Suicide bomber kills 5 at UN office in Pakistan (AP)

This bombing was the first of the same kind of attacks in Islamabad since June, when two police were killed. Two UN staffers were also killed during another blast in June on a hotel in the city of Pashawar.

Islamist militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq seeking to attack high-profile Western targets have shown no hesitation in targeting foreign humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations, regardless of the work they are doing in relieving the suffering in the countries.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told: "This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan”.

Security camera footage broadcast on local TV shows the bomber walking through a door into what appears to be the main building carrying a two-foot- (half-meter-) long cylindrical object — possibly a detonator — in one hand. Seconds later, a bright flash fills the screen.

It was unclear how he made that far. Typically, visitors to U.N. buildings in Islamabad are screened and patted down for weapons and explosives in secure chambers some distance from the entrance to the building.

U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson condemned the targeting of aid workers as an attack against Pakistani society. "Such cruel acts expose the true nature of the terrorists' agenda," she said.

These actions will certainly provoke particular countermeasures by the UN officials. But the most important concern, apparently, will be the worries about the UN getting cold feet with help it has been providing to the poor in the region.

Considering the screening process at the UN arrival, the whole bombing may appeal to one as conducted with a cooperating partner within the UN staff.

There were two similar bombing attacks on Islamic Revolutionary Guards corps in Iran in which five guard commanders were killed among dozens of others. This took place in the restive region of the nation’s southeastern frontier with Pakistan.

Jundallah, whose members are Sunni Muslims, has claimed responsibility for other attacks in the region in recent years, and is believed to have killed hundreds of Iranian soldiers and civilians.

In this case again the corps was being guarded by Special Forces who have emerged as the most powerful political, social and economic bloc in the nation. Even during the aftermath of Iran’s contested presidential election, the Guards took control of national security.

The same skepticism strongly arises on how such specialized forces could be reckless enough not to notice a peril so as big as this coming. So, one may naturally think of an ally inside the guarding letting the outsiders in.

American Identity

Nowadays, identity is seemingly the most vital and crucial issue in most countries around the world and as far as our focus broadens identity crisis in the U.S. has been growing up to shaping America’s most dangerous threat. As Robert Kaplan asserts: ’’America, more than any other nation, may have been born to die.’’ (Who are we?, S.P. Huntington)

The truth is the world has witnessed the strict post-9/11 policies pursued by American government, even formation of an organization called Homeland Security was one of its results/means. One might observe that America, worrying about international affairs, now have shifted its attention to internal matters in a way that is tangible even to naked eye. All these countermeasures indicate U.S.’ concerns about security which lead us to conclude that there is a sense of insecurity. The insecurity is about the motto which reads: “to make a more perfect unity” (Abraham Lincoln) and that lest would it confront profound clashes.

An ethimology of the word unity would easily disclose the fact that every united entity has components which stand right next to each other for a higher purpose. That being said, anything disrupting this unity would be regarded as a menace and has to be crossed out at all costs. Mr. Huntington in his book “Who Are We?” writes: “historically the substance of American identity has involved four key components: race, ethnicity, culture (notably language and religion), and ideology.” He then says:”the racial and ethnic Americas are no more. Cultural America is under siege. And as the Soviet experience illustrates, ideology is a weak glue to hold together people otherwise lacking racial, ethnic, and cultural sources of community.’’

So, what America is facing as identity crisis today is the outcome of loads of immigrants who step foot on American soil but are resilient when it comes to assimilate with the American culture. In other words, the unity which comes in the Constitution as “we the people” gradually was shaped by ever growing number of immigrants; however, these immigrants, from “countries that one may not even know exist”, refuse to put their sub-national identities aside and just get in the melting pot. Ironically, this unity is getting decayed inside out. Samuel P. Huntington as one of his books’ theme (The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of World Order) smartly puts: “in a post-cold war world, conflicts between cultures would replace conflicts between nation-states and conflicts between ideologies.’’ (Michiko Kakutani, The Wall Street Journal; Friday, May 28, 2004).

