But it will be the nation’s Muslims who have most to celebrate. For over a decade, it is they who have borne the brunt of the presenter’s rabid rants … “Muslims everywhere behave with equal savagery. They behead criminals, stone to death female — only female — adulteresses, throw acid in the faces of women who refuse to wear the chador, mutilate the genitals of young girls and ritually abuse animals,” he wrote for the Daily Express in 1995…

While racism has fast become a red line in our society, religious prejudice is still acceptable, dare I say, fashionable in the more well-heeled social circles. The Express can get away with denigrating Muslims, but it cannot easily shake off allegations of racism. A raft of race legislation over the past three decades has set the tone of social discourse and steered society away from xenophobia. But it has manifestly failed to get to grips with Islamophobia, of which Kilroy’s anti-Arabism is an obvious variant…

Suffice it to say that neither Kilroy-Silk nor anybody else would have been allowed to say the same thing in our national newspapers about black people or Jews…

The other reaction, epitomised by Will Hutton in yesterday’s Observer, has been that Islam must assume a post-Enlightenment view of the world, failing which it must be dragged there kicking and screaming. This is the more troubling attitude, because it negates the prospect of genuine coexistence and presupposes a horrible clash of civilisations.

This is not to brush over the differences between western and Islamic value systems and their epistemological foundations. They are real. But in western liberal societies the choice is between a peaceful engagement and survival of the fittest or a likely violent conflict brought about by the imposition of secular liberalism over Islam.

The ball has been thrown into the court of the state to choose which route it wants to take.

Egypt, Hani Shukrallah in Al-Ahram

If the centuries since the Enlightenment show anything it is that people are as committed to their right to espouse ignorance, narrow-mindedness and crass stupidity as to their right to reason, knowledge and emancipation — personal and social. The French government’s “secularist” drive against “conspicuous religious symbols” in public schools and the civil service is foolish and smacks more of racism than of reason. Let us not fool ourselves. This is not about big crosses and small kippahs. France’s, and for that matter, Europe’s real problem is with the burgeoning Muslim minority in their midst — 6 million strong in France alone. The real issue at the heart of the racket is the hijab [Muslim woman's headscarf].

It would be facile, however, to fall back on the now entrenched Arab/Muslim response to denounce Islamophobia. Given that the right to stupidity and ignorance extends as much to Muslims as to any other group, religious or otherwise, I might as well point out that there is something wholly absurd about shrill Arab and Muslim cries in defence of basic civil and personal rights … Arabs and Muslims vehemently claim in Europe the very civil and democratic rights they firmly believe should be trampled at home…

The only coherent opinion made in the midst of all the hubbub has been that of the much maligned Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi. A realist par excellence, he at least presented us with a consistently authoritarian argument. In effect the sheikh’s argument was that since we can — and, indeed, should — trample civil and personal rights in Muslim countries (the hijab, he insisted, was obligatory under Islam), Christians, secularists or whoever should be able to do the same in their own countries, at least until we conquer them, God willing.

There is a much more significant aspect to the debate, however. Adonis, among the most celebrated of Arab poets alive today, wrote recently asking: “…why do fundamentalist Muslims who have emigrated to the West see in the openness of their new home nothing more than an opportunity to proclaim their narrow-mindedness and isolation? Why do they choose to ‘emigrate’ once more from their point of their arrival?”

Pertinent questions…

Yet the fact remains that while narrow-mindedness, ignorance and stupidity can be critiqued, they cannot be banned.

Canada, John Robson in the Montreal Gazette

Those whose admiration for France is driven primarily by its opposition to American foreign policy need to remember how much ideas matter … it must be a particular disappointment that after all their hectoring of Americans for provocative insensitivity to Islam, the French hijab ban (unthinkable in the U.S.) led Canadian Islamic Congress national president Mohamed Elmasry to write that “France recently topped the list of Western human-rights violators.”

Why did France do it? Because French opposition to the “Anglo-Saxon model” does not simply consist of gratuitous if futile shots at George W. Bush. It runs much deeper. It offers a half-open society, with free political discussion about what people shall be required to do, not what they shall be allowed to do…

It’s France that, at the end of 2002, established an official Muslim council. The interior minister called it “a chance to create an official Islam of France and a way to fight the Islam of cellars and garages.”

It’s no anomaly; similar bodies already existed for Catholics, Protestants and Jews. But France’s record of social harmony is not impressive and my guess is French state-sanctioned Islam will not impress Muslims much, in France or elsewhere.

In truly open societies, by contrast, you are allowed great latitude, including in choice of headgear. But, crucially, an open society is open at both ends…

An open society shouldn’t ban hate speech. It’s far better that evil be defeated in open debate…

If you’re looking for an alternative democratic model, consider France. Its government even officially certifies Muslim moderates. Unfortunately the same approach leads, logically, to a ban on hijabs in schools.

Korea, Jeremy Seabrook in the Korea Herald

Globalization does not obligingly halt at some ill-defined frontier between economics, society and culture…

It is disingenuous to assume that economy, society and culture operate in separate spheres. Indeed, the way in which geographical entities are now designated shows the increasing porosity of these notions. An advanced economy, an industrialized nation, a mature economy are set against a developing country, an emerging market, a liberalizing society. The terms are almost interchangeable.

This suggests that, once exposed to the globalizing imperative, no aspect of social life, customary practice, traditional behavior will remain the same…

Some people believe it is possible to get the best of both worlds — they accept the economic advantages of globalization and seek to maintain something of great value, language, tradition and custom.

This is the relatively benign response. The other has become only too familiar: the violent reaction, the hatred of both economic and cultural globalization which many not merely perceive, but feel in the very core of their being, as an inseparable violation of identity.

The resentment of many Muslims (not only extremists) toward the U.S. and Israel, the defensive posturing of Hindu fundamentalism, opposed both to Islam and Christianity, are the most vivid dramatizations of this…

The stigmatizing of the bearers of resistance as extremists or those who hate freedom is too simple a formulation for these complex and painful processes. To be unable to acknowledge the profound and complex social and religious disruptions that come as inseparable spectral companions of economic globalization has been the most grievous failure of the rich and powerful.

