Barack Obama, a good show, but no applause yet

Obama’s interview with Al Arabiya and his recent visit to Turkey highlighted the end of the polarising “Us vs Them” language and the beginning of dialogue and partnership.

“The United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” promised Obama, despite a recent ABC/Washington Post poll showing that 48 percent of Americans hold an unfavourable opinion of Islam, the highest unfavourablity rating since 2001. Having shunned Muslim American voters like political kryptonite in his campaign, Obama now embraces them by stating: “Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country. I know, because I am one of them.”

Obama now invites American Muslims to become part of his “political family” with his recent appointments of several distinguished Muslims, such as Rashid Hussain, Dalia Mogahed and Eboo Patel, to influential positions in his administration.

FULL ARTICLE, HERE. (Pic: Books on Obama in Malay language)

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E-books: The end of paper?

Ask C.T. Liu about future growth engines for his company, LCD maker AU Optronics, and he whips out his Kindle e-book in lieu of an answer, reports Reuters from Taipei, Taiwan.

Strong reception for the Kindle, the brainchild of web retailer Amazon, is attracting a growing number of developers looking to tap interest in devices that let consumers read newspapers, magazines and books in a digital form that updates wirelessly and saves paper.

Sony Corp has joined the paperless wave with its own e-readers, partnering with Google to offer public domain books that are no longer protected by copyright.

Other believers in the dawn of a paperless age include Taiwan’s Netronix, which is making similar models with touch screens, and Dutch Polymer Vision, set to soon introduce a pocket e-reader with rollable displays.

Amazon.com Inc’s Kindles have proved a hit since their launch in 2007. Citigroup estimated the US online retailer sold a half-million Kindles in 2008, about one-third more than the number of iPods sold by Apple in its first year.

Some critics argue that e-books could become the victim of their own success if cellphone makers take notice and start to incorporate the newer LCD technology into their own models and include similar reading applications.

MORE HERE.

Meniti Maut and Mikhail – Watch out this two Malay novel

I believe these two books will bring new experience in Malay novel genre. Watch out folks!

Info on an Economic Hitman

Economic Hitman is “a highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign ‘aid’ organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources.

Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.” (Source: WantToKnow)

Who’s Badiuzzeman Said Nursi (1877-1960)?

Badiuzzam Said Nursi was born in 1877 in eastern Turkey and died in 1960 in Urfa (Turkey). During his long life, he saw the last days of the Ottoman Empire, its collapse after the First World War and the emergence of modern Turkish Republic.

He also witnessed the twenty-five years of Republican Peoples’ Party’s harsh and authoritarian rule and ten years of “Democratic” rule during which conditions became a little easier for Bediuzzam.

A remarkable child endowed with a prodigious memory, Bediuzzam completed a traditional madrasah education at the early age of fourteen and then studies physical sciences, mathematics and philosophy.

In the course of the second decade of his life, he became extremely convinced that the Turkish madrasah education was inadequate and his own interest in natural sciences led him to construct a new curriculum for the Islamic educational system. He prepared a blue print for the establishment of a university, Medrestu’z Zehra, (the Resplendent Madrasah) in the Eastern Provinces.

In 1917, he arrived in Istanbul and met Sultan Abdul Hamid. Subsequently, he received some funding for the construction of the university and its foundations were laid in 1913. But the beginning of World War I and the subsequent events made it impossible for this project to materialize.

The end of World War I and that of the Ottoman Empire culminated the first phase of Bediuzzam’s life, the period of the “Old Said”, as he would later call it. During the War, he had led the militia forces on the Caucasian Front against the invading Russians for which he was later awarded a War Medal. He was taken prisoner in March 1916 and was held in Russia for two years. In early 1918, he escaped from the prison and made his way back to Istanbul via Warsaw, Berlin and Vienna.

Read full article here. (By Muzaffar Iqbal)
Related: Database on Badiuzzaman Said Nursi

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My JIHAD, a true story

Synopsis

Aukai Collins grew up hard: abandoned, surviving in the streets and running with thugs. While serving time, he converted to Islam, and went to fight with the Muslims who were targeted for genocide in Chechnya and Bosnia.

This led him to Usama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. As terrorist attacks on civilians around the world intensified, Aukai was asked to lead a mission that included hostage taking and the killing of civilians -- something he would not do.

Disillusioned by those who used Islam for their own ends or to attack innocents, Aukai offered his services to the FBI and CIA as a counter-terrorist operative, even getting close to one of the leaders of the September 11 attacks. Yet his greatest strength -- providing insight into the problems surrounding the U.S. government's fight against something it doesn't understand -- was ignored by inept members of the American intelligence community.

My Jihad is an insider's story about the greatest threat to world peace and stability in modern times, told by an unforgettable true-life warrior who has walked the walk, fought the fights, and lived to tell about it.

I read this book (My Jihad) about 3 years ago. This book takes a very good look into the true meaning of 'jihad'. It has awesome descriptions of frontline battles from the man that was there in the face of danger.

Any men (also women), especially American, should read this if they want to understand 'jihad' in its true state (something many Muslims and non-Muslims probably do not understand). The book is very entertaining and easy to read, but sometimes slows pace around many different characters and places.