text:
Turkey is an interesting case. It is an Islamic State close to the
connecting corner between the three continents of the old world:
Africa – Asia – Europe. Actually it took the place that Greece held in
antiquity, and the Byzantines and the Ottomans held later on, and the
changes turned into a form of mix-up. Instead of being the link it
could have been, Turkey worked at becoming part of Europe. The Ataturk
revolution was intended to create a secular state but Greek and
Armenian wars, and Europe remembers most the attack on Vienna. With
the fall of the Soviet Union, Turkey had the chance to be leader of
the Turkic States of Central Asia, but it did not make its move in
time. Modern Turkey, had it allowed some form of autonomy for its
Kurdish population, it could have turned into a bi-National Federation
with a Kurdish component to include Iraqi Kurdistan with added appeal
to Europe – another lost opportunity. Today Turkey moves closer to
Islamic Asia – Iran and the Arab States – and it is a Turk that heads
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and Turkey seemingly
believes it should increase its involvement in the Middle East.
Turkey is an interesting case. It is an Islamic State close to the
ESCAPING THE ESCAPE – discuss the new efforts by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Austrian reality.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 22nd, 2017
Bertelsmann Stiftung at PRESSE CLUB CONCORDIA, Bankgasse 8, 1010 Vienna.
with Academics originally from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Sudan.
In 2015 – one million refugees to europe; in 2016 – 300,000; in 2017 – what now?
TURKEY IS A SPECIAL CASE – Many of their Austrian Residents and Citizens are now lining up
'Escaping the escape – Europe and the refugee crisis'
Zweitpass zurück! Türken stürmen nun die Konsulate
The US Bumbling Retraction from Global Leadership – A Void that points at a need for Strengthened EU Values.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 20th, 2017
"One popular counter argument is that the EU will lose any of the influence it has in Ankara by breaking off negotiations," Becker writes. "But where was that influence in 2013 when Erdogan beat down the protests in Gezi Park? Where was it when Erdogan deliberately escalated the conflict with the Kurds as part of a domestic power play? And where was that EU influence when, right after last summer's military coup attempt, Erdogan had tens of thousands of people rounded up and thrown into jail, including numerous journalists?"
Trump's troubling call. Fareed says President Trump's decision to call Erdogan to congratulate him on his referendum victory is a troubling sign at a time when Turkey is facing a "serious descent into authoritarianism."
"Since the 1930s, Turkey was the one Muslim Middle Eastern country that had established a kind of secular liberal democracy. Now that seems to be unraveling, and yet President Trump's response was to congratulate the strongman," Fareed says.
"Contrast that with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who with her foreign minister issued a joint statement basically suggesting to Erdogan that 'You won very narrowly. You really need to pay attention to the opposition. You need to pay heed to minority rights.'
"It's disturbing because the great victory of the United States in foreign policy, in a broad sense, over the last six or seven decades has been to spread stability, along with a certain set of values. But here you have those unraveling and the President of the United States is cheering him on."
Trump's "Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy"
President Trump's recent foreign policy reversals "don't address one of his administration's most misguided impulses: The militarization of U.S. foreign policy," writes James Gibney for Bloomberg View.
"It's well and good to send a carrier task force…But without U.S. ambassadors in South Korea and Japan, not to mention an assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, the U.S. can't do the kind of daily consultations and hand-holding needed to reassure allies whose civilian populations would bear the brunt of any North Korean retaliation," Gibney says.
"…The influence of senior advisers steeped in the region might also have prevented diplomatic gaffes, such as Trump's parroting of Xi's line that Korea was once part of China."
The Dubai-based carrier will pare back flights to five of the 12 U.S. cities it serves. Flights to Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles will be reduced from twice to once daily, and in Florida, daily service to Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale will shrink to five flights a week.
Overall, it's a reduction of 25 flights per week for the airline, according to The Associated Press.
After Travel Ban, Airlines Scramble To Reroute Crew Members.
The Dubai International Airport in the UAE, which is Emirates' hub, is a major transit point for nationals of countries listed in Trump's travel bans, The Associated Press reports.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 4th, 2017
EUobserver NEWS – ENERGY
By ANDREW RETTMAN
BRUSSELS, April 4, 2017 – 09:14
It is designed to come online in 2025 with a capacity of up to 16 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year.
It would be the longest and deepest ever built, but an EU co-financed feasibility study by Italian firm IGI Poseidon said the project should go ahead.
He said the commission's strategy was "to diversify sources, routes, and suppliers" and hinted that Israel was a safer partner than Russia, which has used gas to blackmail neighbouring countries.
With Nord Stream 2 disliked by Baltic, central European, and Nordic states, Canete added that the Israeli project "is a pipe that unites and will have the full support of all the members of the European Union".
Yuval Steinitz, Israel's energy minister, said US investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, got excited about the €6 billion project when they learned that the commission was on board.
"When they heard that the European energy commissioner was behind it [and] ready to give some assistance, that was very helpful," he said.
He said the amount of gas discovered for export so far, up to 500 bcm, was "just the tip of the iceberg".
Carlo Calenda, Italy's economic development minister, said Rome would seek the backing of the G7 club of wealthy nations, which includes Canada, Japan, and the US, for the pipeline at a summit in Sicily in May.
The Cypriot energy minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said the project would "showcase" the region's potential as an alternative EU supplier.
It faces open questions on whether EU laws would apply to its offshore section, as well as complaints from the Polish energy regulator, but Russia has already started buying pipe segments.
But EU-Israeli cooperation carries other political risks.
According to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, the EU's envoy to Israel delivered a stinging rebuke on Israel's treatment of Palestinians last week.
He said Israeli evictions in the West Bank constituted "forced transfers" in violation of Israel's "obligations" under the Geneva Convention as an "occupying power".
The ambassador, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, read out the EU note, which had been approved by all 28 member states in the bloc's Political and Security Committee, at a meeting with Israel's top foreign ministry official.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 11th, 2017
9 Mar, 2017 14:09
After winning a Cypriot government tender, Exxon Mobile has expressed interest in bidding for Israeli natural gas tenders.
Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz met last week with senior executives from Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell during his visit to the US. The minister's associates say that while Royal Dutch Shell will probably not take part in the new tender for oil and gas exploration licenses in Israeli waters, the Exxon Mobil executives came equipped with a great deal of relevant information, and expressed interest in the tender.
The reason is allegedly the announcement two days ago that Exxon had won a tender for oil and gas exploration in Block 10 in Cyprus as part of a consortium with Qatar Petroleum. A group composed of Italian company ENI and Total, and ENI by itself, won the concession for two other blocks in the tender.
In a fourth block already held by Total, the company asked the Cypriot government for permission to add ENI as a 50% partner in the license, because the block is located only six kilometers away from the Egyptian Zohr gas reservoir discovered by ENI. Total expects ENI's extensive knowledge of the geology in the area to be of use in finding gas in Cyprus.
Steinitz's associates say that since Exxon is starting to prepare for activity in a nearby area, the company believes that it is likely to prove worthwhile to develop parallel activity in Israel, and to use the same transportation infrastructure to export gas discovered in both countries to Europe.
Steinetz went to Europe early this week, and flew from there to New York and Houston for a week of meetings with energy concerns. In Rome, he met with his Italian counterpart, and held meetings in New York with the Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan investments banks, as well as with a group of private investors organized by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). In Houston, he took part in the CERAweek energy conference, and held meetings with energy companies.
SustainabiliTank, sorry for the Trump Administration's definitive efforts to undo the Obama Administration's great successes in decreasing the place of oil in the global energy markets,
In The Real World First Week in the March of Trump: Europe must build its own nuclear deterrent, Turkey is falling off the cliff, China moves into the created Latin void.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 7th, 2017
From FAREED ZAKARIA'S Daily Briefing for Tuesday March 7, 2017
"Analysts say that the talk, even if it never translates into action, demonstrates the growing sense in Europe that drastic steps may be necessary to protect the postwar order in the era of a Trump presidency, a resurgent Russia and the possibility of an alignment between the two," Fisher writes. "Even proponents, who remain a minority, acknowledge enormous hurdles. But discussion of a so-called 'Eurodeterrent' has entered the mainstream…"
"Mist of Fear" in Turkey
"To travel to Turkey today is to journey into darkness: tens of thousands of state employees and thousands of academics dismissed, more journalists locked up than in any other country, and a chilly mist of fear."
Latin American nations "are understandably wary of negotiating anything with a government that has denigrated them and called their citizens 'bad hombres' and worse," Gallagher writes. "Enter China, which just days after the election released a new white paper calling Latin America and the Caribbean a 'land of vitality and hope.' The plan promises to implement earlier pledges of trade and investment, but without the U.S.-strings attached in terms of deregulation and name-calling."
Finally some in the US have the courage to say that the US give away to Saudis of US independence – is the root of global troubles.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 28th, 2016
PLEASE STUDY: www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/world/…
This article tells us what we at SustainabiliTank knew for years – the oil money was used by the Saudi Royal family to export Wahhabism to the Islamic world. This Wahhabi indoctrination gave birth to the culture of terrorism that surfaced at the 9/11 attack against humanity. The US government – that is all US governments – to be exact – starting with President Franklyn Delano Roosevelt who in his 1945 meetings at Yalta and on the ship in Suez – traded away the future of the West for the barrels of oil of the Middle East
THE NEW YORK TIMES – Front-page August 25,2016
Saudis and Extremism:
By SCOTT SHANE August 25, 2016
WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump do not agree on much, but Saudi Arabia may be an exception. She has deplored Saudi Arabia's support for "radical schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path towards extremism." He has called the Saudis "the world's biggest funders of terrorism."
