Kerry meets with Karzai in Afghanistan - Political Intelligence - A national political and campaign blog from The Boston Globe. By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff Senator John Kerry spent today in Afghanistan, meeting with Afghan government officials, US forces and tribal leaders in the southern city of Kandahar, which has been wracked by suicide bombings.
Kerry, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, dined with Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Tuesday night and left today for Pakistan. Last year, Kerry helped convince Karzai to accept the results of an international election commission, a diplomatic coup. This time, he told reporters in Kabul that he intended to warn Karzai that Americans were losing patience with corrupt governance. Tonight, Kerry is dining with Pakistan's top general, Ashfaq Kiani and the troubled country's spy chief, Shuja Pasha.
Kerry has a difficult mission in Pakistan: convincing Pakistanis that the United States cares about their plight, despite the fact that aid has been slow to the flood-effected areas. Afghan officials challenge U.S. on aid contract abuses. KABUL -- A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai challenged the United States on Monday to clean up fraud and corruption within the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid contracts it distributes to Afghan companies each year, saying that abuse is far worse than any irregularities in the Karzai administration.
Waheed Omer used his weekly news conference to take the offensive in the ongoing political battle between the Karzai government and U.S. officials over the mismanagement of international money. Of every $100 million of aid coming into the country, Omer said, 80 percent is controlled by the United States and NATO. Therefore, he said, it is up to international officials to enact safeguards and root out illegal practices. "Corruption is widely affecting the multimillion-dollar contracts going to Afghans, who are becoming terribly rich out of those contracts," Omer said. Omer's remarks came just days after Karzai finished a series of meetings with Sen. Wife of 'ground zero mosque' imam epitomizes Islam's modernizing voice. One of the leaders of the proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero has spent years trying to amplify the voices of educated women within Islam.
In this way, Daisy Khan epitomizes the so-called "moderate Muslim" and modernizing force from within Islam that some Americans are impatient to see. Skip to next paragraph Recent posts Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition Ms. I met Khan in 2006 at an international conference in New York City that she had organized. As I wrote at the time, their idea was "to ensure that women's perspectives on Islamic law become part of religious deliberation in the Muslim world – particularly on issues such as domestic violence, divorce, and inheritance. " Cashing In On Ground Zero - Forbes.com.
Danielle Parker: Cordoba Mosque = The Conquest of Lower Manhattan From a Crime Victims Perspective. The Cordoba Initiative and Park51, the amended title of the Cordoba Mosque project at Ground Zero, is inflaming public opinion like no other issue in recent history ... and rightfully so.
For the people who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks, the wound may just have been starting to heal. But the proposed building of the "Ground Zero mosque" makes the victims feel like September 11, 2001, is happening all over again. It is important to understand how the 9/11 victims feel and why this issue is spurring such a heated national debate. I understand exactly why most of these families are adamantly opposed to this mosque. Why? After the initial horror of having your loved one taken away by violence, it takes years to stabilize from that event. So, I implore all Americans to see what this mosque means from both a victims' perspective, and a historical one.
India example cited for Ground Zero mosque. Welcome To Forbes.com. How The 'Ground Zero Mosque' Controversy Is Challenging Democracy - Forbes.com. Mosques and Americans: Time for rational thought. My wife is a passionate liberal Democrat and it’s not too hard to guess on which side she’ll come down on the great issues of our time.
Protesters rally in New York over construction of Ground Zero mosque. NEW YORK, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Protesters representing both sides of the debate over the construction of an Islamic community center and mosque a few blocks away from the Ground Zero rallied in downtown New York City on Sunday.
Hundreds of protesters braved the rain in Lower Manhattan to voice their position on the planned project amid the national debate over the facility. Firefighters, families of the 9/11 terror attacks victims, first responders and residents of the neighborhood also joined the protests. Anti-mosque protesters held banners that said, "No mosque here. Preserve the dignity of our loved ones killed on 9/11," while supporters carried signs reading, "America! When did it become OK to be a bigot! " A heavy police presence stood in between to separate the two sides. Ron Paul: Opposition to "Ground Zero Mosque" is "All About Hate, Islamophobia"
In another new twist regarding the varying opinions about the construction of the "Ground Zero mosque," Republican congressman Ron Paul has strongly condemned what he called the "grandiose demagoguery" of "sunshine patriots" who are opposed to the construction of the Islamic center in lower Manhattan.
Paul expressed his opinion in a posting on his website, RonPaul.com. The Texas representative is a Republican but has strong libertarian views on many subjects--including property rights. In a posting called "Ron Paul to Sunshine Patriots: Stop Your Demagogy About The NYC Mosque! ," Paul wrote: Protesters clash over 'Ground Zero' mosque - The Irish Times - Tue, Aug 24, 2010. OPPONENTS OF the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” – a proposed Islamic cultural centre two blocks north of the site of the atrocities of September 11th, 2001 – blasted Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USAfrom a CD recorder.
“Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11,” said one placard at Sunday’s protest in lower Manhattan. Several demonstrators carried signs with the word “Sharia” written in dripping, blood-red paint. Supporters of the centre, who numbered fewer than its detractors, brandished posters saying “Support Freedom of Religion”. While the thousand or so protesters shouted at each other across a police line, Daisy Khan, the wife of imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has not even begun fundraising for the $100 million (€78.9 million), 13-storey community centre, told ABC television’s This Week with Christiane Amanpourshow she did not rule out building the centre at a different location, as suggested by New York’s governor David Paterson. Op-Ed Columnist - How Fox Betrayed Petraeus. Local strippers okay with Ground Zero mosque. New York: While a large number of Americans oppose the proposed Muslim community centre and mosque just two blocks away from Ground Zero, the site of the fallen WTC Twin Towers, employees of the strip clubs in the neighbourhood have no problem with it.
"I don't know what the big deal is," said Cassandra, a stripper at New York Dolls, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. "It's freedom of religion, you know? " said Chris, a stripper at Pussycat Lounge, also close by, who lost eight firefighter friends on 9/11. Ground Zero mosque debate swirls in world capitals. After nearly a month of debate, the controversy surrounding the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” continues to roil, both domestically and worldwide.
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