US military seeks to expand presence in Asia

Economic Times

MELBOURNE: The US military plans to bolster its presence across Asia and is looking at an expansion of ties with Australia’s armed forces, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.

Building up military cooperation with Australia would reinforce a broader effort to extend the US military’s role across the Asia-Pacific region, Gates told reporters aboard his plane Saturday, before landing in Melbourne.

“We’re looking at ways to strengthen and perhaps make more robust our presence in Asia,” Gates said, referring to a Pentagon review of how American forces are deployed around the world.

“We’re looking at a number of different options, one of those includes talking with the Australians about… areas where we can work together in a mutually beneficial way,” he said.

At an annual Australia-US meeting being held in Melbourne, Gates said the two governments would discuss deepening military ties including cooperation on cyber security, missile defence and “space surveillance.”

But he said there were no plans for new US bases in Australia or elsewhere in the region.

The discussions in Australia come amid concern over China’s increasingly assertive stance in the Pacific and its growing naval power, with some Asian states turning to Washington for support.

Gates, however, insisted that US plans were not designed as a counter-weight to China.

“This isn’t about China at all,” he said.

The United States had an interest in building military ties with Asian countries to combat piracy at sea, bolster counter-terrorism efforts and provide humanitarian relief for natural disasters, he said.

The Pentagon chief added that cooperation on humanitarian operations has come up in talks with China’s military as well.

His comments came as US military leaders consider moving more forces to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, beyond the longstanding American presence in South Korea and Japan.

A senior defence official said the Pentagon is “looking at how we can make sure our forces are not just oriented in Northeast Asia, but are looking through down to Southeast Asia and then into the Indian Ocean as this part of the security environment becomes more important.”

Boosting US access to Australian bases, if agreed, would likely mean a larger American presence but precise numbers remained unclear, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A final decision was still months away, he added.

During the summit, defence chiefs are due to sign an agreement to bolster joint efforts to track objects in space over the southern hemisphere, including satellites, space junk and potential ballistic missiles fired from North Korea, officials said.

The “space situational awareness partnership agreement” could allow for an expanded American presence at the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station in Western Australia, which the US military already uses.

Australia’s military alliance with the United States has deep roots and the country remains a top buyer of American weaponry, with US military sales to Australia reaching 1.45 billiondollars in 2010.

Should we fear Islam?

 Washington Post

By Congressman Keith Ellison

At a time when our nation is seeing a rise in intolerant behavior, crossing every cultural line, whether based on race, religion or sexual orientation, we seem simultaneously stuck with a national news media that is preoccupied with conflict and controversy when we desperately need one that weighs facts and reports fairly. A recent national news program reinforced these concerns. Let me explain what I mean.

Imagine a respected TV show or news magazine article with the title, "Should Americans Fear Black People?"

Imagine staccato hip-hop music for the teaser, with clips of black gang members toting guns, hanging around urban scenes, looking scary. Imagine the zoom-in close up of a shoulder tattoo, proclaiming "Thug for Life."

As the host (some household name) opens the show, imagine that the white expert opining about the root causes of urban decay is a nationally recognized racist, like for instance, David Duke. With a straight face, and no sense of irony, the host solicits Duke's views, who proceeds to declare, "when the American people saw the LA riots, they received a peek into their future."

Imagine the television cameras going in search of voices of 'real' black people. Where do they go? The 'hood of course! I mean, where else do black people live?

The intrepid host invites regular Americans to ask the experts to explain black pathology: "Why is their rap music so degrading to women?" Cynthia from Wyoming wonders. "Why are so many blacks at the bottom of the economic and educational ladder?" Chuck from New York State muses.

Is this starting to get a little uncomfortable? Of course, it is. Just ask Don Imus about the wisdom of indulging in racial stereotyping against blacks. Add Jews, Catholics, gays and others as well. Not a good idea.

Now replace black with Muslim, and that's just about how ABC News treated Islam and Muslims this past weekend, on 20/20 and This Week with Christiane Amanpour.

There were the obligatory clips of terrorist training camps, the planes flying into the twin towers, the victims of so-called 'honor killings.' The Muslim experts - looking officially 'Islamic' in their long beards and hats - included one declaring that one day the flag of Islam would fly over the White House. The non-Muslim experts - Robert Spencer (leading anti-Muslim advocate in the Park51 Project controversy), Ayaan Hirsi Ali (prolific anti-Muslim writer), and Franklin Graham (said Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion") - are well known, even famous, for spewing anti-Muslim hate. Of course, these characters emphatically agreed with the caricatures with long beards and white hats, repeating the propaganda that Islam requires its adherents to dominate people. Among the 'normal' Muslims interviewed were a woman in niqab (fewer than 1% of Muslim women in America wear the full face veil and accompanying robes), and Muslims in the Muslim 'hood', cities, like Dearborn, MI, and Patterson, NJ.