"If the Saudis do not
"If there was going to be
And hardly a week passes without a television pundit or a newspaper columnist blaming Saudi Arabia for jihadist violence.
On HBO, Bill Maher calls Saudi teachings "medieval," adding an epithet. In The Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria writes that the Saudis have "created a monster in the world of Islam."
The idea has become a commonplace: that Saudi Arabia's export of the rigid, bigoted, patriarchal, fundamentalist strain of Islam known as Wahhabism has fueled global extremism and contributed to terrorism. As the Islamic State projects its menacing calls for violence into the West, directing or inspiring terrorist attacks in country after country, an old debate over Saudi influence on Islam has taken on new relevance.
What Is Wahhabism?
The Islam taught in and by Saudi Arabia is often called Wahhabism, after the 18th-century cleric who founded it. A literalist, ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam, its adherents often denigrate other Islamic sects as well as Christians and Jews.
Is the world today a more divided, dangerous and violent place because of the cumulative effect of five decades of oil-financed proselytizing from the historical heart of the Muslim world? Or is Saudi Arabia, which has often supported Western-friendly autocrats over Islamists, merely a convenient scapegoat for extremism and terrorism with many complex causes — the United States's own actions among them?
In the realm of extremist Islam, the Saudis are "both the arsonists and the firefighters," said William McCants, a Brookings Institution scholar. "They promote a very toxic form of Islam that draws sharp lines between a small number of true believers and everyone else, Muslim and non-Muslim," he said, providing ideological fodder for violent jihadists.
Yet at the same time, "they're our partners in counterterrorism," said Mr. McCants, one of three dozen academics, government officials and experts on Islam from multiple countries interviewed for this article.
Saudi leaders seek good relations with the West and see jihadist violence as a menace that could endanger their rule, especially now that the Islamic State is staging attacks in the kingdom — 25 in the last eight months, by the government's count. But they are also driven by their rivalry with Iran, and they depend for legitimacy on a clerical establishment dedicated to a reactionary set of beliefs. Those conflicting goals can play out in a bafflingly inconsistent manner.
Thomas Hegghammer, a Norwegian terrorism expert who has advised the United States government, said the most important effect of Saudi proselytizing might have been to slow the evolution of Islam, blocking its natural accommodation to a diverse and globalized world. "If there was going to be an Islamic reformation in the 20th century, the Saudis probably prevented it by pumping out literalism," he said.
The reach of the Saudis has been stunning, touching nearly every country with a Muslim population, from the Gothenburg Mosque in Sweden to the King Faisal Mosque in Chad, from the King Fahad Mosque in Los Angeles to the Seoul Central Mosque in South Korea. Support has come from the Saudi government; the royal family; Saudi charities; and Saudi-sponsored organizations including the World Muslim League, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and the International Islamic Relief Organization, providing the hardware of impressive edifices and the software of preaching and teaching.
There is a broad consensus that the Saudi ideological juggernaut has disrupted local Islamic traditions in dozens of countries — the result of lavish spending on religious outreach for half a century, estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. The result has been amplified by guest workers, many from South Asia, who spend years in Saudi Arabia and bring Saudi ways home with them. In many countries, Wahhabist preaching has encouraged a harshly judgmental religion, contributing to majority support in some polls in Egypt, Pakistan and other countries for stoning for adultery and execution for anyone trying to leave Islam.
But exactly how Saudi influence plays out seems to depend greatly on local conditions. In parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, for instance, Saudi teachings have shifted the religious culture in a markedly conservative direction, most visibly in the decision of more women to cover their hair or of men to grow beards. Among Muslim immigrant communities in Europe, the Saudi influence seems to be just one factor driving radicalization, and not the most significant. In divided countries like Pakistan and Nigeria, the flood of Saudi money, and the ideology it promotes, have exacerbated divisions over religion that regularly prove lethal.
For minorities in many countries, the exclusionary Saudi version of Sunni Islam, with its denigration of Jews and Christians, as well as of Muslims of Shiite, Sufi and other traditions, may have made some people vulnerable to the lure of Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other violent jihadist groups. "There's only so much dehumanizing of the other that you can be exposed to — and exposed to as the word of God — without becoming susceptible to recruitment," said David Andrew Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington who tracks Saudi influence.
Exhibit A may be Saudi Arabia itself, which produced not only Osama bin Laden, but also 15 of the 19 hijackers of Sept. 11, 2001; sent more suicide bombers than any other country to Iraq after the 2003 invasion; and has supplied more foreign fighters to the Islamic State, 2,500, than any country other than Tunisia.
Mehmet Gormez, the senior Islamic cleric in Turkey, said that while he was meeting with Saudi clerics in Riyadh in January, the Saudi authorities had executed 47 people in a single day on terrorism charges, 45 of them Saudi citizens. "I said: 'These people studied Islam for 10 or 15 years in your country. Is there a problem with the educational system?' " Mr. Gormez said in an interview. He argued that Wahhabi teaching was undermining the pluralism, tolerance and openness to science and learning that had long characterized Islam. "Sadly," he said, the changes have taken place "in almost all of the Islamic world."
In a huge embarrassment to the Saudi authorities, the Islamic State adopted official Saudi textbooks for its schools until the extremist group could publish its own books in 2015. Out of 12 works by Muslim scholars republished by the Islamic State, seven are by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the 18th-century founder of the Saudi school of Islam, said Jacob Olidort, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Adil al-Kalbani declared with regret in a television interview in January that the Islamic State leaders "draw their ideas from what is written in our own books, our own principles."
Accordingly, many American officials who have worked to counter extremism and terrorism have formed a dark view of the Saudi effect — even if, given the sensitivity of the relationship, they are often loath to discuss it publicly. The United States' reliance on Saudi counterterrorism cooperation in recent years — for instance, the Saudi tip that foiled a 2010 Qaeda plot to blow up two American cargo planes — has often taken precedence over concerns about radical influence. And generous Saudi funding for professorships and research centers at American universities, including the most elite institutions, has deterred criticism and discouraged research on the effects of Wahhabi proselytizing, according to Mr. McCants — who is working on a book about the Saudi impact on global Islam — and other scholars.
Yet some scholars on Islam and extremism, including experts on radicalization in many countries, push back against the notion that Saudi Arabia bears predominant responsibility for the current wave of extremism and jihadist violence. They point to multiple sources for the rise and spread of Islamist terrorism, including repressive secular governments in the Middle East, local injustices and divisions, the hijacking of the internet for terrorist propaganda, and American interventions in the Muslim world from the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan to the invasion of Iraq. The 20th-century ideologues most influential with modern jihadists, like Sayyid Qutb of Egypt and Abul Ala Maududi of Pakistan, reached their extreme, anti-Western views without much Saudi input. Al Qaeda and the Islamic State despise Saudi rulers, whom they consider the worst of hypocrites.
"Americans like to have someone to blame — a person, a political party or country," said Robert S. Ford, a former United States ambassador to Syria and Algeria. "But it's a lot more complicated than that. I'd be careful about blaming the Saudis."
While Saudi religious influence may be disruptive, he and others say, its effect is not monolithic. A major tenet of official Saudi Islamic teaching is obedience to rulers — hardly a precept that encourages terrorism intended to break nations. Many Saudi and Saudi-trained clerics are quietist, characterized by a devotion to scripture and prayer and a shunning of politics, let alone political violence.
And especially since 2003, when Qaeda attacks in the kingdom awoke the monarchy to the danger it faced from militancy, Saudi Arabia has acted more aggressively to curtail preachers who call for violence, cut off terrorist financing and cooperate with Western intelligence to foil terrorist plots. From 2004 to 2012, 3,500 imams were fired for refusing to renounce extremist views, and another 20,000 went through retraining, according to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs — though the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom expressed skepticism that the training was really "instilling tolerance."
An American scholar with long experience in Saudi Arabia — who spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve his ability to travel to the kingdom for research — said he believed that Saudi influence had often been exaggerated in American political discourse. But he compared it to climate change. Just as a one-degree increase in temperature can ultimately result in drastic effects around the globe, with glaciers melting and species dying off, so Saudi teaching is playing out in many countries in ways that are hard to predict and difficult to trace but often profound, the scholar said.
Saudi proselytizing can result in a "recalibrating of the religious center of gravity" for young people, the scholar said, which makes it "easier for them to swallow or make sense of the ISIS religious narrative when it does arrive. It doesn't seem quite as foreign as it might have, had that Saudi religious influence not been there."
Why does Saudi Arabia find it so difficult to let go of an ideology that much of the world finds repugnant? The key to the Saudi dilemma dates back nearly three centuries to the origin of the alliance that still undergirds the Saudi state. In 1744, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, a reformist cleric, sought the protection of Muhammad bin Saud, a powerful tribal leader in the harsh desert of the Arabian Peninsula. The alliance was mutually beneficial: Wahhab received military protection for his movement, which sought to return Muslims to what he believed were the values of the early years of Islam in the seventh century, when the Prophet Muhammad was alive. (His beliefs were a variant of Salafism, the conservative school of Islam that teaches that the salaf, or pious ancestors, had the correct ways and beliefs and should be emulated.) In return, the Saud family earned the endorsement of an Islamic cleric — a puritanical enforcer known for insisting on the death by stoning of a woman for adultery.
Wahhab's particular version of Islam was the first of two historical accidents that would define Saudi religious influence centuries later. What came to be known as Wahhabism was "a tribal, desert Islam," said Akbar Ahmed, the chairman of Islamic studies at American University in Washington. It was shaped by the austere environment — xenophobic, fiercely opposed to shrines and tombs, disapproving of art and music, and hugely different from the cosmopolitan Islam of diverse trading cities like Baghdad and Cairo.
