For those of all faiths and ethical belief systems, I find the attached daily news commentaries from today's NewAge.com Newsletter (edited by Sultan Shahin from India) extremely important and timely for presenting a universally just, democratic and humanistic Muslim perspective.  This perspective is essential for winning the War of Ideas, not only within the Muslim world, but also between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.  The same positive view of the world is reflected in the writings at the website of the International Quranic Center (IQC) (presided over by the Egyptian scholar Dr. Sheikh Ahmed Subhy Mansour) at http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/main.php and The American Muslim emagazine edited by Sheila Musaji at http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/  I hope that these three excellent natural allies join together and pool their resources as natural allies at the leading edge of a multi-faith alliance for winning the War of Ideas

If the NewAge.com and IQC perspective is ignored, I predict America and the West will have wasted many lives, both in the military and among innocent Muslims, and billions of dollars in a futile global war on terror. As Peggy Noonan concluded in her article in today's Wall Street Journal, if moderate Muslims do not unite, with support from President Obama and other world leaders, the Taliban will succeed in taking over in Afghanistan and then Pakistan, putting in the hands of religious extremists the nuclear arsenals of Pakistan.   When suicide terrorists throughout the world have the capability to kill millions of "infidels" to impose their perverted version of Islam on the rest of the world, are you confident that most of humanity can resist becoming dominated by those who recruit these suicide terrorists?


What's missing in our current ideological and nation-building strategies to win the hearts and minds of new leaders and ordinary people in the Muslim world?


In the ideological struggle in the War of Words and the War of Ideas, those who hold democratic values and seek peaceful solution to this troubled world need to rally behind a common flag of "Justice" and "the Just Third Way" as described at http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/paradigmpapers/jtw-greengrowth.pdf.


And to fill a big hole in the "nation-building" thrust of the West's counter-insurgency (COIN) strategy, access to the vote is important but not sufficient.  We need a new model of democratic governance in which access to the political ballot is grounded on and complemented by:

 

(1)  The four pillars of a "Just Market Economy (see graphic on page 8 of 10 pages at http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/graphicoverview/graphicoverview-3rd.htm);


(2) A restructuring of the architecture of the money, credit, tax, banking and financial systems of the economies of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and throughout the world along lines being proposed by supporters of the Just Third Way for adoption by the United States at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm;


(3) Free market-, limited government-, and private property-based sustainable growth of new industries, infrastructure and productive work and entrepreneurial opportunities at the community and regional levels for local communities at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/strategies/community/ciclinking-notes.pdff; and



(4) Citizen-owned national land and natural resources banks and citizen-owned central banks as a "fourth branch of government" and a new check on the potential corruption of the monopoly power of the State at http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/paradigmpapers/iraq-nationbuilding.htm.

I invite your feedback on these holistic ideas for winning the War of Ideas.  Am I right in suggesting that they are an "ideological H-Bomb" for "blowing the minds" of those searching for new solutions?  Should these ideas be sent to General Petraeus to fill a hole in his blueprint for waging COIN in Afghanistan?  What can you do to make this message go viral?

In Peace, Prosperity and Freedom for all, only through the Just Third Way,
Norm Kurland
Center for Economic and Social Justice
www.cesj.org

WELCOME TO NewAgeIslam.com Newsletter 26 Jun, 2010

For latest postings on the website, please click here: http://www.NewAgeIslam.com

Links to some fresh and selected articles that are still being debated are being given below.

If you find this newsletter useful, please forward it to your friends and encourage them to join this mailing list.

www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamNewsLetter.aspx

Your Support Is Absolutely Vital For Our Survival and Growth.

Regards,
Sultan Shahin,
Editor and Publisher, NewAgeIslam.com

Dilemmas of a failing Pakistan
 

THREE recent global surveys are harbingers of bad news for Pakistan. They should compel us to think of what the future holds in store for us if we do not quickly set our qibla in the right direction. Foreign Policy magazine’s survey ranks Pakistan as the 10th most failed state among the 177 countries of the world, just behind the likes of Afghanistan, Sudan, Chad and Zimbabwe, but worse than Burma and Nepal. By contrast, India (87th) is happily placed in the midway house of “second world” states that are gearing up to challenge the “first world” in many ways. -- Najam Sethi

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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3048

 

Developing a Discourse of Gender Justice in Islam
 

Syafiq Hasyim, author of the recently-published Understanding Women in Islam—An Indonesian Perspective, works with the Jakarta-based International Centre for the Study of Islam and Pluralism, that has been at the forefront of efforts to evolve socially progressive and contextually relevant understandings of Islam, particularly as regards women and relations between Muslims and others. Last week, I read his simply unputdownable book in one single sitting. Hasyim’s principle contention is that while Islam regards men and women as ontologically equal, this has not been reflected in the Muslim historical tradition, noteworthy exceptions notwithstanding. Muslim historiography, theology as well as jurisprudence continue to bear the stamp of patriarchy, and Islamic discourse, generally speaking, continues to be heavily male-centric. All this has served to uphold patriarchal rule, which Hasyim contends, is un-Islamic—because male supremacism is akin to associationism or shirk, a heinous sin in Islam. -- Yoginder Sikand