South Africa, Buddy Naidu in the Sunday Times

Two South African Muslims have been deported from the U.S. as a result of the country’s controversial new security checks…

Durban businessman Moosa Suleman and prominent cleric Moulana Ahmed Suleman Khatani visited the U.S. to attend an Islamic convention hosted by the Atlanta Islamic Institute…

After a 17-hour flight from Johannesburg, Suleman and Khatani were detained by immigration officials, fingerprinted and photographed.

Suleman, 66, said he was sent back home after enduring “five hours of hell, uncertainty and embarrassment”. Khatani, 33, was detained and spent over 24 hours in a U.S. police cell with four criminals before being deported.

Suleman said he and Khatani were taken to a customs office at the airport and forced to hand over their passports, wallets and documentation.

He said armed guards escorted them to the toilets during their detention. “They raised their voices when they talked to us and failed to inform us as to what was going on. ”

Suleman said they were asked questions about the reason for their trip, adding that he was also questioned about trips he had made to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia. “They informed me that I should return to South Africa and apply for a new visa.”

Suleman said he refused to leave without Khatani but was threatened by officials that he could “be detained and they could send me back whenever they wanted to”.

Suleman, who had spent R12 000 on his air ticket, said U.S. authorities discriminated against Muslims. “My documentation was all in order. It was quite clear that I was discriminated against because of my beard and appearance.”

Lebanon, Abdulwahab Badrakhan in Al-Hayat

Tom Ridge has insisted on taking every possible measure to humiliate all visitors to the U.S.

He has the right to do so, but it seems there are no limits to his assistants’ imagination. Worse still, it seems that every time the measures are tightened, doubts are raised, for nothing is enough … to say that the security system in the U.S. is secure … If it is difficult to feel secure in the U.S., then the world is subjected to American worries and anxiety…

Shortly before the New Year’s Eve, a tense atmosphere was manufactured. It was said that a terrorist attack was about to happen, as if it escaped from the security forces’ hands and only God could undermine it. People in New York, Chicago, London and Paris thought that the streets were under the mercy of terrorists. But when newswire services polled the American people’s mood, they concluded that although they heard the warnings, they did not change their programs. The fact is, people are well aware now that security forces exaggerated the situation.

It is obvious now that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sees the necessity of trying out its warning siren from time to time … However, exaggerating these warning sirens, without informing people first, will drive them to believe nothing at the end. This is the real danger.

Singapore, Tay Yek Keak in the Straits Times

It seems that from now on, there will be a guy with a gun in an airplane.

You don’t know who this guy is.

He could be sitting next to you, across the aisle, maybe even hogging the loo, because his identity will remain a top secret.

This fella is the Air Marshal.

This sad state of affairs has come about because the world is now filled with gunslingers.

I don’t know about you but I’m walking. I don’t care how far it is.

Actually, to make the world a happier place, I suggest different kinds of people for a plane.

I read that recently an elderly British woman had a lucky break when she suffered a serious ailment while flying with about 15 doctors on their way to a conference in the U.S. They saved her.

So the Air Doctor is someone I’d like to sit next to. I also want an Air Rabbi, Air Mullah, Air Swami, Air Lama, Air Priest, etc., so that religious harmony will gang up to counter any terrorist threat on board.

And then an Air Joker to keep me entertained will be a pleasant way to round up the flight.

I think Jim Carrey will do nicely.

Got a tip? Apparently. Got a specific steer or an arrest warrant? Apparently not. There are intercepts that spread alarm, but orange is still the colour of very general intelligence — following the lead set by CIA director George Tenet, who explicitly believes that if you think something may be up, but don’t know what it is, then you press every alert button in sight so that al-Qaida thinks you know more than you do and backs away. The result — happy Christmas, happy New Year! — is a constant warning bell ringing, a continuous cringe of public apprehension turned to weariness by repetition. But is it any longer good politics?…

Time for a grown-up debate. Britain has had a bit of one already and will have a bit more shortly, post-Hutton, as the WMD testimony of our joint intelligence chiefs comes under renewed scrutiny. Did they all vamp it up to suit their bureaucratic, back-covering selves? But the basic argument has barely begun in America. So Saddam was a fount of terrorist threats, so he’s locked away: hurray!

Hang on a moment, though. Why — quite apart from Baghdad mayhem — is Dulles closed on a whim and an executive order? Why do orange lights keep flashing? Why is that sky marshal toting his gun? Why was there such a scant sense of homeland security in the holiday headlines? Where has all the money gone?…

If you’re running a department of homeland security and you always need more funds (because, brother, it’s a big, big department), then you have a problem. Success is preventing any more attacks — success also means nothing happening, which means you’ve got a lower profile that makes more budget-busting increases difficult to come by.

Thus there’s every reason to go about your business with manifest display … The more flights cancelled, the more you’re obviously doing your job. And your commander-in-chief, descending on Buckingham Palace with a security army the size of the Household Cavalry, is unlikely to disagree in election year: he, after all, created your department in the first place.

United Kingdom, Talking Point in BBC News

International travellers arriving in the U.S. will have their photographs taken and fingerprints checked under new security regulations. The following are BBC reader reactions.

The Bush administration has most of the population of the U.S. so terrified that it seems like they can do almost anything in the name of security. As soon as U.S. citizens start to question their government’s erosion of their civil liberties, the government turns on the terror alert. I am a frequent visitor to the States as my family has a holiday home there, and also pass through in-transit as I frequently use U.S. carriers. Even though it may be more expensive, I will make alternative travel arrangements as it’s just too inconvenient now — even with a British passport.
– Jamie McLachlan, London

The procedures being implemented by the U.S. are hardly excessive … Where the U.S. can make improvements is in how these procedures are carried out. An aggressive attitude on the part of U.S. customs officers is neither necessary or constructive … It’s not what U.S. officials do, as much as how they do it, that annoys visitors.
– DF, Ottawa

I am an Indian student in U.S. and FIRMLY support this program. I don’t want the American public to blame all foreign students for the actions of a few Muslim terrorists.
– Malolan Cadambi, USA/India

This doesn’t really have much to do with terrorism and has more to do with controlling illegal immigration. However, it’s being sold as anti-terrorist (like most everything in Washington these days).
– Joe Belmondo, Amsterdam

As a dual national (Canadian/U.S.), I have no problem whatsoever with the U.S. enforcing stronger controls to protect their citizens. If longer lines and harsher lines of questioning are going to protect myself and my family, I will gladly endure this.
– Catherine, Toronto

I have just returned from 2 weeks’ vacation in the U.S. and despite all the horror stories, had absolutely no problems, passing through immigration at JFK in less than 10 minutes. My American girlfriend (U.S. citizen) with whom I travelled, actually had to stand in a longer line than I did. Entering Britain through Stansted in October took far longer.
– Steve, Brussels

No one has yet brought up the issues that bother me the most about these new ‘security’ procedures. What is my government planning to do with the information they collect on visitors to this country? Where will it be stored? How long will it be kept? Who will have access to it?
– Lori, Atlanta, Ga.