Do some Americans fear black people? For sure. But we don't validate those fears by allowing them to be expressed with fake innocence on respected news shows. Why are fears of Muslims validated by television airings? 

Are there criminals in America who are African-American? Yes, again. But they're not presented as representative figures of the community by reputable news programs. Why do such shows go out of their way to find the scariest, most cartoonish Muslims possible and present them as spokespeople for Muslims?

No serious journalist would ask a random black guy with a briefcase on the street to explain the pathology of an African American criminal because of the coincidence of shared skin color. But serious journalists called on ordinary Muslim Americans to explain the behavior of homicidal maniacs and extremists, thereby making the link between the crazies and the mainstream community.

Are there people willing to offer all sorts of racist theories about black crime, from problems in black genes to deficiencies in black culture? Plenty. But the only time they show up on mainstream news shows are as examples of racism, not as experts on race.

We are having a national conversation about belonging. The threatened Qur'an burning in Florida and the controversy over the proposed Islamic Center in lower Manhattan are examples of this national conversation about whether America can stretch her arms wide enough to embrace Muslims too. Irresponsible and sensational depictions of Muslims in the popular media are not the cause of Islamophobia, but they certainly can make it worse. Recent news shows and media reports do nothing to shed light or understanding on this national conversation, which is too bad.

But the conversation must continue. And I hope it continues in our mosques, churches, synagogues and other holy places, with Americans of all faiths talking face to face about differences and about our shared humanity - free of the stereotypes that, lately, are so prominent in our TV shows and magazines.

Chinese dissident wins Nobel Prize

 Al-Jazeera

Peace prize for Liu Xiaobo angers China, which calls decision to honour the jailed activist an "obscenity".

Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese rights activist, has won the 2010 Nobel Peace prize, prompting a strong reaction from China.

Announcing the award in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, on Friday, Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China.

"China has become a big power in economic terms as well as political terms, and it is normal that big powers should be under criticism,'' he said .

Liu is in prison for helping to organise and disseminate a document called Charter 08, which calls for sweeping political reforms in China, including freedom of assembly, expression and religion. The 54-year-old literary critic and former professor was sentenced last Christmas Day to 11 years in jail for subversion.

In response to the Oslo announcement, China said that giving the prize to "criminal" Liu ran contrary to the principles of the award, and warned ties with Norway would suffer. It summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to protest against the committee's decision.

"This is an obscenity against the peace prize," Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

Ragnhild Imerslund, a spokeswoman for Norway's ministry of foreign affairs, defended the Nobel Committee, saying it is "an independent" body "which makes decisions independently of the Norwegian government".

"So any decision made by the committee should not be seen as an official reaction or comment on what's going on [in China]," she told Al Jazeera.

Imerslund said it was "normal in diplomacy" for Chinese officials to contact Norwegian diplomats.

"The meeting was conducted in a constrcutive tone and we emphasised ... that Norway is eager to continue bilateral relations with China," she said.

'Chinese warnings'

Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Norwegian foreign minister, earlier emphasised that the award should not cause a hostile Chinese reaction.

"There are no grounds to direct any measures against Norway as a country, and I think it would have a negative effect on China's reputation if it did," he told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

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Reacting to the award, France, Germany and Taiwan's main opposition party urged China to free Liu.

The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 but is seen as a traitor by China because of his struggle for a more autonomous Tibet, congratulated Liu and called for his release.

Liu has called for the reform of China's one-party Communist system and was jailed for 21 months for taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

In 1996, he served another three years in a "re-education" camp for seeking the release of prisoners jailed in the Tiananmen demonstrations.

Jagland, the Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu had become a symbol for the struggle for human rights in China.

"The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad," he said.

"Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."

Vincent Brossel, head of the Asia desk at Reporters Without Borders, told Al Jazeera that Liu deserved the award because "he's a very peaceful advocate of freedom of expression and democracy". He added that Liu is a unique representative of the struggle between dictatorship and democracy.

"Xiaobo is a gentle and brave person, he will probably give away the award to all political prisoners in China and all over the world," Brossel, who has met Liu several times, said.

Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan, reporting from Beijing, said Liu is well known in China.

"Most people in China actually know his name. The thing with Chinese human rights activists is that they tend to be known outside their country more than they're known inside their country, because of the censorship issues for example," she said.

"But Liu was a prominent writer before he became an activist.

"Not only is he known in the intelligentsia and the academic world. His political manifesto, Charter 08, has picked up more than 10,000 signatures and these Chinese who have signed on to this charter say they are from all walks of life."