Most of America’s focus concentrates on legal and illegal immigrants from Latin America and chiefly Mexico which grows up to the point that a state like California demands for bilingualism. Huntington contends that: “ the continuation of high levels of Mexican and Hispanic immigration plus the low rates of assimilation of these immigrants into American culture and society could eventually change America into a country of two languages, two cultures, and two peoples.’’ Then he adds there is no harm in legal immigration of Mexicans and that they can and will “share” in the American Dream “only if they dream in English.”

Canada, Not an Imperialist? Think Again!

Saturday was a different experience. We hosted Zafar Bangash from Canada, who with his enlightening talk shed light on a different dimension of relations behind the closed doors.

"Zafar Bangash (Urdu: ظفر بنگش) is a noted Islamic movement journalist and commentator and a leader of the Muslim community in Ontario, Canada. Bangash is Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT)^[2], and president of the Islamic Society of York Region, a suburb of Toronto. He is imam at the Islamic Society of York Region's mosque and community centre in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He is a former editor of Crescent International newsmagazine, and a Trustee and formerly assistant director of the Muslim Institute, London, where he worked with Dr Kalim Siddiqui (1931-1996), the founder of the Muslim Institute and Leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain. Bangash is also co-founder of the Muslim Unity Group". (Wikipedia, zafar Bangash)

“Canada, not an imperialist? Think again!” that is what he started his speech with, that one should consider Canada as an imperialist too. Apparently, given the information that Canada is a U.S. follower, which is of course because of its vital economy-wise dependence on America, Canada seeks to attract America’s content.

This reflects itself when Canada, with its anti-Muslim hostility, helped the U.S. with military forces through Canadian Navy in America’s invasion of Afghanistan. Canada has also pursued a very pro-Israeili policy. Imam Zafar Bangash cited many critical instances of Canadian oppression on minorities especially Muslims. Paul Martin incident, being one of them, once more reassured the fact that Canada is not a trustworthy country in defending human rights. The story begins with the publication of false news by a British journalist named Paul Martin, who is a pro-Israel himself. News was quoting Hassan Nasr-o-llah , the head of Hizb-o-llah, that Muslims should not confine themselves to fighting Israel only in occupied Palestine, rather it is a must for Muslims to attack on Israelis all over the world. This news’ not being true was brought on by McDonald during a live debate with Paul Martin, who left the debate right after McDonald’s asking for evidence. The shocking thing is that Canadian government kept his fanaticism going on and refused to utter a word in the media whatsoever.

Zafar Bangash pointed out Abdullah Khadr, a Canadian citizen born and raised, that happened to be a Muslim, as a case of American barbarianism, who was shot multiple times and captured in Iraq, while he was paying his relatives a visit during summer holidays, and tortured for months at an American air force camp in west Iraq, then sent to GUANTANAMO BAY where they kept him awake for twenty some days despite the fact that he was extremely wounded and cut from medication.

Israeli capitalists, as Zafar Bangash put it, have the most proportion of shares in Canadian media and newspapers let alone the fact that some of them own a number of newspapers.

In spite of this hegemony imposed by Canadian media, surprisingly, most Canadian citizens are not against Muslims; moreover, they seem to be highly cooperative. The interesting thing is that Canadians are mostly in opposition with the country’s hostile policies, which is proven to be “keep your militaristic involvement and show yourself as a pro-peace”.

After all, Canadian Muslim Society is seemingly better positioned than the American due to the facts that Muslims have a magazine, TV debates and of course on the other hand, Canadians are fair-minded people.

Clipped to the Root, Clipped to the Top, Never Reached Full Potential

First of all I want to assert the fact that it's too hard for me to write even a paragraph or two about such a personality, for I don't know , for the first time, how to begin.

Great history, great philosophy of life, great character, great thinker, great analyzer, great lecturer, great subject, dazzling speech, totally different point of view. These phrases just keep spinning in my head every time I recall the meeting with Imam Musa.