Nigeria, Editorial in the Vanguard

From January 5, 2004, travelers from all countries which need a visa to enter the United States will be finger-printed before being allowed in. The U.S. typically administers this kind of treatment to its own citizens only if they are accused of serious crimes.

Only 27 countries, mostly Western nations populated by the white races and Japanese, are excluded. The rest of the world … will be subjected to what a Brazilian judge has described as “absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis.” That was before announcing that U.S. citizens entering Brazil will also have to be finger-printed in what will go down in history as the most courageous defense of the rights of the people of the world to equal treatment under any nation’s laws.

It is ironic, but perhaps understandable, that the U.S., under President Bush, is gradually being transformed into a totalitarian society where the rights of citizens are steadily eroded on the grounds of the war on terrorism. Americans have accepted this assault on their freedoms despite the warnings of two of their founding fathers, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton … A Southern American president still harboring the taints of racial prejudice has not only erased some of the rights of his own people, but now wants to extend the creeping tyranny abroad.

United Arab Emirates, Editorial in the Gulf News

It would seem it will become an accepted fact in future, that air travel will take far longer than it used to. Or, to be more precise, the time spent in the air will be the same, but the time taken between arriving at the airport and take-off will be extended to several hours. It is ironic that in time it may prove to be quicker to travel by road or rail for short journeys, than it will be to travel by air. For, if security is to increase on all flights — as it surely must — then even the short-haul flights should undergo rigid security clearance for passengers and cargo alike.

There should be no exemption, no matter what type of aircraft, no matter what or who it is carrying, regardless of size; all aircraft, cargo and personnel must undergo rigorous examination before the airplane takes off. To do otherwise makes a mockery of the extensive examinations and security checks passengers are subject to at present, at many international airports.

It may seem a sad reflection on our times that precautions should be necessary, but then there is nothing quite like flying with an airline where you know that every security precaution has been taken prior to the aircraft taking off.

India, Karan Thapar in the Hindustan Times

If Churchill had captured Hitler or, earlier, when Kerensky took the Tsar captive, the one thing they would have consciously struggled to avoid is making a martyr or hero of their prisoner … But don’t you get the feeling the Americans were blissfully unaware of any such possibility when fate or fortune placed Saddam in their possession?

Almost from the moment it happened - or, at any rate, from the first visual proof of it — the vile and nasty dictator seems to have metamorphosed into a helpless and pitiable old man. Instead of reviling him and reinforcing our dislike, how we saw him evoked sympathy, a sense of pain and even resentment of the Americans.

“I feel sorry for Saddam and cannot forgive America for what they’re doing to him” said my colleague Ashok. Normally he’s a hardheaded current affairs producer. But eight months earlier, when Saddam’s statue was toppled, Ashok was barely able to contain his excitement. That night he must have phoned a hundred friends to “switch on the BBC”. By the 14th of December his emotions had come full circle…

I accept that America had to prove the capture and display its prisoner.

But why did they not simply show Saddam sitting in a chair? Why was his physical examination broadcast? Did his captors realise what impact it would have? Oddly enough, I think not.

But that’s not all. When the full story began to emerge we were given details that only enhanced Saddam and showed up his captors. We were told he crawled out of his lair and introduced himself with the words: “I’m Saddam Hussain, President of Iraq.” And then he added: “I’m willing to negotiate.”

Perhaps the Americans thought this would provoke laughter and ridicule. But it had the opposite effect. It reminded me of the defeated Porus. When asked by Alexander, after his surprise surrender on the banks of the Akesines, how he wanted to be treated he replied: “The same way as a king treats another king.” It had the touch of the heroic to it. Defeat, it seemed to say, is of the flesh. The sprit is unvanquished…

The truth is that so confident, in fact so cocksure, were the Americans they overlooked the fact that human emotions are changeable. They forgot that the underdog evokes consideration. They did not remember that generosity and magnanimity sit well with power.

Egypt, Osama El-Ghazali Harb in al-Ahram

Some Arabs saw Saddam’s capture as an intentional insult to all Arabs and Muslims … The real insult, beneath which we should all smart, unfolded well before Saddam’s capture…

What is humiliating is not Saddam’s capture in 2003, but his remaining in power from 1979 to 2003. What is humiliating is that Arabs — including intellectuals and writers, the supposed conscience of the nation — accepted and applauded him. What is humiliating is that the Americans and British ended Saddam’s regime and captured him while promoting their own interests and objectives. This was something that we, Arabs and Iraqis, should have done had we wanted to defend our dignity and interests.

Some Arabs view what happened as a conspiracy against Saddam and Iraq, with Muslims and Arabs being the ultimate target…

Such views are at best insulting to Arab and Muslim communities and leaders. The latter come across as half-witted and gullible, easily led astray by anyone with bad intentions. What conspiracy theories do is shift blame to outside forces…

Conspiracy theories flourish alongside despotism, as reality blends with rumour and fact with myth. Citizens become accustomed to vagueness and the distortion of facts. Confidence is eroded and logical explanations discarded. But we cannot forever blame others for our problems, backwardness, faltering economies and lack of scientific or cultural achievement…

Saddam’s capture was a farce, but not the mother of all farces. That will happen if we — Arabs and Muslims — forget the lessons, dwell on insults, embrace conspiracy theories, obsess over Iraqi resistance and U.S. interference, fail to learn the consequences of despotism, and continue to ignore the damage done by the absence of freedoms and democracy.

