BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach. In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives. ‘I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,’ said Sara, a high school student in Basra. ‘Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.’ Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: ‘The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.’ The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology. While […]
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Even as the United States State Department points to Jamaica being a hub for marijuana production and export in the Caribbean, the island’s government has revealed it’s exploring the possibility of making the drug legal. ‘We have discussed it, and we are preparing a report to present to the prime minister,’ said Deputy Prime Minister Kenneth Baugh who said a seven-member government commission has been researching possible changes to the anti-drug laws. The Rastafarian community in the island has for along time lobbied for the drug to be legalised, insisting that using it is part of their religion. Their calls received some support when a 2003 government commission recommended legalizing ganja in small amounts for personal use. Such a move could cause Jamaica to lose its United States anti-drug certification, and as a result, face economic sanctions. Just last Friday, in its 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the U.S State Department pointed to Jamaica as the Caribbean’s largest producer and exporter of marijuana and marijuana derivative products. The country was also identified as a major transit point for the illegal drugs ‘due to its difficult to patrol coastline, over 100 unmonitored airstrips, […]
Nicolas Sarkozy is backing Tony Blair’s campaign to become the first President of Europe in return for the way Peter Mandelson secretly helped him win the French Presidency, it was claimed last night. The suggestion of a secret EU Presidency deal between the three men will enrage Gordon Brown, who has always blamed Mr Mandelson for the way Mr Blair pipped him to the post of Labour leader in 1994. A senior member of Mr Sarkozy’s inner circle claims the French President regards his support for Mr Blair’s bid to become Europe’s first fully fledged political leader as a ‘quid pro quo’ for EU Commissioner Mr Mandelson’s help in winning last year’s election. Eyes on the prize: Tony Blair is being backed for the EU Presidency by Sarkozy, it is claimed ‘Discussions were arranged between Mandelson and Sarkozy after Sarkozy asked to be put in touch with him,’ said Mr Sarkozy’s confidant. ‘Sarkozy wanted to copy what Blair had done in Britain and believed that taking advice from Peter was the best way to do it. ‘In return, Sarkozy wants to help Blair become EU President. From Sarkozy’s point of view it is part […]
WASHINGTON — Ever since the militant Islamist organization Hamas took over Gaza eight months ago, President Bush’s peace plan for the Middle East has been to prop up the more moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the hopes that Palestinians would rally behind him as man who could bring them statehood and make Hamas irrelevant. But Israel’s military and economic pressure on Gaza, the menacing rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and the ensuing chaos that reached new heights this weekend have highlighted a fundamental tangle in that plan: As long as Hamas controls Gaza, it can subvert negotiations between Israelis and moderate Palestinians whenever it sees fit. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads to the region on Monday, a trip planned for weeks, she is confronting very few options in achieving President Bush’s stated goal of peace between Israel and a new Palestinian state that includes both the West Bank, where Mr. Abbas’s government sits, and Gaza. ‘She’s walking into a buzz saw,’ said Aaron David Miller, author of ‘The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.’ ‘You cannot make peace with half of the Palestinian polity and go to war with […]
CARACAS, Venezuela — Warning that Colombia could spark a war, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent tanks and thousands of troops to the countries’ border Sunday and ordered his government’s embassy in Bogota closed. The leftist leader warned Colombia’s U.S.-allied government that Venezuela will not permit acts like Saturday’s killing of top rebel leader Raul Reyes and 16 other Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas at a camp across the border in Ecuador. ‘Mr. Defense Minister, move 10 battalions to the border with Colombia for me, immediately-tank battalions, deploy the air force,’ Chavez said during his weekly TV and radio program. ‘We don’t want war, but we aren’t going to permit the U.S. empire, which is the master (of Colombia) … to come to divide us.’ He ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Bogota closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn. It pushes already tense relations between the South American neighbors to their lowest point yet, with potentially far-reach effects on billions of dollars in cross-border trade. Though Chavez didn’t say how many troops he was sending, a Venezuelan battalion traditionally has some 600 soldiers-meaning some 6,000 could be headed to the border. Chavez called […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