The second historical accident came in 1938, when American prospectors discovered the largest oil reserves on earth in Saudi Arabia. Oil revenue generated by the Arabian-American Oil Company, or Aramco, created fabulous wealth. But it also froze in place a rigid social and economic system and gave the conservative religious establishment an extravagant budget for the export of its severe strain of Islam.
In 1964, when King Faisal ascended the throne, he embraced the obligation of spreading Islam. A modernizer in many respects, with close ties to the West, he nonetheless could not overhaul the Wahhabi doctrine that became the face of Saudi generosity in many countries. Over the next four decades, in non-Muslim-majority countries alone, Saudi Arabia would build 1,359 mosques, 210 Islamic centers, 202 colleges and 2,000 schools. Saudi money helped finance 16 American mosques; four in Canada; and others in London, Madrid, Brussels and Geneva, according to a report in an official Saudi weekly, Ain al-Yaqeen. The total spending, including supplying or training imams and teachers, was "many billions" of Saudi riyals (at a rate of about four to a dollar), the report said.
Saudi religious teaching had particular force because it came from the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, the land of Islam's two holiest places, Mecca and Medina. When Saudi imams arrived in Muslim countries in Asia or Africa, or in Muslim communities in Europe or the Americas, wearing traditional Arabian robes, speaking the language of the Quran — and carrying a generous checkbook — they had automatic credibility.
As the 20th century progressed and people of different nationalities and faiths mixed routinely, the puritanical, exclusionary nature of Wahhab's teachings would become more and more dysfunctional. But the Saudi government would find it extraordinarily difficult to shed or soften its ideology, especially after the landmark year of 1979.
In Tehran that year, the Iranian revolution brought to power a radical Shiite government, symbolically challenging Saudi Arabia, the leader of Sunnism, for leadership of global Islam. The declaration of an Islamic Republic escalated the competition between the two major branches of Islam, spurring the Saudis to redouble their efforts to counter Iran and spread Wahhabism around the world.
Then, in a stunning strike, a band of 500 Saudi extremists seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca for two weeks, publicly calling Saudi rulers puppets of the West and traitors to true Islam. The rebels were defeated, but leading clerics agreed to back the government only after assurances of support for a crackdown on immodest ways in the kingdom and a more aggressive export of Wahhabism abroad.
Finally, at year's end, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and seized power to prop up a Communist government. It soon faced an insurgent movement of mujahedeen, or holy warriors battling for Islam, which drew fighters from around the world for a decade-long battle to expel the occupiers.
Throughout the 1980s, Saudi Arabia and the United States worked together to finance the mujahedeen in this great Afghan war, which would revive the notion of noble armed jihad for Muslims worldwide. President Ronald Reagan famously welcomed to the Oval Office a delegation of bearded "Afghan freedom fighters" whose social and theological views were hardly distinguishable from those later embraced by the Taliban.
Saudi Arabia and the United States worked together to support the mujahedeen, the Afghan fighters whose representatives met President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office in 1983, in their fight against the Soviet occupation.
In fact, the United States spent $50 million from 1986 to 1992 on what was called a "jihad literacy" project — printing books for Afghan children and adults to encourage violence against non-Muslim "infidels" like Soviet troops. A first-grade language textbook for Pashto speakers, for example, according to a study by Dana Burde, an associate professor at New York University, used "Mujahid," or fighter of jihad, as the illustration: "My brother is a Mujahid. Afghan Muslims are Mujahedeen. I do jihad together with them. Doing jihad against infidels is our duty."
Mr. Jordan, a Texas lawyer, said that after the Qaeda attacks, he had stepped up pressure on the Saudi government over its spread of extremism. "I told them: 'What you teach in your schools and preach in your mosques now is not an internal matter. It affects our national security,'" he said.
After years of encouraging and financing a harsh Islam in support of the anti-Soviet jihad, the United States had reversed course — gradually during the 1990s and then dramatically after the Sept. 11 attacks. But in pressuring Saudi Arabia, American officials would tread lightly, acutely aware of American dependence on Saudi oil and intelligence cooperation. Saudi reform would move at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Document: State Dept. Study on Saudi Textbooks
Seventh graders were being taught that "fighting the infidels to elevate the words of Allah" was among the deeds Allah loved the most, the report found, among dozens of passages it found troubling. Tenth graders learned that Muslims who abandoned Islam should be jailed for three days and, if they did not change their minds, "killed for walking away from their true religion." Fourth graders read that non-Muslims had been "shown the truth but abandoned it, like the Jews," or had replaced truth with "ignorance and delusion, like the Christians."
The textbooks, or other Saudi teaching materials with similar content, had been distributed in scores of countries, the study found. Textbook reform has continued since the 2013 study, and Saudi officials say they are trying to replace older books distributed overseas.
Excerpts from Saudi textbooks with critical comments from a 2013 study, commissioned by the State Department, that was never released for fear of angering the Saudis. The New York Times obtained the study under the Freedom of Information Act.
This ideological steamroller has landed in diverse places where Muslims of different sects had spent centuries learning to accommodate one another. Sayyed Shah, a Pakistani journalist working on a doctorate in the United States, described the devastating effect on his town, not far from the Afghan border, of the arrival some years ago of a young Pakistani preacher trained in a Saudi-funded seminary.
Village residents had long held a mélange of Muslim beliefs, he said. "We were Sunni, but our culture, our traditions were a mixture of Shia and Barelvi and Deobandi," Mr. Shah said, referring to Muslim sects. His family would visit the large Barelvi shrine, and watch their Shiite neighbors as they lashed themselves in a public religious ritual. "We wouldn't do that ourselves, but we'd hand out sweets and water," he said.
The new preacher, he said, denounced the Barelvi and Shiite beliefs as false and heretical, dividing the community and setting off years of bitter argument. By 2010, Mr. Shah said, "everything had changed." Women who had used shawls to cover their hair and face began wearing full burqas. Militants began attacking kiosks where merchants sold secular music CDs. Twice, terrorists used explosives to try to destroy the village's locally famous shrine.
"One day you find oil,
"It's so difficult these days," he said. "Initially we were on a single path. We just had economic problems, but we were culturally sound."
He added, "But now it's very difficult, because some people want Saudi culture to be our culture, and others are opposing that."
"The idea that without the Saudis Pakistan would be Switzerland is ridiculous," she said.
That is the disputed question, of course: how the world would be different without decades of Saudi-funded shaping of Islam. Though there is a widespread belief that Saudi influence has contributed to the growth of terrorism, it is rare to find a direct case of cause and effect. For example, in Brussels, the Grand Mosque was built with Saudi money and staffed with Saudi imams. In 2012, according to Saudi diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, one Saudi preacher was removed after Belgian complaints that he was a "true Salafi" who did not accept other schools of Islam. And Brussels' immigrant neighborhoods, notably Molenbeek, have long been the home of storefront mosques teaching hard-line Salafi views.
After the terrorist attacks in Paris in November and in Brussels in March were tied to an Islamic State cell in Belgium, the Saudi history was the subject of several news media reports. Yet it was difficult to find any direct link between the bombers and the Saudi legacy in the Belgian capital.
Several suspects had petty criminal backgrounds; their knowledge of Islam was described by friends as superficial; they did not appear to be regulars at any mosque. Though the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blasts, resentment of the treatment of North African immigrant families in Belgium and exposure to Islamic State propaganda, in person or via the internet and social media, appeared to be the major factors motivating the attacks.
If there was a Saudi connection, it was highly indirect, perhaps playing out over a generation or longer. Hind Fraihi, a Moroccan-Belgian journalist who went underground in the Brussels immigrant neighborhood of Molenbeek in 2005 and wrote a book about it, met Saudi-trained imams and found lots of extremist literature written in Saudi Arabia that encouraged "polarization, the sentiment of us against them, the glorification of jihad."
The recent attackers, Ms. Fraihi said, were motivated by "lots of factors — economic frustration, racism, a generation that feels it has no future." But Saudi teaching, she said, "is part of the cocktail."
Without the Saudi presence over the decades, might a more progressive and accommodating Islam, reflecting immigrants' Moroccan roots, have taken hold in Brussels? Would young Muslims raised in Belgium have been less susceptible to the stark, violent call of the Islamic State? Conceivably, but the case is impossible to prove.
Or consider an utterly different cultural milieu — the world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesia. The Saudis have sent money for mosque-building, books and teachers for decades, said Sidney Jones, the director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta.
"Over time," said Ms. Jones, who has visited or lived in Indonesia since the 1970s, the Saudi influence "has contributed to a more conservative, more intolerant atmosphere." (President Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a boy, has remarked on the same phenomenon.) She said she believed money from private Saudi donors and foundations was behind campaigns in Indonesia against Shiite and Ahmadi Islam, considered heretical by Wahhabi teaching. Some well-known Indonesian religious vigilantes are Saudi-educated, she said.
But when Ms. Jones studied the approximately 1,000 people arrested in Indonesia on terrorism charges since 2002, she found only a few — "literally four or five" — with ties to Wahhabi or Salafi institutions. When it comes to violence, she concluded, the Saudi connection is "mostly a red herring."
In fact, she said, there is a gulf between Indonesian jihadists and Indonesian Salafis who look to Saudi or Yemeni scholars for guidance. The jihadists accuse the Salafis of failing to act on their convictions; the Salafis scorn the jihadists as extremists.
