christianity" never appear in the entire document, even more than 70% of Americans identify as Christian. The constitution only discusses religion as it pertains to the First Amendment's prohibition upon religious-based discrimination as well as its decree that Congress may make no law based in nor impugning upon religion, in addition to that, no religious test may be administered to anyone seeking federal employment. Accordingly, because the president is legally obligated to "preserve, protect, and defend," the Constitution, the White House asserted that Trump's anti-Muslim comments "disqualify" him from seeking the Presidency.

When political theorist Samuel P. Huntington published his seminal work, "the Clash of Civilizations" in 1993, it was met with nearly universal derision. Years after his death in 2008, the Clash of Civilizations remains highly controversial for how it depicts relations between the Muslim world and the West. Today, Da'esh and other like-minded terrorist groups, as well as hateful individuals like Donald Trump, give credence to Huntington's contentious and conflict-provoking theories long since discredited my mainstream thinkers and politicians.

In sum, ISIS' letter to Trump could only conclude as follows:

"Dear Trump, we wish you all the best.

We sincerely hope that you become the next President of the United States in order to strengthen our shared ties.

Happy Holidays,
ISIS"

*Mohamed Elmenshawy is Washington Bureau Chief for Alaraby Television Network, and a columnist for the Egyptian Daily Alshorouk. He can be reach on twitter @ElMenshawyM or email mensh70@gmail.com

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Edo 2016: Tension in APC over Oshiomhole’s rumoured endorsement of Obaseki

on December 14, 2015

By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN—THE rumoured endorsement of the chairman of the Economic Team of Edo State Government, Mr Godwin Obaseki, as Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s preferred governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, ahead of the 2016 governorship election in the state is causing tension in the party.

Obaseki-Oshiomhole

The tension is due to the calibre of aspirants in the party, including the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr Pius Odubu, former governor of the state, Prof. Osarhiemen Osunbor, Oshiomhole’s Works Commissioner and political son, Osarodion Ogie, former Minister of State, Works, Dr \

Chris Ogiemwonyi, Kenneth Imasuagbon (Rice man) and Gen. Charles Airhiavbere.
Obaseki’s emergence in the governorship race came as a surprise to many due to the fact that he is seen as a technocrat and not a politician. He is alleged to be backed by business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.

However, tension heightened in the state’s APC last week after some leaders of the party informed their followers that Obaseki was the governor’s anointed and urged them to key into it. Vanguard learned of an alleged plot to ensure that his emergence was frustrated at the primaries by other aspirants. Oshiomhole had in an interview with Vanguard, expressed his respect for each of the aspirants and assured that the leadership of the party would ensure the emergence of a candidate that will sustain the infrastructural development he put in place.

But a chieftain of the party, Rev Michael Egharevha, dismissed such threats, saying: “If Obaseki is the governor’s choice nobody will stop him. Oshiomhole made most of us what we are today and if he decides it is Obaseki, so be it, we will all support him. So if anybody is threatening, it is only a waste of time.”

Christian female fighters take on IS in Syria

By Delil SouleimanDecember 12, 2015 10:43 PM

Hasakeh (Syria) (AFP) - Babylonia has no regrets about leaving behind her two children and her job as a hairdresser to join a Christian female militia battling against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The fierce-looking 36-year-old in fatigues from the Syriac Christian minority in the northeast believes she is making the future safe for her children.

"I miss Limar and Gabriella and worry that they must be hungry, thirsty and cold. But I try to tell them I'm fighting to protect their future," she told AFP.

Babylonia belongs to a small, recently created battalion of Syriac Christian women in Hasakeh province who are fighting IS.

They are following in the footsteps of Syria's other main female force battling the jihadists -- the women of the YPJ, the female counterpart to the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG.

So far the new force is small, with around 50 graduates so far from its training camp in the town of Al-Qahtaniyeh, also known as Kabre Hyore in Syriac, and Tirbespi in Kurdish.

But the "Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers" -- the area between the Tigris and Euphrates waterways historically inhabited by Syriacs -- is teeming with women eager to prove their worth against IS.

It was actually Babylonia's husband who encouraged her to leave Limar, nine, and six-year-old Gabriella and join the unit whose first recruits graduated in August.

Himself a fighter, he urged her to take up arms to "fight against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up", she said.

- 'Fear quickly went away' -

"I'm a practising Christian and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against Daesh," added Babylonia, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Syriac Christians belong to the eastern Christian tradition and pray in Aramaic. They include both Orthodox and Catholic branches, and constitute around 15 percent of Syria's 1.2 million Christians.

Before the conflict began in March 2011, Christians from some 11 different sects made up around five percent of the population.

The unit's first major action was alongside the newly created Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, which recently recaptured the strategic town of Al-Hol.