Abdul is unflagging in his rounds because he has an almost missionary zeal: to find recruits for jihad … waged by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Himself blinded in one eye from action in Afghanistan, Abdul tells prospective recruits: “You might fight at the front line, or you might stand guard at night. You can cook for other Islamic warriors, or you can be a male nurse … everything is welcome because the jihad has started.” …

In recent months the Taliban have become more brazen and open in their operations, and they are known to be within relatively easy contact by wireless sets or by satellite phones. “The Taliban also have radios and regularly listens to the BBC’s Pashtu service to keep themselves abreast of the situation in the Muslim world, especially in Iraq.”

Abdul says that he had been itching to join the Afghan jihad ever since the Taliban were driven from power in December 2001. But his Taliban superiors only told him in July that the jihad had resumed …

Abdul says that he spent 40 days with his jihadis in Afghanistan, during which they had at least one major combat with an Afghan army patrol in the mountains of Zabul province. He then returned to Pakistan in mid-October “to regain some energy”. “It is not easy to live in the mountains. You are at the verge of death every now and then. You survive only on plain bread, or at the most, yogurt milk,” he says. “At the same time, you walk for miles every day on foot, it’s very tiring.”

Not that Abdul can put his feet up now. He has been tasked to round up more youths, for the battle continues until “we completely flush out the Americans and their proteges from Afghanistan. The Americans have robbed us of our right to live and now we are using our right to die.”

United Kingdom, Phil Reeves and Rupert Cornwell in the Independent

The latest military deaths bring the number of troops to die in November in Iraq to 105 — 79 American soldiers and 26 allied troops … That figure includes 19 Italians blown up in Nasiriyah by a suicide truck bomber, and 17 American soldiers who died when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed in an incident that the U.S. military now say might have started with a missile strike. That is the largest monthly casualty total since the war began on March 20 — a grim statistic that gives the lie to claims by the U.S. military that the guerrilla war is under control …

[Casualties in the last 10 days of November:]

30 November: Two South Korean workers killed near Tikrit.

29 November: Seven Spanish intelligence officers killed and one wounded near Hillah; two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver killed near Tikrit; two American soldiers killed near the Syrian border; one Colombian contractor killed and two wounded near Balad.

28 November: U.S. soldier killed when rebels shelled a military base in Mosul; a second US soldier died from gunshot wounds.

27 November: A U.S. soldier found dead in his barracks in Ramadi from a gunshot wound.

26 November: A U.S. soldier found dead in Mosul.

23 November: Five U.S. soldiers killed in three separate incidents. One died when his patrol vehicle rolled into a canal. Another from the 4th Infantry Division killed by an explosive device in Baqubah. Three killed in West Mosul.

22 November: Two U.S. soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division killed in a traffic accident near Baghdad airport.

21 November: Two U.S. soldiers killed. One from the 4th Infantry Division drowned when his vehicle rolled into a canal in Tikrit; another from the division is killed by an explosive device near Ghalibiyah.

20 November: Soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division killed in a bomb attack near Ramadi.

Canada, Alexandre Trudeau in Maclean’s

On a dreary day, I arrive in Fallujah in search of the Americans. It is a scary place. Unlike other big towns in central Iraq, Americans are nowhere to be seen: no checkpoints, no compounds, no patrols. Local police are bunkered down behind sandbags, cement walls and barbed wire …

The American base is several kilometres outside of the city, the barracks over 1,000 m inside the outer walls. At the gate, I wait for the appropriate official to take me in. It is cold. The boys at the gate are almost delirious. “Great place, isn’t it?” they say, and laugh. “At least you’re not in Fallujah being shot at,” I tell them. One of them replies, “I’d rather be shot dead than stuck here.”

Once I get inside, a friendly major tells me: “In Fallujah, we have decided to let the Iraqi authorities look after the town themselves.” …

The next big base up the Euphrates is in Ramadi, a town that is only slightly less tense than Fallujah.

Once again I am greeted cordially by the American soldiers. I eat pork chops for lunch in a huge mess hall. All eyes are focused on the big-screen television as the latest Michael Jackson drama unfolds. “Great! Now all of America is going to be stuck speculating about Michael Jackson’s freaky sex life for the next six months,” a soldier jokes. “It’s better than hearing about us in this damn place,” another replies …

To see any real action, I fly farther up the river by helicopter. A tall young officer in surfer shades is along for the ride. “What do Canadians think of all this?” he asks as we are waiting to lift off. “I think most of us support the UN as the best chance we have for a more peaceful world and are a little suspicious of the American presence here,” I respond … He considers this and says, “A good part of my own family is Canadian from New Brunswick. I always have a lot of explaining to do when I see them.” Before flying into the desert, we momentarily hover over the camp, taking in its full expanse: dozens of helicopters (menacing Apaches, Blackhawks and Chinooks), hundreds of Humvees, and thousands of men to run them all. The officer continues: “You know that I was the one to schedule the Chinook flight out of here — the one that got shot down over Fallujah. Sixteen men died. They were on their way to Baghdad, going on leave. They were on their way out of here. I tell you we’re the first ones to want peace so that we can get the hell out.” He pauses. “I don’t have all the answers. But answers or not, I have a job to do.”

Nigeria, Pini Jason in theVanguard

As you read this, it is likely that an American or a Briton is being blown up in Iraq thanks to the swashbuckling, arrogant, pig-headed and war-mongering George Bush and his sidekick, Tony Blair. The world is in turmoil today because of Bush’s belief that America’s status as the sole global power means he can be the global dictator who goes about knocking a recalcitrant world into shape …

There is no doubt that the entire world was outraged by the 9/11 terrorist bombings. The world is still outraged by the callousness of terrorists. Personally, I dread to enter a plane that could be used as a weapon of mass destruction, though I find the searches in American airports dehumanising. But part of the solution must be for America to ask itself, why are we so hated in some parts of the world? …

George Bush and Tony Blair cannot set out on a vainglorious mission to subdue the world. They cannot defy the opinions of those who elected them into office in a wrong-headed attempt to wage a counter-productive war on global terrorism … Global peace must be comprehensive. It must include peace in the Middle East, eradication of poverty and disease in Africa and globalisation of prosperity. America can achieve all these at half the cost of the current Bush war. It needs to engage the different cultures of the world in mutual respect and understanding. America needs a president who knows and understands the world.