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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3045

 

Human equality is embedded in the basic spirit of Hinduism
 

... This “basic structure” lies embedded in the Upanishadic thought. Its central message is that all life in this universe is divine and individuals are “divine specks” of the same Supreme Divinity, which permeates the inextricably enmeshed cosmic web of human existence. In this metaphysical principle, the notion of equality is in-built. If the same divinity is embodied in different individuals, they cannot but be equal. The Bhavishya Purana says: “Since members of all the four castes are children of God, they all belong to the same caste. All human beings have the same father and children of the same father cannot have different castes”. Because of widespread ignorance about Hinduism and the extensive interpolations and manipulations which it has undergone over the ages, few in India today understand its fundamental principles and propositions. The very soul of Hinduism debunks the caste system. The only source to which the origin of this system could be attributed is the second portion of Purusha-sakta hymn of the Rig Veda, wherein it is stated that the purusha was cut into four parts, the first pertaining to his mouth, the second to his arms, the third to his thighs and the fourth to his feet. An interpretation of this statement was drawn to lay down that the Brahmin came from the highest portion of the Supreme Self and shudra from the lowest. In between came the kshatriyas, the warrior class, and the vaishyas, the traders, agriculturists etc. This interpretation is, clearly, arbitrary and untenable. Nor is there any scriptural authority on the basis of which the caste system could be made either hereditary or water-tight. In his remarkable write-up, titled Un-Hindu Spirit of Caste-Rigidity, Sri Aurobindo has pertinently observed: “The baser ideas underlying the degenerate perversions of the caste system, the mental attitude which bases them on a superiority, depending on the accident of birth of a fixed and intolerant inequality, are inconsistent with the supreme teaching, the basic spirit of Hinduism which sees the one invariable and indivisible Divinity in every individual being”. -- Jagmohan

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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3050

 

Bereaved Israeli mother ‘represents’ Palestinian women in European Parliament
 

Dr Nurit Peled-Elhanan is an Israeli woman whose 13 year old daughter Smadar Elhanan was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997. Nurit was invited to deliver a speech on International Women’s Day in Strasbourg earlier this month. As a bereaved mother she was expected to express her deepest pain and trauma at her personal loss and criticise in strongest possible terms the Palestinians who have been blowing up hundreds of innocent sons and daughters of Israeli women in the name of jihad and fight for freedom. But what she said proves that despite all the madness, strife and bloodshed in the Israel-Palestine region, humanity has survived. And that gives us hope. We are presenting here the full text of her speech…Editor

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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3049

 

Islam’s stress on environment
 

The Quran states that life was created from water (11:7; 21:30). The importance of water and its equitable distribution among the people and animals is stressed: “…We send down water from the sky, pure water, so as to bring to life with it a dead land and to quench the thirst of Our creatures, both animals and humans, in large numbers. We keep distributing it among them, so that they would reflect.” (25:48-50). According to the Quran, Prophet Saleh’s nation, the Thamud, was destroyed because they refused to share the food and water with the she-camel (11:64). Prophet Noah was warned of the imminent flood. He was taught, through revelation, to build a huge boat and to put on it a pair of every species of animals as well as his followers. This is a lesson in preserving the species, which had turned into endangered species and would have otherwise been wiped out by the flood. The command to save the animals came before the command to save the Believers (11:40). -- Nilofar Ahmed

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http://www.NewAgeIslam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=3046

 

Problems of Urdu newspapers will be solved: Delhi Chief Minister
 

New Delhi, 24 June 2010: Addressing a conference of Urdu editors, the CM of Delhi Mrs Shiela Dixit said on Thursday that the government was committed to solving the problems faced by Urdu newspapers and proposed to set up  a seven-member committee for that purpose. She further assured the editors that a system would  be evolved to ensure that all the small and big newspapers get maximum number of advertisements. Responding to the proposal that since the problems of the minorities  are generally raised by the Urdu newspapers, the advertisements involving minorities should be given to Urdu newspapers, she said that it was a good proposal and would be considered.

On the question of providing a place for Urdu Press Club, the Chief Minister said that for the time being a hall in the Old Secretariat of Delhi could be modified and used as Urdu Press Club. Computers and internet facilities will be provided in the club, she assured.

She also said that the DIP had been told to appoint temporary Information Officer as long as Urdu Information Officer was not appointed.

The conference was presided over by Minister for Industries, Harun Yusuf and attended by Health Minister Prof. Kiran Walia, Urdu Academy Vice-Chairman Prof. Akhtarul Wasay, Khalid Anwar, Dr Aziz Burney, Masoom Muradabadi, Anis Azmi and Marghoob Haider Abdi.