Whatever the global effects of decades of Saudi proselytizing, it is under greater scrutiny than ever, from outside and inside the kingdom. Saudi leaders' ideological reform efforts, encompassing textbooks and preaching, amount to a tacit recognition that its religious exports have sometimes backfired. And the kingdom has stepped up an aggressive public relations campaign in the West, hiring American publicists to counter critical news media reports and fashion a reformist image for Saudi leaders.
But neither the publicists nor their clients can renounce the strain of Islam on which the Saudi state was built, and old habits sometimes prove difficult to suppress. A prominent cleric, Saad bin Nasser al-Shethri, had been stripped of a leadership position by the previous king, Abdullah, for condemning coeducation. King Salman restored Mr. Shethri to the job last year, not long after the cleric had joined the chorus of official voices criticizing the Islamic State. But Mr. Shethri's reasoning for denouncing the Islamic State suggested the difficulty of change. The group was, he said, "more infidel than Jews and Christians."
Photo: The Seoul Central Mosque in South Korea, one of hundreds of mosques around the world built using Saudi donations. Credit Choi Won-Suk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Photo: The King Fahad Mosque in Los Angeles. Credit Patrick T. Fallon for The New York Times
Photo: The United States spent millions printing textbooks for Afghan children and adults that encouraged violence against non-Muslim "infidels" like Soviet troops, as in this excerpt from a book for Pashto-speaking first graders. Credit From Dana Burde, Schools for Conflict or for Peace in Afghanistan
Photo: The Iranian revolution in early 1979 brought to power a radical Shiite government, symbolically challenging Saudi Arabia, the leader of Sunnism, for leadership of global Islam. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Photo: A wounded man at the airport in Brussels after an attack by jihadists in March. There appears to be no direct link between the bombers and the Saudi legacy in the Belgian capital. Credit Ketevan Kardava/Associated Press
Photo: During his reign from 1964 to 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, pictured here in May 1968, embraced the duty of spreading Islam around the world. Credit Raymond Depardon/Magnum Photos
Photo: Members of the Saudi security services inspecting the site of a car bomb attack in May 2015 targeting Shiite Saudis attending Friday Prayer at a mosque in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Credit European Pressphoto Agency
Photo: Saudi oil fields developed by Aramco, the Arabian-American Oil Company, as seen in this 1951 photograph, provided generous funding for the export of the Saudi version of Islam. Credit Associated Press
Secrets of the Kingdom
A Saudi Morals Enforcer Called for a More Liberal Islam. Then the Death Threats Began.JUL. 11, 2016
A Saudi Imam, 2 Hijackers and Lingering 9/11 Mystery JUNE 18, 2016
How Kosovo Was Turned Into Fertile Ground for ISIS MAY 22, 2016
ISIS Turns Saudis Against the Kingdom, and Families Against Their Own APRIL 1, 2016
Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen MARCH 14, 2016
U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels JAN. 24, 2016
Follow Scott Shane on Twitter @ScottShaneNYT.
Hala Droubi contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
A version of this article appears in print on August 26, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: 'Both Arsonists and Firefighters'. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Cross-Border Fire From Yemen Kills 7 in Saudi Arabia AUG. 17, 2016
Saudi Prince Shares Plan to Cut Oil Dependency and Energize the Economy APRIL 25, 2016
Now some of the most accomplished Turkish diplomats have been jailed without any attempt at proving guilt.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 25th, 2016
Prove Tuncay Babali Broke the Law or Free Him
PHILADELPHIA – Aug. 25, 2016 – Turkish ambassador Tuncay Babali, a Middle East Quarterly contributor, has been arrested for alleged participation in the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt in Turkey.
He is one of Ankara's most accomplished young diplomats, having served, among other government positions, as director of the department of human resources of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, counselor to the Turkish embassies in Washington, D.C., and London, and ambassador to Canada (2012-14).
Babali, who holds an MA degree from the University of London and a PhD from the University of Houston, has established himself as an authority in the fields of energy economics and geopolitics as well as Eurasian security. In 2009-10, he was a fellow at Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. His article, "Turkey at the Energy Crossroads," appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of the Middle East Quarterly, pp. 25-33.
Eleven days after the failed coup, Babali was sacked from his position – alongside fellow ambassador Gürcan Bal?k, chief advisor to former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and scores of lower-level diplomats – as part of the government's massive purge of civil servants allegedly linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement. On August 18-19, Babali and Balik were jailed, together with former ambassador to Costa Rica Ali Findik, as the government embarked on an unprecedented purge of hundreds of foreign office diplomats.
The Middle East Forum is deeply concerned by the recent arrests of Babali and tens of thousands of other Turks and believes that the current purge goes far beyond a reasonable and legitimate response to the abortive coup while casting serious doubt on Turkey's commitment to democracy and the rule of law. It, therefore, urges the Government of Turkey to provide incontrovertible evidence in public of Amb. Babali's criminal activity or to free him immediately.
For immediate release
This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 17th, 2016
80 new coal power plants for Turkey?
from Bahad?r Do?utürk and 350.org
This May, thousands of people from all over the world will join a global wave of resistance to keep coal oil and gas in the ground called Break Free from Fossil Fuels. The fossil fuel industry harms people all over the world, and we wanted to share with you some of those stories in the lead up to these actions. You can find out more and join an action near you here.
Right now the Turkish government is planning to build around 80 new coal power plants across the country. Four of those will be in my home of Alia?a.
Alia?a is already struggling with extensive pollution due to existing coal plants, and four new power plants will make the problem even worse. At a time when the world could be transitioning to clean energy, the government of Turkey is asking us to sacrifice even more of our health and our environment for this dirty industry.
We know that the impacts of these new power stations go well beyond Alia?a and Turkey. Coal is the world's dirtiest power source and the source of carbon emissions and with global temperatures rising faster than anyone predicted the planet can not afford 80 new coal power plants. And we can not afford another coal plant in our town.
Will you stand with me and people all over the world as we fight to keep fossil fuels the only place they are safe: in the ground?
350.org is building a global climate movement. You can connect with them on Facebook, follow on Twitter, and become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and growing.
While the two major American political parties slug it out internally – the New York Times of January 19, 2016 points out to the US the real issues facing the World today.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 19th, 2016
Canadian provinces and some American states have shown that raising the cost of burning fossil fuels does not damage the economy.
Legislation planned for Senate introduction would interfere with regulation of big banks and businesses and limit protections for ordinary Americans.
Op-Ed Columnist
Reality-based conservatives should mobilize against the hijacking of our party.
Op-Ed Contributor
The nuclear deal is a triumph for diplomacy. But we must still deter Iranian aggression.
You just can not trust the present government of Turkey: They say they will bomb ISIS in Syria but bomb Kurdish areas in Iraq as well. They bombed Kandil in Kurdistan while providing medical help to ISIS.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 26th, 2015
Turkey Uses ISIS as Excuse to Attack Kurds
by Uzay Bulut • July 26, 2015
Turkey just announced that its air base at Incirlik will soon be open to coalition forces, presumably to fight ISIS. But the moment Turkey started bombing, it targeted Kurdish positions in Iraq, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria.
In Turkey, millions of indigenous Kurds are continually terrorized and murdered, but ISIS terrorists can freely travel and use official border crossings to go to Syria and return to Turkey; they are even treated at Turkish hospitals.
If this is how the states that rule over Kurds treat them, why is there even any question as to whether the Kurds should have their own self-government?
Turkey's government seems to be waging a new war against the Kurds, now struggling to get an internationally recognized political status in Syrian Kurdistan.
On July 24, Turkish media sources reported that Turkish jet fighters bombed Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) bases in Qandil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
Turkey is evidently unsettled by the rapprochement the PKK seems to be establishing with the U.S. and Europe. Possibly alarmed by the PKK's victories against ISIS, as well as its strengthening international standing, Ankara, in addition to targeting ISIS positions in Syria, has been bombing the PKK positions in the Qandil mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, where the PKK headquarters are located.
There is no ISIS in Qandil.
Europe talks of a Neo-Tsarist Russia, now we hear of a Neo-Ottoman Turkey. Are we seeing at Europe's outskirts leaders longing to pre-WWI empires?
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 1st, 2015
The Rise and Fall of a Modern 'Devshirme' in Erdogan's Turkey
by Burak Bekdil
Originally published under the title, "How Non-Muslims "Survive" in Turkey."
Prominent non-Muslims in Turkey, then and now. Left: an Ottoman Janissary officer. Right: the Armenian Christian intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan, who retired as advisor to Turkey's prime minister after saying "what happened to Armenians in 1915" was "genocide."
Last October, Etyen Mahcupyan, a leading Turkish Armenian intellectual, "liberal" writer and columnist, was appointed as "chief advisor" to Turkey's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. At first glance, this was good news in a country where Islamists privately adhere to the old Ottoman millet system, in which non-Muslims were treated as second-class (if not third-class) citizens.
In reality, Mahcupyan was a reincarnation of the Ottoman "devshirme" system, in which the Ottoman state machinery produced several non-Muslim converts who enjoyed a place in the higher echelons of the palace bureaucracy, and the finer things of life, because their pragmatism earned them excellent relations with the ruling Muslim elite.
In a December interview with Turkey's leading daily, Hurriyet, Mahcupyan said, "Whatever has been a [political] asset for Turkey's Armenian community (they number around 60,000) is an asset for the Jewish community too. But… there is Israel… As long as the psychology of the Israel issue continues to influence politics in Turkey and relations between the two countries do not normalize…" The line, which Mahcupyan shyly did not finish, probably would have gone on like this: "Turkey's Jews will keep on paying the price."
Mahcupyan admitted that if Turkey's Jews felt alienated, it was the government's responsibility to do something about that.