It felt so uncanny to sense that someone from somewhere else across the world knows more than me about my religion and my country's past. There were even times that I felt he loves Iran more than I ever did. His calling us "a miracle to have survived and lasted more than 30 years" sent an extra chill down my spine.

I myself didn't know a movement called "The Black Mafia" existed, nor did I know, moreover no way in world I could have guessed, that today-Imam-Musa used to be a member of it. Anyways, the point he wanted to highlight was that Dr. Martin Luther king's movement lasted some 12 years, Malcolm X' lasted about 3 years, but strikingly, Islamic revolution and its mobilizations all over the world, or in this case let's say in America, are alive and active more than before. The miracle of it is that in a place like America, where neither Dr. Martin Luther King nor Malcolm X could endure, Islam, which has originated somewhere else and revived in 1979 in even another ''somewhere else'', has managed to cling to life for 30 years, and to its enemy's surprise, add to its followers every day.

The meeting also concerned African American issues and how they've been always discriminated against throughout the American history. Imam Musa, a great speaker, pointed it out so well. Starting from the very beginning, he butted heads with the fact that they, African Americans, were taken, kidnapped and forced to get onboard and brought to America to become slaves. They were taken away, not just from their beloved land, but their religions, which was Islam back then for most of Africans, whatsoever, their language, culture, history, and their everything. Americans then, as Imam Musa put it, started to build up self images for Africans telling them:" you are from The Dark Continent, you have no roots, Tarzan is your savior, and he's your hero."

Imam Musa delicately used an analogy, resembling African Americans to an oak tree which is a hundred years old but it's still 1.5m of height, all because the gardener has clipped it to the root and clipped it to the top every time it has ever grown, preventing it from gaining its full potentials. Beautiful isn't it?

There was something about this great man; his eyes were shining like no one's do. I could relate. "Every set back is a set up for a comeback" is why he was and is happy for the people of his color. Because he has perceived Moses and how he left Egypt for desert for good so that later on he could come back stronger. That`s his belief, of how this oppressed minority will stand up one day, thoroughly, for its rights and make the voice of Islam heard.

I walked out of that room a "transformed" person.

Why 1492?

''Do you want to get to know America? First things first; start with Europe.''

Well said. It seems relatively foolish to write about American history and not start with Europe and European events that culminated in Cristoforo Colombo's 1492 ten-week exploratory voyage.

Today I took a moment thinking ''why 1492?'' and then I simultaneously thought of an analogy: an apple on a branch of an apple tree, which has just accomplished what had to be accomplished, in this case turning into a newly shaped sketch of a small fruit after waiting for some weeks as a bud. Right now, this apple knows its purpose in life. All it needs to do is wait until it gets ready and ripe enough to fall. 1492. Time needed to pass for Europeans so that the day could have come, in which some true believers, followers, set out for Palestine hoping to find The Son of God's resting tomb and finally end up getting acquainted with Muslim traders and merchants.

Did I just say trader? Trade? That must have been due to the fact that I keep in mind a saying about Europeans: ''follow the money". Which is why, I assume Europeans kept on travelling overland to Far East back and forth looking forward to bringing money and goods, i.e. silk, cotton and of course spices, back to Europe.

Not before long, rich traders, afraid of ''unruly barons whose constant wars made travel unsafe and who levied expensive tolls on trade, had to make allies with feudal kings. The kings could use the money to build up armies and expand their territory for their ''nation-state'' to come.

It was only then that the newly born, strong and wealthy nations states could ''finance exploration''s in search of new lands.

There came the next delicate strike: invention of printing, that made it so much faster to spread the exciting incidents and descriptions of Colombo's first voyage throughout Europe and by which Europeans shook hand on never ''forgetting America for a second time.''

The last straw that broke the camel's back (!) was ''gunpowder'' that enabled Hernando Cortes and his some 600 men, who landed at Veracruz and marched to the Aztec capital, to drop the Aztec chief in total confidence. However, for what is worth, one must never forget Colombo's struggle in finding a sponsor whom Colombo was trying to make rich. And thank God for his false premise which was: ''a ship sailing west after a few weeks, should reach Asia and its riches.''