Never sought fame

Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that even though Liu is imprisoned, "he will be comforted when he learns about it (the prize), but it won't really change him".

Bequelin described Liu as "someone who is ready to go to prison for his ideas and he knew it when he signed this document, this Charter 08 ... he has never sought international fame".

Bequelin said that Liu was likely awarded the prize because he "really stands for all the activists and political prisoners in China. He really represents every single one of them because his key struggle has been for freedom of expression and freedom of expression is the basis of any advocacy and any efforts towards greater human rights protection".

At least four former peace prize winners - Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, the Dalai Lama and the Czech politician Vaclav Havel - had been among those calling for Liu to get the Peace Prize.

Barack Obama, the US president, has also called for Liu's release.

Wife 'excited'

After hearing about Liu's award, his wife thanked his supporters and called for his release.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates

2009: Barack Obama, US president
2008: Martti Ahtisaari, former Finish president and peace mediator
2007: Al Gore, US politician and climate activist, shared the prize with the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change
2006: Muhammad Yunus shares the prize with the Grameen Bank he founded, providing loans to the rural poor of Bangladesh
2005: Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, shares the prize with the International Atomic Energy Agency

"I'm so excited, I'm so excited, I don't know what to say," Liu Xia told the news agency AFP.

"I strongly ask that the Chinese government release Liu Xiaobo."

Before the official announcement on Friday, Liu had been the advance favourite in the guessing-game for the award.

This year, the Nobel Committee considered a record 237 individuals and organisations for the prestigious prize.

The Nobel prizes were established by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite, and were first handed out in 1901.

According to Nobel's will, the peace prize should be given to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

The award of $1.5m will be handed out in Oslo on December 10, while the other Nobel prize ceremonies are held in Sweden, in line with the founder's wishes. Sweden and Norway were joined in a union during his lifetime.

The Norwegian parliament appoints the five voting members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the laureate for the Peace prize.

Each year, the committee invites qualified people to submit nominations for the prize.

125 Filipinos convert to Islam in Dubai

 Emirates 24/7

By WAM

A total of 122 ladies and three men, all expatriates from the Philippines, converted to Islam in Dubai, after a lecture by popular Muslim Filipino orator and preacher Omar Penalbar.

Penalbar was lecturing on tolerance in Islam and the message of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).

The lecture was organised in the Al Twar area in Dubai by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

The preacher said the previous largest number of people to convert to Islam in the Philippines in one night with his help was 99. A new record has been set today when 125 individuals declared their conversion to Islam, he added.

Emirati families played a role in this when they accompanied the Filipino individuals to the forum, according to Mohammed Al Hashimi, who oversees the forum, organised during Ramadan.

Sharia law threatens Moscow control in Muslim Chechnya

The Star

By Amie Ferris-Rotman

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) - Aspects of sharia law imposed in Muslim Chechnya in recent months are inching the republic closer to autonomy and posing a renewed threat to Kremlin control, analysts say.

The Kremlin relies on its hardline Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, to maintain order in the violent region in the North Caucasus, where separatists were driven from power a decade ago after two wars.

Analysts say Kadyrov's methods to tame the region include a crackdown on opponents and imposing his radical vision of Islam, which could push Chechnya again towards separatism.

Kadyrov, who fought Russian forces during the first Chechen separatist war in the early 1990s but switched to Moscow's side when the conflict reignited in 1999, says the claims are an attempt to blacken his name.

"Kadyrov has espoused sharia law. He has effectively achieved a level of Chechen independence that 15 years of rebellion and insurgency have failed to do," Matthew Clements, Eurasia analyst at IHS Jane's Information Group in London, told Reuters.

Earlier this month Chechnya's spiritual leader successfully ordered the shutting down of all eateries during the holy month of Ramadan. Separately, many women said they had been harassed by men for not wearing headscarves in what some of the assailants said were instructions from religious authorities.

The Ramadan orders followed words of praise from Kadyrov who told state TV he was grateful to attackers who targeted women with paintball pellets in June for not wearing headscarves.

Clements said that while Moscow has tolerated Kadyrov's enforced view of Islam in return for dampening militant activity, the balance could tip if he oversteps his authority.

The Kremlin is battling a spreading Islamist insurgency across the North Caucasus, where rebels angered by poverty and fired by the ideology of global jihad are fighting for a pan-Caucasus independent state governed by sharia law.

The region's proximity to Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, is particularly alarming as rebels hide in the very same mountain range where the snow-based sports will be held.

SHARIA SHOULD NOT BE ENFORCED

Kadyrov, a devout Sufi Muslim, has said publicly he believes sharia law trumps Russian, but has also repeatedly said he is committed to Russian rule in Chechnya. The ambiguity has led some to say the region is morphing towards autonomy.