What more? "I have lived through this personally for the past 60 years," he explained. "Among Turkey's non-Muslim minorities, including Jews and Armenians, there is an opinion about humiliating Muslims." As Mahcupyan's statement is not true, it therefore just seems a way to justify Islamists' intimidation of Jews.
Next, Mahcupyan argued, "Both Jews and Armenians are better-educated [than Muslim Turks] and more open to the West. And this brings in a feeling of superiority complex." In this view, daily attacks on Turkey's Jews and other non-Muslims happen because Jews and Armenians humiliate Muslims — they are better-educated than Muslims and hence their superiority complex. The charge is, at best, silly.
As in Ottoman times, just one unpleasant utterance can suffice to end a devshirme's career in government service.
Only a few months later, Mahcupyan would learn how wrong he was about the Islamist supremacists in Ankara and their inherent intolerance to liberal thinking.
Mahcupyan recently commented on Pope Francis's remarks on April 12, in which the Pope described 1915 as "the first genocide of the 20th century," and said that the Vatican had "thrown off a 100-year-old psychological burden."
If, Mahcupyan said, accepting that what happened in Bosnia and Africa were genocides, "it is impossible not to call what happened to Armenians in 1915 genocide, too."
It was probably the first time in Turkish history that a senior government official recognized the Armenian genocide. Once again, at first glance, that was good news in a country where outright denial has been the persistent official policy. But it seems Turkey was not quite as liberal as Mahcupyan had thought.
Immediately after his remarks became public, EU Minister Volkan Bozkir expressed unease, saying that "Mahcupyan's description was not appropriate for his title of adviser." But that was not the only price Mahcupyan would have to pay.
A few days after his remarks on genocide, Mahcupyan "retired" as chief adviser to Prime Minister Davutoglu — after only about six months in the job.
Officially, Mahcupyan had retired in March after turning 65, the mandatory retirement age for civil servants. But it was an open secret in Ankara that his departure came simply because Turkey's Islamists were not quite the liberals he had claimed they were.
The "Mahcupyan affair" has a message to Turkey's dwindling non-Muslim minorities: Just like an Ottoman devshirme, a non-Muslim can rise and become a darling of today's neo-Ottoman Turks. He can win hearts and minds in important offices in Ankara — and a bright career. But to maintain his fortunes he must remain loyal to the official Islamist line, both in deed and rhetoric. Just one unpleasant utterance would suffice to end a devshirme's career in government service.
That is the kind of collective psychology into which Turkey's ruling Islamists force non-Muslims: either become a collaborator, or…
There is another Turkish Armenian columnist who looks more seasoned than Mahcupyan in his devshirme career. Markar Esayan, a writer for a fiercely pro-government daily, recently said in reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 2014 statement about the Armenian victims of 1915: "[Erdogan's] message of condolences illustrates how we have achieved the Ottoman spirit in line with this century and its democratic practice. Furthermore, the practices in the last 13 years [of the Justice and Development Party's rule] have positively influenced our [Armenian] community and non-Muslims."
Apparently Esayan is happy with Turkey's neo-Ottomans and their Islamist rule, including their rigid policies of genocide-denial, which he claims have done good to Turkey's Armenians and other non-Muslim citizens. Etyen Mahcupyan may have been punished, but Markar Esayan is being rewarded for his loyalty: he has been selected to run for parliament on the ticket of Prime Minister Davutoglu's party!
Semantics: Was the 1915 Mass Killing of Armenian Christians by Turkish Muslims – GENOCIDE? Why does the President of Israel have a difficulty in answering this question?
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 27th, 2015
"In 1915, when the members of the Armenian nation were being massacred, the residents of Jerusalem, my parents and the members of my family, saw the Armenian refugees arriving in their thousands," Rivlin said.
"The Armenian people have been the first victims of modern mass killing," Rivlin said, adding that after the Holocaust, "commemorating the tragedy of the Armenian people is our Jewish obligation, a human and moral one."
Over the years, both as a lawmaker and as Knesset speaker, Rivlin was among the leaders of the campaign to recognize the Armenian genocide. Rivlin initiated Knesset discussions on the matter and, up until December 2014, consistently signed a petition calling for the recognition of the Armenian genocide. This year, for the first time, a Knesset delegation participated in a ceremony marking the anniversary of the genocide in the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
In the years 1915-1916, one-third of the Armenian people – one to one and a half million people – perished. The Armenians blame the Turks for committing genocide and have waged a public campaign for the international community to recognize the killings as such.
Turkey, for its part, has worked hard to prevent international recognition, claiming that no genocide occurred, but that during the Armenian struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire, between 250,000 and half a million Armenians – and a similar number of Turks – were killed.
In his remarks Sunday, Rivlin emphasized that Israel does not seek to blame any particular country for what happened in 1915, "but rather [to] identify with the victims and the horrible results of the massacre."
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation voices empty condemnations of crimes in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Egypt/Sinai, Nigeria, Pakistan, but shows actual diplomatic steps only on Israel and find Foreign Ministers' time to propagate for Palestine. Today this is unacceptable. The West ought not to clean their houses for them.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 5th, 2015
OIC is the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Its February 5, 2015 Weekly Newsletter (Issue #6 for 2015) notes the following:
· OIC Foreign Ministers delegation arrives in Norway to mobilize support for Palestinian cause
· OIC condemns the construction of 450 new settlement units
· OIC Secretary General strongly condemns killing of Jordanian pilot Mo'az Al-Kasasbah
· OIC Condemns Murder of Japanese Journalist
· OIC Secretary General Condemns Attack on Mosque in Pakistan
· OIC and IDB sign an MOU for the Management of Ebola Programme in West Africa
· OIC Secretary General Condemns Terrorist Attack in Sinai Peninsula
That is empty condemnation words of the subhuman tortured minds resulting in killings of a Jordanian, two Japanese, attacks in Pakistan and Sinai-Egypt, does not mention even the ongoing killings in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, and all what they concentrate on by employing their Diplomats – are the Issues of Palestine and Israel.
Though this website has never backed the Netanyahu line on the Palestinian issue – today – with the subhuman behavior sported in the Muslim World – honestly – the Palestinian issue was now pushed under our desk. Simply OIC and all other organizations – Governmental or Civil Society – Your first steps to regain credibility are to be taken against the beasts that otherwise will think that crime pays. If crime does pay the bystanders are becoming criminals themselves – the evolution of the rhinoceri.
Under Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey does not behave as a full ally or a friend of the US. Efraim Inbar of the BESA Institute thinks of it as another US unacknowledged problem (a fourth posting of our Israel 2014 series).
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 5th, 2015
by Efraim Inbar
for article please see – www.meforum.org/4955/turkey-is-no…
With backing from Qatar there is Salafi anti-Egypt, Hamas aided, activity on the Southern Border of Israel. What impact could this have eventually on Arab Region Oil Exports?
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 2nd, 2014
The Jihadi Connection between Sinai, Gaza and Islamic State.
by Jonathan Spyer
What kind of relations do the jihadists of northern Sinai and Gaza have with Islamic State, and with Hamas? Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared a three-month national emergency this week, following the killing of over 31 Egyptian soldiers in a suicide car bombing carried out by jihadists in northern Sinai.
No organization has issued an authoritative claim of responsibility for the bombing, but it comes amid a state of open insurgency in northern Sinai, as Egyptian security forces battle a number of jihadist organizations. Most prominent among these groups are Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen; the attack on the Sinai military base came a few days after an Egyptian court sentenced seven members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis to death for carrying out previous attacks on the army.
In subsequent days, Egyptian officials pointed an accusing finger at the Hamas rulers of Gaza, asserting there is "no doubt that elements belonging to Palestinian factions were directly involved in the attack." Cairo is now set to build a new barrier separating the Strip from northern Sinai.
In a number of Arabic media outlets, unnamed Egyptian government sources openly accused Hamas members of aiding the assault, assisting with planning, funding and weapons supply.
Are the Egyptian claims credible? Are there links between Hamas or smaller jihadist movements in the Gaza Strip and the insurgents in northern Sinai? And no less importantly, is the armed campaign in northern Sinai linked to Islamic State? First, it is important to understand that jihadist activity in northern Sinai is not a new development. Long before the military coup of July 3, 2013, and indeed before the downfall of president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011, this area had become a lawless zone in which jihadists and Beduin smugglers of people and goods carried out their activities.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis emerged from this already existing jihadist milieu in the period following Mubarak's ouster.
At this time, Egyptian security measures in the area sharply declined.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has not confined its activities to the Sinai area; rather, it has directly engaged in attacks on Israeli targets. Recently, the group beheaded four Sinai locals who it accused of being "spies for the Mossad," also carrying out two rocket attacks on Eilat this past January.
The claim of links between Hamas and Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has been raised in the past. In September, Egyptian security forces claimed to have found uniforms and weaponry identifiable as belonging to Hamas's Izzadin Kassam brigades.
It is worth remembering that the current Egyptian government has, since its inception, sought to link salafi jihadist terrorism with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, as part of its strategy of marginalizing and criminalizing the Brotherhood.
The current statements seeking to link Hamas directly to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis may form part of this larger strategy.
For its part, Hamas indignantly denies any link to this week's bombing.
But what can be said with greater confidence is there is, without doubt, a burgeoning and violent salafi jihadist subculture that encompasses northern Sinai and southern Gaza – with various organizations possessing members and infrastructure on both sides of the border.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis itself and Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen both have members in Sinai and Gaza. Working tunnels smuggling goods and weapons exist between Gaza and northern Sinai, despite Egyptian attempts to destroy them.
