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The attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine by Jihadists raised questions of whether Islam is compatible with western democracy. What, if any, are the limitations of freedom of speech?  Secularism, a clash of civilizations, and Islam collided with freedom of speech, and the inquiry about how to balance values leaves so many questions and not enough many answers. I do, however, condemn those who killed the satirists, but we should ask ourselves about the responsibility that goes with freedom of speech. Unfortunately many Westerns are very egocentric and do not care about the interests of others, only their own. Freedom of speech is not being lost due to the Jihadist attack on Charlie Hebdo in France, but due to the erosion of values in Western society. Western countries are filled with pride, and they believe themselves to be wise and able to govern themselves without God, which I argue is what brought Western societies to where they are today. Continue reading →

President Obama was elected President in part to get the U.S. out of the war with Iraq. Obama called the Iraq War a war of choice, not a war of necessity and blamed President Bush and Vice-President Cheney for punishing Saddam Hussein for committing genocide against the Kurdish people and killing hundreds of thousands of Kurdish women, children, and men in 1988. In the Muslim world and in the Middle East only the Kurds are thankful for George Bush, because Bush’s policy of a no-fly zone in Northern Iraq gave dignity to the Kurds, so that they could show the rest of the world that they are capable of ruling themselves. More than thirty million Kurdish people possess the right to have self-rule, but they are denied that right. Today the only peaceful place and the most developed area in the region is not Baghdad, but it is the Kurdish Autonomous Region spanning from Erbil to Sulaymaniyah to Dohuk. Continue reading →

ISIS is a barbaric brutal organization. It is against humanity’s most basic values. It must not just be defeated militarily but also intellectually. The civilized world should not have let this malicious ideology emerge. The problem with this organization is that it is using the name of Islam and Allah and is committing this type of barbaric act, but the Islamic world is dead silent in general. I am sure you will see a large section of Islam and the Muslim world denounce terrorism, violence, and killing in the name of Allah or Islam. Muslim leaders only issue statements or appear on TV saying that ISIS does not represent Islam. I believe actions speak louder than words.  The only question I have for the Muslim world is why don’t I see massive vocal protests on the streets of Egypt, Yemen, Istanbul, Islamabad, Kabul, Indonesia, Europe, Iraq, Tunus, Tehran, or  Lebanon? Why is the Muslim community not conducting a war on terror and preventing the ferocity by all actions necessary? For example, in 2012, thousands of Muslim protesters demonstrated against an anti Islam film, tore down a government building, and burned the American flags in Pakistan and in Egypt. Continue reading →

The West and United States cannot eliminate Islamic terrorism. Only Muslims can win the war on Islamic terrorism by fighting it on their own. In the end only Muslims can decide what their faith is really all about, and it is Muslims who have to decide whether to fight against the terror groups who use the name of Islam or to join them. The United States and the West can covertly support Muslims who fight against the Islamic terrorism. America can’t lead the war on terror nor can it win it. Arabs and other Muslims generally agree that Assad might be a bloody tyrant, but on the grounds that many Muslims believe, the invasion was a family affair to be solved within the family and not by America or the West who intervened in the name of human rights and international justice; they also believe the invasion was wrong because they are just protecting their own self interests and maintaining Muslim subordination to the Christians’ belief. Continue reading →

President of the United States, Barack Obama, now faces the possibility of the United States’ third intervention in Iraq. In 1991, the United States united thirty-four nations and compelled Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait, and in 2003, led by the U.S. a coalition forced Saddam to flee Baghdad after only three weeks. The earlier two wars might have achieved their military goals, but they were political failures, and the third Iraq War will be more deadly. Last week I listened to President Obama’s televised speech during which he unveiled his strategy to “degrade and destroy” the Jihadists Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Obama’s strategy is to destroy ISI by the development of smart power, which would ensure that American casualties are avoided and that the undertaking would be self-financed with it funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Arab states. Continue reading →

 Using violence as a form of governance never works, and it will not work in Iraq nor will it benefit people in the region. In the long run, it will only give way to more hate, conflict, and divisions there.  The US government should revisit its foreign policy regarding nuclear talks with Iran and should include Iran in solving the region’s problems because it will benefit the US’s interests in the region in the long run. The best way to defeat ISIS is to make sure external powers such as; Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the US stop supporting the ISIS and coordinate their strategy. All Sunni countries supporting ISIS to contain Iran’s shia religion sects. If they desire to stop the ISIS, they should not only not support the ISIL but also utilize the Kurds against them, because the Kurds have been fighting guerilla warfare for a long time and the Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria plays an important role in the fight against the ISIS. Continue reading →

The Middle East is on the verge of a big paradigm shift. The turmoil in the Middle East will not end until a new map of the Middle East is drawn. It is the end of the Sykes- Picot Agreement, an accord between Great Britain and France secretly reached in 1916 to carve out the new nations.  In my view, the current events will potentially get rid of old regimes and change political borders; it means the redrawing of the old map of the Middle East. In the new map there will be two new states and new regimes: the State of Palestine and the State of the Kurdistan. Without those two new states there will not be peace in the region. If the international community and the United States wish to have peace there, for their part they must recognize the two states. Continue reading →