Crisis/Solutions
Written by: Dr. Abdul Wahid
This week Mahmoud Abbas will visit New York to apply to the United Nations for it to recognise the Palestinian authority as a fully-fledged member state.
Well meaning supporters of Palestine have been encouraging people to support a petition demanding statehood; while more seasoned campaigners, who have seen many tricks played by the PLO over the years, are more realistic and consequently more critical of Abbas’s lofty rhetoric.
Read more: The Fallacy of Palestinian Statehood and the Arab Betrayal
No one knows who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. We do know, however, that the main witness cited in the UN report, Zuhir Mohamed Said Saddik, "has been convicted of embezzlement and fraud among other crimes" (Der Spiegel) which casts grave doubt on the credibility of his testimony.
No problem; the Bush administration has used convicted fraudsters to make their case for war before, particularly in the case of Iraq where the specious claims of Ahmed Chalabi appeared consistently on the front page of the New York Times creating the rationale for the invasion. But, Sadik's trustworthiness is even more uncertain than Chalabi's. "Sources in the UN say that Sadik had undeniably lied" and had received money for his testimony. "According to a statement by his brother, Sadik had called him from Paris in late summer and said, "I've become a millionaire!" (Der Spiegel)
As crisis talks are due to start regarding Turkey joining the EU opinion polls from across Europe show a clear opposition to full Turkish membership. In a poll by Sky News over 70% voted no to the question should Turkey be allowed to join the EU? This signals the overwhelming feeling in Europe that Turkey which has a majority Muslim population should not be allowed to join the EU which until now has been made up of only majority Christian populations. In a similar poll carried out in France in 2004 in which the majority of people opposed Turkey joining the EU, 30% of participants objected on the basis of cultural differences. The opposition to Turkey joining the EU is without doubt based on the simple fact that it is a Muslim nation, which also includes a great Islamic tradition as it was for many centuries the centre of the Uthmani Khilafah State (Ottoman State). Even though the current Turkish ruling elite have been committed to a secular system, going as far as banning the Hijab in government buildings such as universities it still sits on the sidelines of European politics. The man responsible for shaping the future constitution of the EU former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing told Le Monde Newspaper in 2002 that Turkey joining the EU would be “the end of the Europe.”
Read more: Turkey’s future lies within the Khilafah State and not the EU