It is also a fact that Hamas is aware of these tunnels and makes no attempt to act against them, benefiting economically from their presence.
From this standpoint, Hamas authorities in Gaza are guilty by omission of failing to act against the infrastructure supplying and supporting salafi guerrillas in northern Sinai, whether or not the less verifiable claims of direct Hamas links with them have a basis.
Given this reality, it is also not hard to understand the Egyptian determination to build an effective physical barrier between the Strip and Egyptian territory.
What of the issue of support for Islamic State? Should these jihadist groups be seen as a southern manifestation of the Sunni jihadist wave now sweeping across Iraq, Syria and increasingly, Lebanon? From an ideological point of view, certainly yes.
From an organizational point of view, the situation is more complex.
According to Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, an expert on jihadist groups currently based at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and the Middle East Forum, neither Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis nor Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen have formally pledged their allegiance to the caliphate established by Islamic State in parts of Iraq and Syria.
Nevertheless, Tamimi confirmed, both organizations have expressed "support" for Islamic State and its objectives, while not subordinating themselves to it through a pledge of allegiance.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is known to maintain contacts with Islamic State, which has advised it on the mechanics of carrying out operations. Islamic State, meanwhile, has publicly declared its support for the jihadists in northern Sinai, without singling out any specific group for public support.
Tamimi further notes the existence of two smaller and more obscure groups in Gaza with more direct links to Islamic State.
These are Jamaat Ansar al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Bayt al-Maqdis (The Group of Helpers/ Supporters of the Islamic State in Bayt al-Maqdis), which carries out propaganda activities from Gaza and helps funnel volunteers to Syria and Iraq, and the Sheikh Abu al-Nur al-Maqdisi Battalion, a Gazan contingent fighting with Islamic State in these countries.
So, a number of conclusions can be drawn: Firstly, Hamas, in its tolerance of and engagement with smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Sinai, at least indirectly permits the jihadists networks operating these tunnels to wage their insurgency against Egypt – even if the claims of a direct Hamas link to violent activities in Sinai have not yet been conclusively proven.
Secondly, the most important organizations engaged in this insurgency support Islamic State, and are supported by them, though the former have not yet pledged allegiance and become directly subordinate to the latter.
Islamic State is not yet in northern Sinai, but its close allies are. Their activities are tolerated by the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip – as long as they are directed outward, against Egypt and Israel.
A Meeting in Salzburg Makes it Clear that What is Needed for The Middle East is the Equivalent Of The Congress of Vienna (1814) – a Post-Arab-Spring Equivalent to the Post-Europe-Spring: Can The Arab League that Excludes the Non-Arab Players Be of Any Use?
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 30th, 2014
Middle East
Can the Middle East Redraw Itself?
Amre Moussa, the former Arab League head from Egypt, is calling for a Middle Eastern equivalent of the 1814 Congress of Vienna, in which Europe's great powers established a new order to prevent wars between empires following the defeat of Napoleon. Admittedly, Moussa quickly backtracked to say the plan couldn't initially include Iran, Turkey or Israel, making it really just another Arab League meeting. Still, I think he's onto something.
For years, the people of the Middle East have complained that the U.S. and Europe treat it as a kind of colonial playground, while the West has moaned the region must take more responsibility to regulate and provide security for itself. This week, reports of United Arab Emirates airstrikes in Libya, launched from airstrips in Egypt, suggest that is beginning to happen — but in precisely the wrong way. The airstrikes pit the more secular client of one Persian Gulf state, UAE, against Islamists supported by another, Qatar.
This is a recipe for a long and bloody civil war in Libya, at a time when the Middle East is imploding and the U.S. is no longer willing or able to police it alone. Divisions among the Sunni states and an expanding proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia have already resulted in a vortex of human suffering and instability in Syria that has spawned the Islamic State.
So Moussa's idea of a congress "emanating from the Middle East" itself, rather than from the U.S. or Europe, and focused on how to ensure stability in the region makes sense. As a model, the Congress of Vienna has an attractive echo for the Middle East's monarchies and dictators, as it was designed mainly by conservative autocrats as they sought ways to contain the subversive republican fervor unleashed by the French revolution. Old regime leaders in the Middle East see the Arab Spring in much the same light.
"We are talking about a major change in the Middle East," Moussa said at a conference I'm attending this week in Salzburg, Austria, on lessons to be drawn from the Vienna Congress and the outbreak of World War I, hosted by the International Peace Institute and the Salzburg Global Seminar. "We have to discuss this like grownups: What are we going to do when this wave of change comes to its end?"
The Congress of Vienna was also used to redraw the map of Europe after the Napoleonic wars, and then fix borders and establish a mechanism to agree on changes. In this light, Moussa was adamant that proposals to break up Iraq along sectarian lines would be infectious and disastrous for the region. A deal in in which the likes of Iran and Saudi Arabia guaranteed the non-violation of borders is appealing.
Of course, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. For one thing, Iran and Saudi Arabia are involved in what they see as a zero-sum contest for power, and a meaningful agreement between them seems fantastical: The empires of Europe were driven to reconciliation only after nearly 20 years of defeats forced them to learn the value of alliance. Indeed, while Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki al-Faisal, also in Salzburg, supported Moussa's idea, his focus was on how to create a united Arab front toward Iran — a poor starting point if the goal is to reconcile Iranian and Saudi interests
So long as the focus is on getting the Arab house in order, this is unlikely to get anywhere. A more serious attempt would focus not on Arab identity but on who needs to be at the table so that any deal that is reached would be meaningful. At a minimum, that means Iran, Israel and Turkey must be present. Inviting the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to facilitate and hold the ring would also be smart. It's crazy, and it's worth a try.
To contact the author: Marc Champion at Bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this article: Tobin Harshaw at rg.net">tharshaw at bloomberg.net
The Unique Muslim institution of the Caliphate returned to the global stage June 29, 2014, and its capital is at the Harun al-Rashid seat of Raqqa, Syria. Following its eventual demise more serious efforts might emerge from the Saudi and Iranian regimes declaring themselves as the competing reconstituted new true Caliphates.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 24th, 2014
From Daniel Pipes:
Dear Reader:
The article below began life as a presentation at a Muslim conference in Toronto a week ago and is today published in Turkish and English by a newspaper in Turkey.
Also: I appeared August 22 on Sun News Network's The Arena with Michael Coren, and discussed "Hamas and ISIS on the Rampage." It's studio quality and 8 minutes long. Click here.
Yours sincerely,
Daniel Pipes
The Caliphate Brings Trauma.
by Daniel Pipes
Without warning, the ancient and long powerless institution of the caliphate returned to life on June 29, 2014.
The classic concept of the caliphate – of a single successor to Muhammad ruling a unified Muslim state – lasted just over a century and expired with the emergence of two caliphs in 750 CE.
The power of the caliphate collapsed in about the year 940 CE. After a prolonged, shadowy existence, the institution disappeared altogether in 1924. The only subsequent efforts at revival were trivial, such as the so-called Kalifatsstaat in Cologne, Germany. In other words, the caliphate has been inoperative for about a millennium and absent for about a century.
Under the authority of an Iraqi named Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim, the new caliphate projects boundless ambition to rule the entire world ("east and west") and to impose a uniquely primitive, fanatical, and violent form of Islamic law on everyone.
{Harun al-Rashid was the fifth Abbasid Caliph. His actual birth date is debatable, and various sources give dates from 763 to 766. His surname translates to "the Just," "the Upright" or "the Rightly-Guided." He died: March 24, 809 AD, Tous, Iran.
Al-Rashid ruled from 786 to 809, during the peak of the Islamic Golden Age. His time was marked by scientific, cultural, and religious prosperity. Islamic art and music also flourished significantly during his reign. He established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma ("House of Wisdom") in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, and during his rule Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.
In 796, he moved his court and government to Ar-Raqqah in modern-day Syria.
Since Harun was intellectually, politically, and militarily resourceful, his life and his court have been the subject of many tales. Some are claimed to be factual, but most are believed to be fictitious. An example of what is factual, is the story of the clock that was among various presents that Harun had sent to Charlemagne. The presents were carried by the returning Frankish mission that came to offer Harun friendship in 799. Charlemagne and his retinue deemed the clock to be a conjuration for the sounds it emanated and the tricks it displayed every time an hour ticked. Among what is known to be fictional is The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, which contains many stories that are fantasized by Harun's magnificent court and even Harun al-Rashid himself.
Amongst some Shia Muslims he is despised for his role in the murder of the 7th Imam, Musa ibn Ja'far.
(These lines above were added by PJ when editing this material for SustainabiliTank.info as we wonder how the ISIS fighters reconcile their deeds with the historic image that put the Ar-Raqqah town on the Caliphate's map?)}
I have predicted that this Islamic State, despite its spectacular rise, will not survive: "confronted with hostility both from neighbors and its subject population, [it] will not last long." At the same time, I expect it will leave a legacy:
Looking ahead, here is my more specific forecast for the current caliphate's legacy:
In short, declaring the caliphate on June 29 was a major event; and the caliphate is an institution whose time has long passed and, therefore, whose revival bodes much trauma.
Related Topics: History, Islam This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
Erdogan will be no Putin because he does not agree to have Gul as his Medvedev. The Erdogan Presidency may harbinger the New Turkish Sultanate that is closer to Russia's Tzars.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 18th, 2014
No room for Gul in Erdogan's Turkey
Cengiz Çandar for Al-Monitor and Pulse of Turkey – August 18, 2014 originally posted August 15th.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans for the presidency do not involve power sharing, but pushing Abdullah Gul out of the political realm entirely bodes ill for Turkish democracy.