"I took part in a battle for the first time in the Al-Hol area, but my team wasn't attacked by IS," said 18-year-old Lucia, who gave up her studies to join the militia.

Her sister also joined up, against the wishes of their reluctant mother.

"I fight with a Kalashnikov, but I'm not ready to become an elite sniper yet," the shy teenager said, a wooden crucifix around her neck and a camouflage bandana tied round her head.

Al-Hol, on a key route between territory IS controls in Syria and Iraq, was the first major victory for the SDF, which has captured around 200 villages in the region in recent weeks.

It has received air support from the US-led coalition fighting IS, as well as drops of American weapons.

Ormia, 18, found battle terrifying at first.

"I was afraid of the noise of cannons firing, but the fear quickly went away," she said.

"I would love to be on the front line in the fight against the terrorists."

- 'Not afraid of Daesh' -

The battalion's fighters train in an old mill in a programme that includes military, fitness and academic elements.

With its limited combat experience, the unit for now focuses mainly on protecting majority Christian parts of Hasakeh province.

Thabirta Samir, 24, who helps oversee the training, estimates that around 50 fighters have graduated so far.

"I used to work for a Syriac cultural association, but now I take pleasure in working in the military field," she said.

"I'm not afraid of Daesh, and we will be present in the coming battles against the terrorists."

Samir said both local and "foreign forces" helped train the women, without specifying the nationality of the foreigners.

In late November, Kurdish sources said US soldiers had entered the town of Kobane in northern Syria to train Kurdish fighters and plan offensives.

Some women cited what is known as the Sayfo ("Sword") massacres in 1915 of Syriac, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians as reasons for joining the unit.

"We are a community that is oppressed by others," said 18-year-old Ithraa. She joined four months ago inspired by the memory of Sayfo, in which Ottoman authorities are said to have killed tens of thousands of Christians in Turkey and Iran.

She said the community hoped to prevent "a new massacre like that committed by the Ottomans... when they tried to erase our Christian and Syriac identity".

Jehovah's Witnesses could get $1 billion for NYC properties

By KAREN MATTHEWS11 hours ago

In this Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, photo, the skyline of lower Manhattan is seen behind 124 Columbia Heights in the Brooklyn borough of New York. This building is one of three large properties being sold by the Jehovah's Witnesses in a crowded area near the Brooklyn waterfront. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — The Jehovah's Witnesses, the door-knocking religious group that's been based in Brooklyn for a century, is selling its headquarters and other properties for an expected price tag of $1 billion or more.

The Witnesses' move to a town about an hour north of New York City will likely mean the end of the complex's most well-known feature, the neon "Watchtower" sign advertising the church's flagship publication. But it will free up hundreds of thousands of square feet for businesses and apartments in a now-trendy neighborhood at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

"It's going to be incredibly transformative," said Alexandria Sica, executive director of the DUMBO Improvement District, a business group.

Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Richard Devine said the move will allow the organization to operate more efficiently. The church had owned 36 separate Brooklyn properties before it began selling them off in preparation for the move upstate to Warwick. The printing plant where the Witnesses produce Bibles and religious tracts moved from Brooklyn to the town of Wallkill in 2004.

"As we've grown as an organization we've had to buy scattered properties wherever we could find them," Devine said. "With a big, scattered campus like that it's challenging to administer and to maintain."

The Witnesses bought their 733,000-square-foot headquarters from Squibb Pharmaceuticals for $3 million in 1969. It was placed on the market this month along with a nearby apartment building and a 135,000-square-foot lot. Despite the prominent "Watchtower" sign, the building has no historical designations that would place restrictions on the buyer.

The church has not announced an asking price but Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, called $1 billion "a conservative estimate" for the Witnesses' real estate portfolio.

A partnership including Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner purchased a nearby 1.4 million-square-foot complex from the Witnesses in 2013 for $375 million and is developing it as a tech hub, while smaller buildings have sold for varying amounts.

In upstate New York, the Witnesses have purchased hotels and other properties for volunteers building the church's new headquarters.

The Witnesses have more than 8 million active members worldwide and about 11 million more who attend some services, according to church officials.

Witnesses are required to spread their message door to door and are not allowed to vote, receive blood transfusions or serve in the military.

The organization has been in Brooklyn since 1908 but seems culturally distinct from its gritty-meets-yuppie surroundings.

Church members lead English- and Spanish-language tours of the headquarters, decorated with pastel-toned Bible paintings.

Devine said 100,000 people a year visit the Brooklyn headquarters but the Warwick facility an hour north of the city will get more visitors when it opens in 2017.

"To be honest with you," he said, "many people find New York City intimidating."

Sica said she is looking forward to the Witnesses' move in part because the church's properties seem off-limits to non-members, with fenced-in parking lots and no street-level retail. "It's closed off," she said. "You get that sense of 'This place is not for the public.'"