United Arab Emirates, Abdul Hamid Ahmad in the Gulf News

The head of state of the strongest nation on earth will normally not make a sneaky and panicky visit to a country which is wholly occupied by his troops, unless he is terrified and unsure of his own safety. That was what U.S. President George W. Bush did when he sneaked into Baghdad to try and lift the morale of his soldiers there by sharing their celebrations on Thanksgiving Day as claimed by the U.S. administration …

Bush is the second American president after the late Dwight Eisenhower to go to a country occupied by the U.S. forces. But there is a big difference between the two visits.

Bush made the trip under the cover of night and it was shrouded with secrecy and lying. Eisenhower visited his forces in Europe after World War II during daylight and it reflected victory and self-confidence.

Bush’s panicky trip … demonstrated only fear and, perhaps, defeat, despite his hollow assurances of victory to his soldiers … although of course U.S. propaganda will propagate different results …

The U.S. administration could have announced Bush’s visit in advance and at the same time taken precautionary security measures. I can’t see any contradiction in such a procedure given the United States’ enormous military and intelligence might. With such a well prepared visit, Bush could have sent a strong message of self confidence and triumph to his demoralized forces in Iraq.

The sneaky trip under the cover of night produced just the opposite … how can Bush’s troops now trust their ability to stay in Iraq if their own president comes to them panicking under the cover of night?

Bush’s lightning trip to Baghdad has actually hijacked his troops’ self-confidence and could also have the same impact on the American people. These people are led by a government of lies and today it acquires two new characteristics — fear and panic.

Lebanon, Abdulwahab Badrakhan in Al-Hayat

Had “governor” Paul Bremer and General Sanchez not appeared, it would have been possible to doubt that George Bush was actually in Baghdad. The TV recordings did not show any Iraqi personalities, despite the fact that some had attended the occasion.

Total secrecy. Landing in the dark … Even the speech that Bush delivered, certify that American “victory” is pale … What is important to Bush is that this image, for which he undertook the agony of the trip, is going to be beneficial in the elections campaign.

The visit was a political and media necessity. That is why Bush went along with it, knowing that the risks had risen … President Bush went to Baghdad at a time when his assistants are trying to find exits out of it …

Seekers of solutions for the current troubles are always hit with the reality that the facts in Iraq are beyond them. Even when they find solutions, they are hit with the fact that the American style in implementation shuns reality. There is much obsolete ideology in this administration’s performance, which hinders all known American pragmatism. When pragmatism is employed to serve ideology, frivolity and sabotage become easy.

Perhaps the biggest failure of the Iraqi transitional ruling council is the fact that it has not become a fusion of the people’s elements. It has proven to be a meeting place to confirm and deepen differences to an extent that the Americans would seem not liable should they deal with it. This council should have been a haven for political unity that could be counted on to reestablish the unified state … Alas, Iraq today looks like an uncontrolled country, where no one in it wants to bear the responsibility of it remaining for its own people.

Qatar, article in Al-Jazeera

As the anguished residents of Samarra hugged each other in the streets following a massive U.S. bombardment that devastated their town, foreign visitors also prepared to bury their dead.

Two Iranian civilians making a visit to the city’s al-Askariya shrine, one of the holiest for Shia Muslims, were killed in the carnage that followed an attack on U.S. forces, and nine others riding the same bus were hurt.

The question of why tourists were venturing into what is effectively still a war zone can only be answered by understanding the depth of their faith.

The modern town of Samarra … is the site of two shrines sacred to the Shias, which make it a focal point for devotional journeys to Iraq from neighbouring Iran …

Shias believe that the Messenger Muhammad left 12 rightful successors from his family line to follow in his role as political and spiritual leader of the Muslims.

Beneath the golden dome of one Samarra shrine are several graves of Prophet Muhammad’s descendants, including those of Imam Ali bin Muhammad al-Hadi (the 10th imam) and his son, Imam al-Hasan al-Askari (the 11th).

When the latter died at the end of AD 873, at the age of 28, he left a five-year-old son called Muhammad as his designated successor.

To shield the young boy from his enemies, it is said he was hidden in the ice cellar beneath his father’s house. By the start of the 13th century, the cave below the shrine in Samarra had become a place of great sanctity.

The “Hidden Imam” became known as the Imam al-Mahdi. He is believed by devout Shias to be the last of the original imams who will come again at the end of the world.

The second shrine has a dome marked by its delicate use of blue tiles, and beneath it is the cellar where the Imam is said to have disappeared.

The Shias believe that he never died, but rather left this material plane of being, and went on to a metaphysical level from where he will return to the world near the end of time, in order to inaugurate a new era for humankind.

Therefore, the designated site is of great significance to Shia Muslims, who will risk all to visit it even in a time of turmoil. Because of their devotion and due to bad timing, two Iranian devotees will not be returning home alive.

Japan, interview in Asahi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday reiterated to reporters at his residence in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward his resolve not to bend to terrorism and to ensure the safety of Japanese sent to Iraq.

Question: What is your reaction to the killing of two Japanese diplomats?

Answer: It is extremely regrettable. Oku and Ito were both very capable and promising people who played indispensable and central roles in the reconstruction of Iraq. I am sorry. Why they had to do this — I cannot but feel angry.

Q: What instructions have you issued?

A: The first thing is to confirm the facts as soon as possible. And to send condolences to the families and to do all that the government can do for the families in the future.

As a member of the international community, we cannot give way to terrorism. I have given clear instructions that there is no change in Japan’s commitment to provide humanitarian aid to Iraq and its reconstruction …

The Japanese government has said that members of the SDF, civilians and government employees will do what they should do for reconstruction work and humanitarian aid, and there is no change to that stand. We will thoroughly confirm safety situations and reconfirm safety measures.

Q: Has safety been secured?

A: There are places where we can do that and where we cannot …

Q: What about cooperation with the U.S. military?

A: We will cooperate. We will closely cooperate with military units of various nations.