Kadyrov's spokesman Alvi Karimov denied sharia law had been imposed in Chechnya.

"Come down and see for yourself how everything we have works perfectly," he said by telephone.

With the exception of neighbouring Ingushetia's ruling in July to triple the pricetag on a bride, imposed sharia law has been limited to Chechnya so far in the North Caucasus.

The region's spiritual leaders have also said they are aiming to install the basis for sharia.

Vakha Khashkanov, the head of Chechnya's Centre for Spiritual-Moral Education, which Kadyrov set up, has told Reuters that anything allowed by sharia and the Koran, Islam's holiest book, should take priority over Russia's constitution.

Kadyrov has amassed a personal militia of at least 5,000 who at times act like religious police some Muslim countries have.

Rights groups say the police enforce Kadyrov's view of Islam in Chechnya, where alcohol sales are highly restricted, women must wear headscarves in public buildings and polygamy is encouraged by authorities.

Kadyrov has said they are simply maintaining order.

While 90 percent of Chechnya's 1.1 million people are Muslim, with most ordinary citizens identifying themselves as believers, the fact sharia is being forcefully applied could stir tension within the population.

Minkail Ezhiev, rights activist and founder of the Chechen Civil Society Forum, said such unease could pull society apart.

"Morality and ethics should be nurtured from within a family, not imposed on the street," he told Reuters in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Several years ago Kadyrov embarked on a Sufi revival, the mystical branch of Islam that emphasises a personal union with God. Chechens have strongly identified themselves with Sufism since they adopted Islam 200 years ago. Soviet authorities had forced it underground, as they had with almost all religion.

Kadyrov built Europe's largest mosque, which glistens in central Grozny atop the grounds where the Communist party had its headquarters before the Soviet Union fell in 1991.

Some say Kadyrov must now please Chechnya's Sufi spiritual authorities in order to maintain his grip on power.

"The Sufi orders are mixed with tribal structures inside Chechnya that have been there for a long time. Kadyrov must rely on them and that is why he is producing so many religious (rules)," said Murad Batal al-Shishani, an independent analyst focusing on Islam and terrorism in London.

China to hold war games in Yellow Sea

 Press TV

China has said that its navy is preparing to hold a military exercise in the Yellow Sea next week, condemning recent and planned US-South Korean joint drills.

A naval fleet will stage the drill this week from Wednesday to Saturday in the sea between China and the Korean peninsula, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the Chinese military as saying on Sunday.

"This is an annual routine training exercise, mainly involving the firing of shipboard artillery," it added.

The announcement comes shortly after South Korea and the US wrapped up a joint military exercise in the same area.

Earlier, China said the recent US-South Korea joint naval drills in the Yellow Sea risked heightening tensions on the Korean peninsula and ignored China's objections to any foreign military exercises off its coast, AP reported.

Nevertheless, the United States plans to go ahead with an anti-marine warfare exercise with South Korea in the Yellow Sea in early September.

In July, the US and South Korea conducted massive joint sea and air drills in the Sea of Japan off the Korean peninsula, prompting condemnation from China.

The July drill was initially scheduled to take place in the Yellow Sea, but was moved to the other side of the Korean peninsula after objections from Beijing.

Eight days after the exercises, Seoul launched its largest-ever anti-submarine drills near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.

Pakistan says will abide by US sanctions on Iran

DAWN 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will abide by any US sanctions on Iran, which Washington has warned could hit Pakistani companies involved in a $7.6 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline deal, the prime minister said on Monday.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's remarks came the day after US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke warned Islamabad against becoming too committed to the project because of the expected sanctions' effects.

"If the US imposes sanctions, they will have international implications and Pakistan as a member of the international community will follow them," he told reporters at a press conference in the southern Sindh province.

The US Congress is finalising legislation tightening sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, which Washington believes is being used to develop weapons. Tehran denies that.

Holbrooke urged Pakistan to wait and see the final legislation before moving ahead on the deal, signed in March.

Pakistan is desperate for new energy sources, saddled with expensive power generation and a daily shortage of as much as 5,000 megawatts. Frequent power outages hamper industry and have sparked street protests against President Asif Ali Zardari's government.

Washington has not criticised the gas pipeline project too loudly, forced to balance its need to back Pakistan, a crucial ally in the global war against al Qaeda, against its goal of isolating Iran.

The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran on June 9 over its nuclear programme, which Washington believes is being used to develop weapons. Iran denies trying to develop a nuclear arsenal.

The pipeline, expected to be completed by 2015, originally would have terminated in India. However, New Delhi has been reluctant to join given its long-running rivalry with Pakistan.-Reuters