Until very recently, forecasting Turkey's near future was very fashionable for anyone who stepped on Turkish soil. The most common question directed by pundits to their Turkish counterparts was whether a Putin-Medvedev sort of swap was likely between Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who would ascend to the presidential seat, and Abdullah Gul, the current president who would step down to assume the post of prime minister.
The question reflected wishful thinking. Especially by the Westerners, who do not want to see their ally Turkey drifting into one-man rule under Erdogan, were trying to calm their nerves by saying that a sober Gul would serve as a formidable check and balance to a maverick Erdogan. Given the camaraderie between the two leading figures of Turkish politics, "a Putin-Medvedev-type swap" sounded reasonable and seemed likely following the presidential elections.
But for those who knew both men, and more importantly, had a sense of the inner mechanisms of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), of which Gul and Erdogan are considered co-founders, the chances of such a swap looked nearly nil.
The reason was very simple: Erdogan was aiming for the presidency to further his Sultan-like hegemony on ruling the country, and such an endeavor would not permit any sort of power sharing with anyone.
The only way for Gul to take the post of prime minister was to go back to the AKP at the end of his term, run for the chairmanship of the party and lead the party in the general elections scheduled for 2015. If the AKP wins once again, President Erdogan, according to the constitution, would be obliged to appoint the chairman of the victorious party to form the government.
As a matter of fact, within the first 24 hours of the presidential election (won in the first round by Erdogan), Gul, at one of the farewell receptions for his presidency, disclosed to journalists that after he stepped down, he would go back to the AKP, and it was only natural that he would remain involved in politics as the founder of the ruling party.
Gul would step down on Aug. 28, following the official ceremony to hand over the presidency to Erdogan. It is no secret that he will be the strongest contender for the post of party's chair to be evacuated by Erdogan.
Less than an hour after Gul's remarks, the party's executive committee announced that it would hold a special congress on Aug. 27 to designate (or elect) a new party chairman, so that President-elect Erdogan could entrust him with forming the new government the day he replaces Gul.
The timing and the substance of the move was very obvious. Erdogan does not want Gul at the head of the AKP, and he does not want him as the next prime minister of Turkey.
The reason is transparent: Gul cannot and will not be a puppet prime minister for Erdogan, who wants a more or less South American-style presidency for the next five years, if not 10.
The moment after the AKP executive committee's decision was made public, a smear campaign against Gul was unleashed by those closest to Erdogan in the media. Erdogan himself took part in it. In his speech to the AKP's provincial branch leaders on Aug. 14, he made bitter allusions to Gul. Referring to the public debate over him undercutting Gul's plans by declaring Aug. 27 as the day to elect a new party leader, he said, "The devil will enter the line. If we give in to our interests, we will damage our party's integrity. … This party was not established to provide a seat to anyone."
Ankara parliament member Yalcin Akdogan, known as Erdogan's right arm, in his Aug. 13 column in the pro-AKP daily Yeni Safak, wrote something many interpreted as referring to Gul: "This party does not owe a debt to anyone. All the posts gained by the AKP are Erdogan's achievements. He therefore has the right to decide who will take over which post."
The smear campaign against Gul exposed certain attitudes hitherto unheard of. One such reaction was from writer Levent Gultekin, who emerged as an "independent Islamist." Gultekin asked, "Are all achievements the work of Erdogan?" and recalled the days before the establishment of the AKP 14 years ago. He reminded readers that Gul had led a "renewal movement" against the powerful Islamist figure of the era, Necmeddin Erbakan, and Erdogan, who initially feared being branded a traitor by Erbakan, had stayed out of the movement.
Gultekin said, "Erdogan was so frightened by being branded as such by Erbakan, he stayed away from the meetings of the renewal movement under Abdullah Gul's leadership and would not even stop by at liaison offices." Nevertheless, Gultekin said that after Erdogan's participation, the movement became stronger. He emphasized the importance of the symbiotic union between Gul and Erdogan, writing, "Abdullah Gul has the wisdom, a calm style and progressive policies; Erdogan had the charisma and political magnetism."
Infuriated by the injustice toward Gul, he concluded, "If Abdullah Gul had not taken the risks, overcome many barriers by leading the way and won the confidence of different segments of society, the AKP could have reached its current status.
"When the two joined up, they became a phenomenal force. Now, to claim that this formidable empire these two "brothers" built shoulder to shoulder and the gains they made are the success of one man is unconscionable at the very least. To say 'These are all Erdogan's achievements' is to disregard the Gul's effort and courage. It is discourteous. It is ungrateful. If you ask me, more than anything else, it is senseless."
Another remarkable assessment of Gul came from Al-Monitor columnist Amberin Zaman. In her Aug. 15 Taraf column, she attributed the successes of Turkish foreign policy to the period between 2003 to 2007, when Gul was the foreign minister. Since current Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is expected to be Erdogan's successor as AKP chairman and prime minister, Zaman's remarks were a veiled and strong criticism of Davutoglu as well as Erdogan.
She wrote, "The true architect of the shining years of foreign policy was Abdullah Gul, who served as the foreign minister between 2003 and 2007. His share in making the AKP what it is is no less than Erdogan's. He became the president, had a say in the country and the AKP. Now the AKP's so-called reformists, or as writer Levent Gultekin calls them, 'Erdoganists,' are shamelessly saying, 'We don't owe any debt to anyone' — insinuating Gul, of course. The prime minister, who seems to content with this scene, is getting ready to leave his seat to Davutoglu. May the 'new Turkey' where loyalty is 'in' and merit is 'out' be good for all of us."
Gul was the first voice of dissent against Erbakan, the former leader of traditional political Islam in Turkey. He served as prime minister while Erdogan was banned from politics and was magnanimous enough to leave his post to him the moment the ban was lifted. He also served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and has been the mostly respected and accepted president of the republic for the last seven years. Therefore, to push him to oblivion is a bad omen in terms of political ethics in Turkey and more widely, for the health of Turkish democracy.
Which road Gul will take remains to be seen. One thing is sure: If he decides to be, he will be Erdogan's most formidable contender.
The Dance of Cultural Diplomacy: A showcase at The Brooklyn Academy of Music of US Department of State Dance Diplomacy in the larger Middle East.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 17th, 2014
Fishman Space in BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place, near Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn; 718-636-4100, www.bam.org.
The main purpose of DanceMotion USA, a cultural diplomacy program run by the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the State Department, is to send American artistic troupes abroad. Yet the program also benefits New Yorkers directly by having American companies bring back a foreign one for a free, collaborative stay and performance here of several weeks – sometimes at dance camps out-of-town i.e. in Maine. Eventually a new program is born and it is shown at the Brooklyn BAM which is now blessed o have also the Fisher Building (Fishman Space) next door. These visits have proven to say the least – interesting. The New York Times prefers to say illuminating.
At the BAM Fishman Space on Thursday, David Dorfman Dance which is based at the BAM, back from a four-week tour of Turkey, Armenia and Tajikistan, teamed up with the Korhan Basaran Company from Istanbul, augmented by two Armenian dancers – Karen Khatchatryan and Davit Grigoryan.
The program was not one with pieces from each of the performing triangle's previous repertory. Mr. Dorfman and Mr. Basaran went all the way, joining forces for an hour-long joint program titled – "Unsettled" with a chosen theme of "reconciliation." It was remarkable how well the two companies, both packed with powerful dancers did merge.
The work teemed with groups pushing and shoving, but it did not set one troupe against the other. The sharpest contrast — in the opening moments and in two later face-off duets — was between the choreographers: Mr. Basaran, tall, with a tendency to collapse inward, and Mr. Dorfman, squat, always hurling his energy out. Yet the aesthetic kinship between them was also apparent in eruptive rhythms and labile emotions.
The music, composed and played live by Sam Crawford, Liz de Lise, Jesse Manno and Timothy Quigley, beguilingly blended Western and Middle Eastern styles and instrumentation. It borrowed the folk song "Sari Gyalin" (or "Sari Gelin"), which in Turkish, Armenian and English versions laments the failure of love across ethnic divides.
Still, it is to the credit of all involved that "Unsettled," after a celebratory group dance, had the honesty to remain unsettled. What resonated was a moment before the end, when Mr. Dorfman, having failed to force his friendship on Mr. Basaran, took a line from the folk song and allowed it to expand into a humble question for everyone: "Oh tell me please, what can I do?"
This reporting of mine follows a review in the New York Times and a feeling that many in the audience, including myself, had that though seeing a piece that historically dealt with the Armenian – Turkish relations that included an attempt at genocide, actually today the topic is the Israeli Palestinian conflict and it was obvious that to untrained ears Turkish, Armenian, or Arab music – seem all the same – and thus a presence in the air – reference was being made to the Middle East as if there were some generic to it.
The performances at the BAM went on Thursday – Friday – Saturday evenings, but then there was also a performance Saturday afternoon that I attended because it had also a follow up discussion with TV link to Istanbul and questions via the internet from London, Ankara, Germany and some other places.
On a question about the collaboration we heard an answer that said – in a month we become one but in some things where there were differences we become States.
Before the TV land internet links the conversation was according to the natural language of the speaker with a sometime translation into English – then from Ankara came the notion that something that was said in Armenian needed also Turkish translation. Fair enough.
On the I AM SORRY piece: "Children can easily apologize to each other – forget and forgive." As he got older, the comment went on, he felt he needed more – the words alone mean less.
Then he saw The Planet of the Apes – they have the capacity of forgive & forget – but we do not have that capacity anymore.