Lucky Isabella of Castile, newly wedded queen to Ferdinand of Aaragon, for trusting Colombo and providing him with the money and equipments for his voyage, for the profit of her blind faith and Colombo's being wrong made Spain the richest nation in Europe by handing it the monopoly of extracting ''almost 20000 tons of silver, 200 tons of gold'' and other products from its American colonies.

Putting Europe, which apparently made a great profit, aside, what happened to America's first settlers who put steps on northern lands of America thousands of years ago? The truth is what happened, happened unintentionally, at least at first! ''The Columbian exchange'' was something out of control right when neither Europeans nor Natives meant no harm. Being isolated from the rest of the universe for so long, Natives, whose bodies didn't seem to had had the immunity, encountering the simplest disease like smallpox, that were brought by Europeans, ended up dead in large scales. The diminishing of 25 million native inhabitants if Mexico to 2.5 million by the year 1600 proves the above mentioned statement.

Their culture, that had developed through time from nomadism, hunting and gathering, agriculture to settled communities and later on big cities with remarkable civilizations like that of the Inca's, which even had ''privileged classes'' and government, also came to an end by European invasions like the conquest of Mexico followed by the fall of the Mayas.

The consequences of Using Internet and Blogging in American Life

With the growth of technology, which is being accelerated every day, using Internet, and in our case blogging, comes to be an inevitable part of individuals in terms of high speed communication and access to the world information within seconds. Throughout the history of the world, every single invention, internet being one of them, brought along with it a certain series of consequences as well as ease. These so called consequences have their manifestation in both individual and social layers of one’s life. That is for sure.

Many researches have been carried out, and an abundant number of them are being undergone now, by the federal government of the U.S. about Internet use and blogging, “Falling Through the Net” surveys (www.esa.doc.gov/fttn00.htm) , the Pew Internet and American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org) and also by so many other scholars and college professors which are drastically enlightening but, after all, they have not “understood the actual impact and consequences of the Internet” (J.E.Katz & R.E.Rice, Social Consequences of Internet Use, 2002, p.2). However, some definitions and opinions by experts are worth mentioning here. Expert Mark Resch once called Internet “the CB radio of the 1990’s” (Perkin, 1996) that is a craze that would soon pass (J.E.Katz & R.E.Rice, Social Consequences of Internet Use, 2002, p.14). Or there is John Perry Barlow who said that it would be the “most transforming technological event since the capture of fire” (quoted in Puntam, 2000, p, 72). See, one perceives it as a craze which will move on eventually, the other one calls it essential.

The rational move seems to be categorization of these consequences in order to simplify and narrow this broad, complex reality so that we can touch upon the consequences of this “essential craze”. Therefore, the categorization, which is introduced by experts, is to consider the consequences in terms of three social issues: access, involvement and social interaction.

Access is defined as the access to a networked computer and to use that to find material (such as pages) or to communicate (such as through email).

What we have for involvement is participation in a jointly produced social, civil or community activity. Involvement can be due to individual or collective benefits. For example civic involvement aimed at fostering political awareness and activity creates more informed and active citizens. This in turn makes political processes more deliberative and representative, thus helping to achieve a more democratic society.

And at last, social interaction includes both the exchange of information among individuals and groups online and the influence of online interaction on offline communication, both face to face and through the media (such as the telephone). This interaction is likely to involve dyadic, familial, friendship, romantic, and group relations. (J.E.Katz & R.E.Rice, 2002).

About blogging, there has been a significant incident that will help you grasp a taste of American usage of the event. There has been a boy called Jack who one day told his parents that he was gay. Parents, shocked to their very being, decided to send him to a “Catholic Straight” camp, because they were thinking that they had raised him within an inappropriate frame of ethics whatsoever. Jack started to recite his feelings by writing a blog post. Surprisingly, a friend of his happened to read his post. She left the link for a couple of friends and those friends did the same. Before long, a number of the gay and lesbian activists received the post through this process and set out a big demonstration which ended in local and then national newspapers. The point is no way on earth, this sequence would take place if it wasn’t via Internet, and in our case here blogging.