But both Sica and Reed said that before they leave the Witnesses should follow through on a promise to redevelop a neighborhood park, which they agreed to do in exchange for a zoning change.

Devine said the Witnesses will fulfill the commitment to build the park "either through our efforts or through the efforts of the new owner. We won't walk away from it."

Re: With Esama, Oshiomhole has over- stepped his bounds

on December 13, 2015 / in Viewpoint 11:00 pm / Comments

IT usually turns out to be an interesting reading, interviews with politicians who readily blurt out funny comments that are not thoughtful and cannot be adjudged to be helpful to communal politics like the recent one of Mr. Orobosa Omo-Ojo (in the Vanguard of Saturday, December 5, 2015.) in which he was described as a journalist, publisher, a frontline All Progressives Congress, APC stalwart and former Commissioner in Adams Oshiomhole government in Edo State.

With the above description, I suppose he is still the same Orobosa Omo-Ojo, who along with one Emeka Ogbeide were assigned by the then Lucky Igbinedion government to turn the state government owned Nigerian Observer newspaper around? We are all living witnesses to the messy sickening situation the paper was abandoned – worse than as the duo met it.

I really find it irritating to read comments by some individuals who were given the opportunity to perform and at the end, loopholes were created for questions to be asked. I equally find it painful to understand, why in this era of journalism, searching questions are never put during interviews bordering on past public performances.

Specifically, the Vanguard reporter who interviewed Mr. Omo-Ojo was, perhaps not aware of Mr. Omo-Ojo’s tenure at the Nigerian Observer, certainly he wouldn’t claim ignorance of Omo-Ojo’s tenure as the State Commissioner for Transport in the present Governor Oshiomhole’s Executive Council. The reporter didn’t find it as a professional responsibility on behalf of his numerous readers to, among other questions, ask the former Commissioner what led to his exit from the State Executive Council.

In any professional calling, individuals are at liberty to create titles for themselves. In journalism, one could carry the toga of a publisher, but the proof in the title is judged by its reputation, regularity on the vendor’s stand and above all, the contents and educative pursuits of such a title. The ruining of any calling could be checked with the realistic defence of such a body by its practitioners, whose reputation has been tested and found not wanting, but the JOURNALISM calling has, for decades suffered a profound set back because of the inability of the various branches to put in place a defensive concrete wall around its image.

In reference to the interview in question, I find it quite uncalled for to dwell on it other than to say this: An individual’s opinion can sway the support of thousands of voters in opposing political parties and this view is based on how seriously such a talker is judged. It’s an open factuality that any realistic registered voter when asked to judge Governor Oshiomhole’s performance in Edo State, would certainly score him HIGH, unless hunger blindfolds such voters to go for the negative side. The “rice man’s” advertorials to a realistic Edo citizen, would point to nothing other than rural Nollywood acting.

What are the researched data that have established that even the Esan people would give him nomination? Sweet talks never create acceptability for a drowning character.

Simply put, the three Senatorial districts of Edo State are in individualistic positions to assess Oshiomhole’s service and certainly not political grammar scripts as beautifully delivered by Mr. Omo-Ojo in the interview.

I had compelled myself to observe elsewhere that both the Esama and Governor Oshiomhole have no personal scores to iron out, other than giving what is due to the government on behalf of the people.

Who creates bounds for people to under-step or over-step? Not Mr. Omo-Ojo. Holding his recent chat with the Vanguard under his armpit to deliver or read to the Esama’s hearing is neither helpful to the issue of rate settlement. Declaring his claimed exchanges with Governor Oshiomhole before the reading public only unveils Mr. Omo-Ojo’s tactlessness in politics. If you are with one in a battle field as your Commander, you either fight along with him as your Commander, or become a run away soldier, but certainly cannot put in place a countering-one sector Commander who will fall in no given time.

I am certainly looking forward to see Mr. Omo-Ojo’s next political level, unlike his past two callings. He should score himself for the public to judge.

The beauty in newspaper interviews is easily oiled with its surface empty coloring. There is still this staining attributes of many on the surface political noise makers who take the readers for granted, they have spoken well, yet, they aren’t aware of the simple truth-building realistic structures for the people to see and for their benefit is more acceptable than being noisy.

Drainage channels and walkways as built by Oshiomhole government are emblems of progressive governance. And for refuse dumps, years back, there were locations in various communities where refuse collections are burnt.

The modern structures throughout the various roads in the state are meant for progressive changes in healthy attitudes and not for nomadic behaviors.

I am certainly looking forward to see Mr. Omo-Ojo’s next political level, unlike his past two callings – to revive the Nigerian Observer titles and most recently, a former Commissioner. He should score himself for the public to judge.

Usman Abudah, a journalist and documentalist, wrote from Benin City, Edo State.

Monday, December 14, 2015