Q: When will you decide (about sending the SDF)?

A: I have not changed my stand that I will (decide) after taking into full account the timing.

Wonder what infuriated her more — Bush’s boorishness or the abundance of black sheep in her family.

This time the Queen … had to receive him with the highest pageantry, even as her subjects were screaming “bloody murderer” next door.

So why did he inflict himself on an unwilling people? It is not like he is an easy guest to handle. When the US president travels, 700 others travel with him as does his limo, missile bearing planes, black hawks, guns, snipers, medical units and truck loads of communication equipment. A whole city really…

But Bush’s political managers don’t care a hoot. They were in it for the photo op. They wanted the ultimate backdrop as 2004 nears — Bush and the Queen riding into the sunset proving to the American voters the incumbent knows a few foreigners, has traveled a bit, and can hold his own on the world stage. In those impending campaign ads that will surely talk about Iraq, Bush will be seen standing next to Tony Blair and supping with the Queen. She is one international figure the American public can recognize and she has cachet here.

Karl Rove, Bush’s powerful political strategist, knew that no other visit could produce the definitive clip that this one could … Ken Livingstone, the left-leaning mayor of London, had it just right when he asked the Republican National Committee to pay for what was certainly the most extensive security curtain dropped on London for any visitor — since it is for Bush’s political benefit.

Russia, Matt Bivens in the Moscow Times

Ten years ago, George W. Bush was just the president’s smirky son, and his mother warned him sternly he was not to speak to the Queen of England when she visited. As a Washington Post article explained then, “The family never knows what he’ll say in polite society”…

Yet the Queen reportedly found Dubya charming on that occasion. Since then she has changed her mind. The Daily Telegraph reports the Queen was “apparently less than chuffed” to learn that President Bush, invited to stay with her, brought along five of his personal chefs.

Naturally.

I mean, when you wrangle an invite to stay with the Queen of England, the first thought that pops into your head is: “Hmmm … well of course the food will suck; after all it’s only Buckingham Palace.”

The British press has dubbed them the “five Yankee fajita fillers.” They were just a small part of the president’s 650-person taxpayer-funded entourage, which included hundreds of heavily armed security agents.

And about those security agents: Incredibly, the White House felt the need to ask for an advance promise that, should the president’s men decide to gun down a British citizen, they would enjoy immunity from British prosecution; such an unfortunate event would be a matter instead for the far-superior American justice system.

The Brits, and rightly so, refused.

Bush also met with families of seven of the 53 British servicemen killed in Iraq — an event Reuters billed beforehand as “one of the centerpieces of his state visit to wartime ally Britain.”

No doubt, politically, families of British KIAs were seen as safer to experiment with. After all, this is the president who has broken with historical tradition and declined to attend any of the funerals for the 400-plus Americans killed in Iraq.

United Kingdom, Andrew Rawnsley in the Guardian

Just because George W. Bush says something is so doesn’t make it axiomatically wrong. The man is right: “Freedom is a beautiful thing.” Like many things of beauty, freedom can also be very fragile. That most basic of freedoms — the freedom to go about your innocent business without being blown up — was cruelly denied to the Britons and Turks killed and maimed by the bombs that ripped through Istanbul.

If the intention was also to devastate George Bush’s state visit to Britain, it didn’t have quite that result … The atrocities suddenly and violently invested the Bush-Blair alliance with a renewed seriousness of resolve and purpose. Though the red carpet rolled out for President Bush had been strewn with potential banana-skins, the visit did not turn into the cringing embarrassment to Tony Blair that was widely predicted. The one setpiece speech delivered by the President at the Banqueting House was more subtle, fluent, multidimensional and pitched to appeal to non-Texan ears than had been generally anticipated. President Bush set out to challenge the perception of his White House as blindly unilateralist. “In this century, as the last, nations can accomplish more together than apart,” he said. Tony Blair could have written that. Perhaps he did…

Turkey is the one country in the region that has demonstrated that democracy and progress are fully compatible with being an Islamic nation. These are the reasons that Turkey was attacked. If the Bush visit to Britain made a difference, it was only to the timing…

As for those protesters who toppled that papier-maché Bush in Trafalgar Square, they were made to look naive. The bombers, if they could, would happily slaughter them too. It is a delusion to think that all that is needed to make the world safe is a change to the occupants of the White House and Number 10. Charles Kennedy could be Prime Minister and Michael Moore might be President of the United States. Al-Qaida would carry on killing. Because, to them, freedom is an ugly thing.

Canada, Alexandre Trudeau in Maclean’s

With much apprehension, I return to Baghdad eight months after my stay in the city during the March-April war on Iraq. These days, the reports coming out of the country are not cheerful … However, upon arrival in Baghdad, the mood is not as morbid as I had expected.

Even in this martial climate, it would seem that people are getting on with their lives. Those I care most about here, Anmar and Layla A-Saadi, are taking baby steps toward a better life … They are fixing up their modest home, something most Iraqis have long been unable to do. New paint and new appliances are not the only additions to their household: Anmar has built half a dozen birdcages and has filled them with colourful canaries and doves. As usual, his garden is in bloom, and now resonates with delicate chirps.

Spending money is a sure sign of optimism, and Iraqis now have plenty of opportunity to do so…

Having endured Saddam, they are making the best of this new era, no matter how weird and precarious it might be. As I sit in a packed restaurant, explosions can be heard from the edge of town, but people continue to eat casually. So long as the violence is directed toward Americans, average Iraqis are completely indifferent to it…

One evening, I accompany Anmar and Layla to the home of some older relations. They are an elegant elderly couple; all their children are grown up and off in faraway lands. After dinner, they take out some photo albums. In the yellow hues of old pictures from the ’60s, I see young mothers in brightly coloured skirts laying out a picnic for their children in a field by a river. There are men with slick hair, looking suave and worldly at the horse races. There are parties aglow with attractive ladies and stylish men, gathered around luxuriously bedecked tables, singing and laughing in modern-looking homes. This was once Baghdad. I already had some idea of it, but seeing it like this, I am sad and shocked. “What happened?” I ask my hostess. “It is a long story,” she sighs.