That was just a case depicting the speed of communication and bridging provided by blogging, however; bloggers also get to response to the events going on in the real/cyber world. With the rise of blogging through Internet it would be right in place to assume every blogger as a journalist, knowing that he or she can compile whatever they want with photos, live links and evidences. Or one might use blogs as “warblogs” (Susan C. Herring, Lois Ann Scheidt, Inna Kouper and Elijah Write, in Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media) expressing views on current political events.

With all said above, there is one sure thing: not only American people, but also people all over the world have welcomed Internet to their very houses making this event, with all its facilities and opportunities, an indispensible factor of human life.

The Meeting with Dr. Christopher Merrill

Last Tuesday we, all MA freshmen plus a group of other second-year students of American Studies, hosted a very esteemed college professor in Iowa, who teaches and practices poetry and writing in different programs taught all over the U.S., Professor Dr. Christopher Merrill; a fun, descent, knowledgeable and warm person who modestly answered all the irrelevant, and of course relevant, questions posed by eager us! I said irrelevant due to the fact that he's from a different discipline and I said relevant because we did ask some questions on literature, which he seemed jolly to had been asked.

One interesting thing among his talks was that he mentioned American people are one highly hopeful population. They look forward no matter what. When we discussed over economic free fall, The Great Debt and two major wars which are the fruit of G.W.Bush's 8 years of presidency, Dr. Merry emphasized on the fact that it was ''hope'' which brought president Obama nearly 50 million votes, after his presidential campaign speech and specifically the very slogan of ''change''.

The other important issue we discussed was the reality that there seems to be no more content about Obama`s election in the U.S., or even as my American History professor Dr. Hosseini puts it: ''there are people in the northern states praying for Obama's assassination in the churches.'' There have been demonstrations against president Obama all over the country by people beguiled with discontent while observing this has been another lie hidden behind that very slogan of ''change''. On the other end, this should be reminded that Obama was the heir to what G.W.Bush had done with the world and, in smaller scale, the United States. After all, does that justify the recent dissatisfaction? Is it reason enough for one person to lie?

According to what Dr. Merrill said, America and American people are going through notably drastic times, people are afraid of losing their jobs, many capitalists are afraid of going bankrupt and generally the whole country is encountering an economical crisis. This puts a greater weight on people's shoulders like Dr. Merrill's, poets', writers' and people's who are at least a bit more sensitive than others, who know how to mirror it in their works of fiction or non-fiction, who know how to sympathize with others of the same pain, who know how to stand erect and build up history, each one touching it from a different outlook.

U.S. Is Seeking a Range of Sanctions against Iran

U.S. Is Seeking a Range of Sanctions against Iran

by Mark Landler,
Headline from The New York Times

The Obama administration tries to build a broader coalition of countries for harsher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. America is expected to press their demand for quick access and blueprints to the newly disclosed secret uranium enrichment plant near the holy city of Qum.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking on CNN's ''State of the Union'' said: ''There are a variety of options still available, a potential list of targets for Iranian sanctions notably in energy equipment and technology'' which he called ''a pretty rich list to pick from.''
The administration seeks to fulfill two goals: pushing Iran to negotiate over its nuclear program and winning Russia and china's support, which seem to be eager about preserving their economic ties to Iran.

The European allies, one official said, view this as a ''blunt instrument'' that could hurt ordinary Iranians and unite country behind the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mr.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his guests at a dinner in New York last week, that he would ''warm welcome'' the additional sanctions because it would only make his country more self-sufficient.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 Iran has been acting resilient to sanctions. Even Iran's missile testing on Sunday was interpreted by administration officials as a message that the new set of sanctions, whatsoever, won't work.

These new sanctions will only add to ordinary citizens' misery. This could expose itself in fuel prices, inflation and its following protests of discontent which eventually might end in people getting hurt or even killed, having the last months in mind since June 12.