AlandMizell.com

Relations between the Persians and the Arabs have always been a problem, not only because of a growing power struggle in the region, but also because of a long history of rivalry that caused deeply embedded animosity toward each other. The majority of Iranians hate Arabs, and the majority of Arabs hate Iranians as well. Especially the Iranian religious people and intellectuals often show their resentment of Arabs, which most often comes in the form of curses directed at the Islamic Sunni sect. Those who study the history of Islam and the Middle East will clearly understand the reasons for the Arabs’ constant attacks on Shiia Iranians or for Iranians’ constant attacks on Sunnis. The Shias’ hostility stems from their hatred of Arabs not only because of hegemonic conflict in the Middle East, which is true, but also because of its root in history. Continue reading →

 For a long time Gulen and his followers were wearing so many masks and hiding their true goals, harboring hate, generating animosity, and advancing ambitions behind their masks. Many people could not have known that they would adopt such toxic discourse for the sake of fame and wealth in this transient world.  Recent developments have revealed that Gulen and his followers prefer to wear masks while communicating. Each passing day, contradiction between their smiling masks and their accumulated hatred, goals, lies, deceptions, cheating, manipulations, and anger becomes clearer. It is utterly shameful. Although Gulen is portrayed in the West as a protagonist of moderate Islam and a peacemaker who invented the inter-religious dialogues, his movement  hopes to reach non-Muslims, people for whom Gulen and his followers wear interfaith dialogue masks, especially outside Turkey to show them that his interpretation of Islam is different than that of any other Muslims. But those who study Islam know that the Islam is Islam, and there is no such thing as moderate or contemporary Islam because the Quran is the main source of Islam, so that any genuine Muslim will follow the interpretations of the Quran, not those of Gulen. Continue reading →

Citizens of Turkey are being increasingly and inescapably entangled in the tentacles of mafia rule. In the past, the secular military mafia in the name of patriotism and protection of Turkey’s secular system against the religion groups took tax money to become rich. The military mafia wrote the Turkish Constitution and appointed the judges. Now Gulen’s religious mafia has orchestrated the removal of the military mafia from politics by fabricating evidence and staging Communist-like show trials to put the generals in jails. Currently, Pennsylvania is the home base of the Turkish mafia, and it seems to have set up a satellite office to run Turkey from Pennsylvania. It continues taking donations to become one of the richest religious movements on earth. Where in the world can you take money from business people and build an empire based on that source? Gulen has been taking alms or zakat from the people to become a rich organization as well as a government inside the government. Continue reading →

. The insurrections produced anarchy in Libya, civil war in Egypt, and now devolution in Yemen and Syria. It is true that democratic transitions have never been peaceful and are mostly violent. We witnessed transition from communism in Europe, for example, the fall of Berlin Wall, the rise of a criminal mafia, a war in Bosnia between Serbians and Muslims, and the Balkans’ degeneration into ethnic war; even today, there are still tensions between ethnic groups in several central Asian countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, all from the former Soviet Bloc with the people living under repressive regimes, yet not many want to go back to live under the Soviet regime.  Continue reading →

US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg said that Cabusao was selected for her “fine work in strengthening a free and responsible media in Mindanao through journalism training programs for budding journalists.”

These training programs come in the form of regional conferences where journalists from around Mindanao gather to, in her words, further understand and discuss what they do.

An award ceremony in her honor, with members of the Aquino family attending, was held last Feb. 12 at the Manila US embassy’s Charles Parsons Ballroom. Goldberg and a member of the Aquino(Ballsy Cruz) family co-presented the journalism award. DEPARTMENT of Tourism assistant secretary Art Boncato; Monsanto Philippines Corporate Affiars lead Charina Garrido Ocampo; Mindanao Times publisher Jesus G. Dureza; editor-in-chief Amalia Cabusao; Mindanao Times columnist Dr. Aland Mizell; Times president Dr. Guillermo P. Torres Jr., and Philippine Press Institute’s Ariel Sebellino.

The peace process between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippine government depends on a transparent and comprehensive investigation of crimes committed against the 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Forces (SAF) by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and 17 Moro troopers. The elite police commandos stormed the Mamasapano town in Maguindanao to arrest Malaysian terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Abdu Basit Usman. If the MILF and the Philippine government fail to investigate what happened to the 44 members of the SAF, one can question the sincerity of both the MILF and the Philippine government about the peace process when it is not able to even conduct such a investigation on killing the special law enforcement agents. I will remain skeptic that the government is able or willing to carry out a transparent and independent investigation. Continue reading →