On another evening … an enthusiastic young man approaches me. He says he has just recently returned to Iraq from Ottawa, and shows me a BMW he brought with him to sell here. “I ran from Iraq when I was drafted into the army in 1990. But I am so happy to be back. There is no place like Baghdad. Look at all these beautiful houses. You can’t live like this in Canada.” I question whether he might be jumping the gun a little with all his optimism — Baghdad is still on shaky ground. “Don’t worry,” he says with a smile. “We will find our way.”

Hong Kong, Spengler in Asia Times

“American tragedy” (despite Theodore Dreiser’s dreadful novel) is something of an oxymoron, for America is the land of new beginnings. Tragedy invariably takes the form of a shadow from the past darkening the present and future. But something like the River Lethe girds the American continent, through which immigrants forget their past and with it their past tragedies. One might say that the American tragedy is the incapacity of Americans to understand the tragedy of other peoples. America can cherry-pick out of the nations those individuals who wish to be Americans, but it cannot force back on the nations its own character. Its efforts to do so have perpetually destabilizing consequences for other peoples. Not idly does Osama bin Laden denounce Americans as “crusaders”.

Tragedy … trains the mind to distinguish the necessary from the merely accidental. Men do not risk everything on a throw of the dice of war unless they must. What we loosely call the great tragedies of history are just that, collisions which men no more could forestall than the shift in the earth’s tectonic plates…

What distinguishes tragedy from comedy is the element of necessity, not a sad or happy ending…If a piano falls out of a 20th-floor window and lands on Daffy Duck, we laugh. If a piano falls out of a 20th-floor window and crushes a loved one, we do not laugh, but neither is it a tragedy. September 11, 2001 was a tragic event. So was America’s invasion of Iraq. It is Bush’s tragedy to be the protagonist in the tragedy, rather than the playwright.

Qatar, Benjamin Duncan in Al-Jazeera

Dearborn, Michigan, a blue-collar, industrial suburb of Detroit, perhaps best known for being the home of the Ford Motor Company, is often referred to as the unofficial Arab capital of America.

The town boasts one of the largest populations of Arab Americans of any city in the country, the majority of them Muslims.

Yet, Dearborn has never elected a Muslim representative to the U.S. Congress. In fact, it has never even fielded a Muslim candidate — and it is not alone.

In the history of the United States, no Muslim American has ever been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate, according to officials from several of the largest Muslim civic associations in the country…

Muslim American leaders cite the lack of political organization and a limited understanding of the democratic system among immigrants as the main reasons for the absence of representation at the highest level…

Abed Hammoud was running for Mayor of Dearborn … 9/11 was not the only reason he lost the election, but it certainly did not help, he said…

The attacks sparked an estimated 85% drop in the number of Muslims running for political office, a decrease from about 700 candidates in 2000 to roughly 100 in 2002, according to the American Muslim Alliance.

There is reason, however, to be optimistic about the future, he continued.

Muslims already hold a wide variety of state and local offices, from city council seats to the state legislature. Building up a solid base at the grassroots level is an important first step on the road to a more inclusive political status.

“I think Muslims are going in that direction aggressively,” Awad said. “There’s more interest in running for political office, because people understand that a lack of representation affects us negatively in terms of policy.”

Happiness isn’t supposed to last, but in Istanbul it has lasted more for more than five centuries. Even as the empire shrank in the late 19th century, Jews continued to pour into Constantinople fleeing persecution by Cossacks, Persians and the new, Christian Balkan nations … They were closer to their Muslim overlords than any of the Christian populations of the empire … One Jewish pasha almost had himself made king of Cyprus. Jewish women, too, were key players in the harem, from which the sultan sired his heirs; Jewish hawkers were Istanbul’s bush telegraph. Even now, close to the grand bazaar in Istanbul, a mosque and a synagogue share the same building…

Turkey is also, of course, Israel’s almost lone ally in the Muslim world. Both countries have disputed borders with Arab neighbors, both rely heavily on U.S. aid, both have poor human rights records, and both have powerful generals pulling strings or setting agendas behind the scenes.

Despite all this, Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom’s immediate identification of Jews with Israel when he visited the bombed synagogues yesterday is not something most Istanbul Jews will be thankful for … Of all the trials that have befallen them over the last 500 years, none has brought more threat than the existence of Israel. It has drained away more than half of their numbers and brought Palestinian gunmen to the door of the Neve Shalom synagogue 17 years ago, at the cost of 22 lives.

Hong Kong, K. Gajendra Singh in the Asia Times

Many Turkish experts suspect that the twin bombings were a warning to Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have ties with Israel. This secular country has seen a surge in support for Islamic sentiments and parties, as elsewhere. Public opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq played a major role in Turkey’s parliament refusing the U.S. request in March to open a second front into Iraqi Kurdistan in the north by using Turkish soil.

The blasts could be an act of revenge for the daily killings of Palestinians and the Israelis building a much-opposed wall that encroaches on Palestinian land. Such attacks would please Muslims and earn the goodwill of angry and frustrated Muslim youth all over the world, and attract many of them to their cause. It also sends a very stern warning to Turks to keep out of Iraq. Turkey had pledged to send up to 100,000 troops to Iraq, but in the face of stiff opposition from within Iraq, including from the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, the decision has been reversed.

And now, with the U.S. suddenly intent on handing more political power to the Iraqis themselves, that country will have to work out its own problems, and what form the new government takes, although it is most likely to be a dictatorship if history is anything to go by…

Recently, a senior Indian Congress party leader, Mani Shankar, revealed that he was with Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi on a peace-making mission to Tehran in 1991, and when the latter inquired from Iranian President Ali Rafsanjani who would succeed Saddam Hussein, the reply was, “Saddam Hussein”.

India, B. Raman in Outlook India

While Turkish officials have been pointing the needle of suspicion at al-Qaida, some Israeli analysts seem to suspect a possible role by the Iran-backed Hizballah and/or the Iraq-based Kurdish extremist group called the Ansar al-Islam, which the U.S. has accused, with no satisfactory evidence, of having links with al-Qaida…

The Istanbul explosions are the third instance of direct targeting of Israeli or Jewish people and interests by elements linked to al-Qaida and the IIF [International Islamic Front]. In the past, while there have been reports of arrests of individual elements linked to al-Qaida in Turkey, there were no reports or even allegations of any of the terrorist organisations of Turkey having links with al-Qaida or the IIF…

Presuming that al-Qaida or the IIF carried out the twin blasts, they could not have done this without local support or involvement … The … section of the Turkish society from which accomplices could have come are the members of the local Chechen and Uighur communities — Chechens from Russia as well as Arab nationals of Chechen origin. The intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been amongst the major external financiers of the Chechen terrorism in Russia and the Uighur terrorism in China.

Both Chechen and Uighur terrorists were trained in the training camps of bin Laden in Afghanistan before October 7, 2001, and many of them look up to him for inspiration. They would be inclined to co-operate with al-Qaida or the IIF despite the financial assistance received by them from Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the past.

Lebanon, David O’Byrne in the Daily Star

Sundays in the Istanbul suburb of Galata are normally quiet. However, the silence cloaking the district this Sunday was an eerie one. The soft winter sun filtered through the narrow streets and glinted off the broken glass littering the streets as residents tried to come to terms with the attack on Istanbul’s main synagogue, Neve Shalom, on Buyuk Hendek Street, one of Galata’s main thoroughfares.

The bomb, for which the Turkish Islamic extremist group The Great Islamic Eastern Raiders (IBDA-C) has claimed responsibility, targeted members of Istanbul’s 20,000-strong Jewish community who came to the synagogue for a Saturday morning Bar Mitzvah service. Once the center of Istanbul’s Jewish community and still home to five of the city’s 17 synagogues, Galata has over the past 30 years come to house Turkey’s electrical goods shops, as well as grimy unregulated workshops manufacturing light fittings and other electrical hardware…

“I was very lucky, I was attending a meeting at my school,” said Bill Bower, a science teacher and resident of Istanbul for 15 years, whose home is on the same street as the bombed synagogue. “At the time the bomb went off I’d normally be walking my dog past the synagogue and stopping to chat with police guards outside.” Ayca and Bower are typical of Galata’s recent arrivals, attracted both by the beautiful buildings and the area’s history as one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Europe … “The Jewish people are our friends and even our customers,” said Mehmet Sen, a devout Muslim whose shop windows were shattered by the blast from the Neve Shalom bomb. “This bombing was not the work of true Muslims. This is not Islam.”

Turkey, Ilnur Cevik in the Turkish Daily News

The carnage in Istanbul on Saturday caused deep sorrow for all of us, but it hardly came as a surprise because we all knew that sooner or later Turkey would be the target of the al-Qaida terrorists.

Turkey was on the al-Qaida hit list for a long time…

But we also should not view the attack in Istanbul on Saturday only as a criminal act against a country that was on the hit list of a major terrorist organization. The political implications of this attack go well beyond that.

The West, led by the United States, see Turkey as the only country where Islam and democracy go hand in hand. They see that a country with an overwhelming majority of Muslims can establish a viable democratic system through secularism and work wonders…

Meanwhile Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida preach Islamic fundamentalism and radicalism and see Turkey as the greatest obstacle for them to create many more Taliban-type administrations in the world. Thus they attack Turkey, where the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), with moderate religious sensitivities, is in power … They know that with the AK Party in power they can never create a Taliban-type administration in Turkey…

So the AK Party has to fight on several fronts in Turkey to prove that it has no Islamist agenda while it comes under attack from radicals both from within and without the country.

That is why we feel the U.S. administration as well as our European counterparts should start doing more to help bolster our democracy instead of pushing the AK Party into a corner. It was good to bolster the democracies of Greece, Spain and Portugal to accept them into the EU when they needed such backing while they were still under the influences of dictatorships. Why not do the same for Turkey?

United Arab Emirates, Editorial in the Gulf News

Once again the hand of terror has lashed out with the fatally flawed expectation that violence will serve in furthering political causes. No matter by whom it is done, or under what banner, the murder of innocents must be deplored in the strongest terms…

In the immediate aftermath of this horror directed at two synagogues in Istanbul, however, it is important to reflect on a statement by Amr Moussa, the Arab League’s Secretary-General. While taking a stand that attacks against civilians was unacceptable, Moussa made it clear to Israel that it was inciting terrorism through its contempt for international resolutions.

Only saner voices within Israel, that can somehow make themselves heard over the blind policies of the warmongers, can nudge the Jewish state towards positions that will enable moderates on all sides to even make a dent in the problem.

This latest carnage, in which the hand of al-Qaida is not ruled out, only serves to remind governments in the region that far more proactive measures and greater exchange of intelligence are imperative against the forces of international terrorism.

Israel, Danny Rubinstein in Haaretz

Against the backdrop of the terrorist attack in Istanbul, the terrorism in Saudi Arabia and the continued bloodletting in Iraq, surprisingly some optimistic expressions are being heard from Palestinian spokesmen. They hope a cease-fire with Israel will soon be achieved. According to associates of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, General Omar Suleiman, head of Egyptian intelligence, is to arrive in Ramallah today. After speaking with Arafat and with newly elected prime minister, Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), he will meet with senior Israeli officials, and he may go to Gaza for talks with the heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

His visit is a clear sign that in Egypt they believe that conditions have been created that make it possible to reach a new hudna (cease-fire). The Egyptians are in regular contact with Palestinian delegates, including the heads of Hamas, and they regularly consult with American diplomats — so it is very possible that a serious attempt will be made…

Senior PA officials said two days ago that what adds to a certain sense of optimism on the Palestinian side are the things they are hearing about what is being done on the Israeli side. To the Palestinians it seems that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is now being subjected to heavy internal pressure to take a more flexible stance. The pressure was recently expressed in incidents like the warnings of the four former heads of the Shin Bet security services, the criticism voiced by the chief of staff, and the great impression made on the world by the Geneva Accords and the “The People’s Voice.”

Can all this lead to anything? “Maybe only in the short term; in the coming weeks and months,” says Palestinian Labor Minister Ghassan al Hatib, who is afraid that the story of the short-lived government of Mahmoud Abbas is repeating itself; a hudna and a certain reduction in violence, a few almost meaningless Israeli gestures — and after a short time a return to the routine of bloodshed.