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 24th, 2014
Presided upon by Mr. Richard N. Haass, the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, a panel of six of the Council's experts in front of two rooms full in audience – one in New York the other in Washington DC, a whole gamut of Middle East problems was put on display and dissected.
The six experts were – Elliott Abrams who started out as staff member of Senators Henry M. Jackson and Daniel P. Moynihan and then moved on to the White House under Presidents Reagan and G.W. Bush; Steven A. Cook who started out at the Brookings Institution, developed an expertise on Egypt, Algeria and Turkey, and is running a blog "From the Potomac to the Euphrates; Robert M. Danin who started out as a journalist reporting from Jerusalem then worked at the State Department on Middle East Affairs and with Tony Blair as his Jerusalem based representative of the Quartet; and Ray Takeyh, a widely published professorial expert on Iran – in Washington D C and Isobel Coleman who at CFR covers Civil Society, Markets and Democracy, comes from the business world, has written extensively on policy, was track leader at the Clinton Global Initiative, was named by Newsweek as one of 150 Women Who Shake the World and her blog is Democracy in Development; and Richard N. Haass who served in the White House at ambassadorial level but argued in a book that Foreign Policy starts at Home – the last two were with us in New York.
This discussion takes place at the beginning of the third week since this latest flare-up of Israel's war against the Hamas of Gaza. A very fast consensus was reached among the four members of the Washington DC panel that to cool the situation without giving Hamas some credit is really difficult. Israel wants really to destroy the infrastructure of tunnels into Israel. Hamas points out that they managed to-date to beat Israel at that as just a day earlier they demonstrated they are capable to infiltrate Israel through such tunnels. Richard Haass evoked Henry Kissinger who said that what is needed to create a lasting equilibrium is (a) a degree of balance, and (b) a degree of legitimacy that comes from mutual recognition between the forces. The latter point does not exist here. Israel is united and out to eliminate Hamas – but if the fighting continues it is expected that the demand for change in the status quo will get louder in Israel – or just a return to a system that allows only breaks in the fighting will be unacceptable.
Asked about how to bring the Palestinian Authority back into Gaza – the prediction expressed was that Hamas demonstrating that only resistance keeps you in authority will allow Hamas to emerge as winner. Today's news that Israel bombed a UN managed school filled with displaced Palestinians, and probably also arms bearing Palestinians, will nevertheless put some more outside pressure on Israel.
Further, the news I get today from Vienna is that Saturday there will be large pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Europe on the occasion of the yearly celebration of the Al-Quds Day. This is a PR success for the Hamas – the show of harm done to the Palestinians that are being used as shield to those missiles, and then their misery exploited in order to achieve PR gains based in part also on the unleashing of an existing undertow of Antisemitism-comes-naturally to some layers of Christian Europe. These are aspects that were not looked at by the panel but which play now very seriously a role within Israel. My bet is that Israel will demand that the PA is reintroduced to Gaza at least at its borders – with a minimum role of making sure there are no tunnels. If this becomes part of the US and Egypt brokered solution, the other part will have to be a transparent start to the dissolution of some West Bank settlements. The military defeat of the Hamas can then be viewed as a success of the political leadership of the Hamas in ways acceptable to Israel.
Steven Cook said that the present ruler of Egypt – President Abdel Fattah Saed Hussein Khalil al-Sisi, former Chief of the Army and Minister of Defense – is much more decisive then Mubarak was, and can be counted on to be more decisive in matters of Hamas. Now we have a situation that Egypt and the Saudis hate in full view the Muslim Brotherhood and their off-shoot – the Hamas, while the Amir of Qatar is backing them. So, now we have beside the Sunni – Shia Divide also a Sunni – Sunni Divide which is going and deepening and creates a further Divide between the Brotherhood & Hamas on the one hand and more extremist ISIS & Al Qaeda on the other hand. These latter without an official sponsor from any State. Here again real life went beyond what was said at the CFR panel.
I made it my business to tell the organizer about the day's news at the UN, the finding by investigative journalist Matthew R. Lee that the UN Secretary General's charter flight to the Middle East was bankrolled by the Amir of Qatar, a sponsor of Hamas, does in effect put a notch in the UNSG effort in posing as an honest broker on Gaza. I thought this ought to be brought up at the Town Hall meeting and said I can volunteer to raise this as a question – but I could not – this because I was there as Press, and only Members of the CFR are allowed to ask questions. Members come from Think-Tanks but mainly from business. The reality is that the business sectors represented at the CFR are mainly those that belong to old establishments – Members of the International Chamber of Commerce, but no businesses that could profit from an economy less reliant on fossil fuels. The whole concept of energy seems here to still mean those conventional fuels – and it shows. It came up here as well when a question about Energy Independence was answered that though an Energy Revolution did happen lately in the US, we will never be Independent of "Energy" because the World Economy runs on "Energy."
Many other points came up – and I will now highlight some of them:
– Iran was mentioned in the context that July 20th Vienna meeting was the rage at that time – but then came the Ukraine and Gaza wars. Now Iran was delayed to November 25th and is barely noticed. It was noted that it is only a 4 months delay while it was technically possible to delay it for 6 months. The Iranians believe that they already agreed to the red lines. Can these Red lines be adjusted?
– The Kurds will make now moves to go their own ways. The Turks now play more favorably to the Kurds – but the Kurds continue to be split and fight among themselves.
– Winner Takes All has been disproved for the Middle East. Maliki in Iraq learned it does not work, so did Morsi in Egypt who saw his Brotherhod and himself ousted merciless. I found this an extremely valuable observation for all combatants of the region.
– New forms of COLD WAR. there is one between the Saudis and the Gulf States (Intra Sunni – Sunni) – and there is one between the Saudis and the Iranians. Like in the US-Soviet case this is not a fight between States. mainly it goes on now on Syrian Territory between parts of Syria a country that will be dismembered like Iraq was. In the past governments were oppressive and economically weak, but had power internally – now this did collapse.
– Now we reached a favorite question about the UN. Are there any useful capacities remaining for the UN? Elliot Abrams said that if appointed to the UN he would try to get another job. UNRWA has become more and more controversial – specifically when there is a cease-fire.


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This question already has an answer here:
- Enabling GPU rendering for Cycles? 3 answers
I am using Blender 2.66a a nVidia GT 520 and Ubuntu 13.10. I wanted to enable GPU rendering. But in the System Panel there is no 'CUDA' Option.
I know that this Card supports CUDA, because I have tested it on Windows 7 (dual- boot) too and it worked.
I installed the proprietary GPU driver using
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
Any ideas why it doesnt work?
Thanks in the preface

subset: commoncrawl


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"The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books."
—Katherine Mansfield
We love this Katherine Mansfield quote almost as much as we love this picture of two of our youngest readers. (How cute are they?) These two-year old twins have more than doubled our pleasure by sharing the Animal Store Alphabet Book.
Send us a picture of someone you know reading or sharing our book, and well be happy to share it here on the blog.


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Ensuring your insurance is right for you
Ensuring Your Insurance Is Right for You
The blunt reality of insurance is that insurance companies are businesses and as such they aim to make a profit. The onus is therefore on the buyer to get right type of cover and the right level of cover and, of course, to provide the insurance company with any relevant information needed to assess the price of the premiums. Let's look at these one at a time.
The right type of cover
First of all you need to decide what, in your life needs to be insured. This could be anything from your jewellery to your pets to your health to your income. Then you need to look at what your options are for insuring them. For example, these days it may be possible to cover consumer electronics under your home insurance or through a specialist policy. Which one is right for you will depend on your particular circumstances. Sometimes you may find that you need more than one form of cover to give you the security you need, for example, if you are self employed, you may benefit from income protection cover, payment protection cover and critical illness cover, which are all essentially different elements of the same general concept.
The right level of cover
Depending on your situation this can be a prime example of easier said than done. If you're a student moving into halls/a student flat then you'll probably have a fairly good idea how much your belongings are worth and hence what sort of level of cover you need. If, however, you're an adult with a house full of possessions, of which you've long since lost track, then deciding on the right level of cover can be a bit more complicated. Having said that, you probably have a good idea of what really matters to you, so take that as a starting point. Remember that insurance, like life, is a work in progress and so it's important to keep tabs on your level of cover and adjust it upwards or downwards as your circumstances change. For example, if your only reason for having life cover is because you have a mortgage, you can lower the level of your cover as you pay off your mortgage. It should, however be noted that even though overpaying for excessive cover carries a financial cost, it is generally far less of a potential problem than underpaying for inadequate cover.
Making yourself an attractive client - ethically
Ultimately insurance is a business of risk and reward and, hence, anything you can genuinely do to lower your risk to insurers is likely to be rewarded in the form of lower premiums. An obvious example of this is giving up smoking, which is, understandably, looked on very favourably when taking out health and life insurance. Sometimes it is possible to improve your premiums, if only slightly, with a little finesse. For example, in some forms of insurance, for example car insurance, occupation can be taken into consideration. Therefore if you have a job which can reasonably be described in different ways, then you may want to do some research into which definition is likely to get the best response from an insurance company. At all costs, however, avoid the temptation to tell "little white lies" even if "everyone else is doing it". For example, if a teenager is the main driver of a car then they need to be listed as such, even though it's almost certainly going to make a sharp difference to the premiums. Leaving aside moral issues, the simple reality is that insurance companies may take your word about facts when they are taking your money for premiums, but in the event of a claim, they may well decide to do their own fact checking and that is when you could find yourself facing significant problems.
There are other providers of Payment Protection Insurance [Short-Term Income Protection] and other products designed to protect you against loss of income. For impartial information about insurance, please visit the website at www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk.