Friday, March 21, 2008

Why Middle East Continues to Burn? – Muslim World and the so called War on Terrorism

Please don't kill me for too many postings.

Forum on
“Why Middle East Continues to Burn?
– Muslim World and the so called War on Terrorism”

Organized by SIRD

Date: 27 Mac 2008 (Thursday)
Time: 8.00 to 10.00 pm
Venue: The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (No 1, Jalan Maharajalela, 50150 Kuala Lumpur) [see map]
Abstract

Ever since the European colonial power led by Britain planted the Jewish state of Israel on the Palestinian soil the Middle East remains unstable. Isreal’s Western backed aggressive and expansionist policies have cause death and destruction. Even today Isreal remains the sole source of instability in the Middle East aggravated by deep divisions within the Arabs.

Meanwhile the so called war on terrorism turned out to be a war on Islam and Muslims. Under this campaign every Muslim man with a beard and Muslim women with a scarf is regarded as terrorist, hunted, arrested and tortured.

Exploiting the political climates the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and virtually ruined these two countries while Muslims were killed under various pretexts in many Muslim countries.

Under these circumstances what is the future holds for the Middle East in particular and the Muslim in general?

Panelist
1) Mr. Latheef Farook

Latheef Farook began his journalistic career with the now defunct Independent Newspapers in 1966 before joining the Sri Lanka’s premier English language daily Ceylon Daily News and the evening daily Ceylon Observer from 1971 covering local politics and foreign affairs besides finance and economic sectors.

Simultaneously working as the Sri Lankan correspondent for Middle Eastern news agencies following the local response to developments in the Middle East, especially in the context of the strong pro-Arab policy adopted by the then Sri Lankan government of Mrs Srimavo Bandaranaike, he also concentrated on economic developments in the international scene, especially in the developing world.

In 1976, Ceylon Daily News nominated him for the United Nations sponsored Dag Hammarskjold scholarship for Third World journalists.

In 1979, he led a group of Sri Lankan journalists to Dubai, relaunching the Gulf News before joining the Khaleej Times a year later, where for seven years he covered almost every aspect of Dubai’s development program, besides covering the Indian elections of 1979, which brought Ms. Indira Gandhi to power. Rejoining the Gulf News in 1987 he subsequently became the Gulf News Bureau Chief in Bahrain where he filed regular articles on the Gulf’s and Middle East’s sensitive political scene, economy, finance, banking and social problems besides extensively interviewing visiting world leaders.

In 2002 he became Head of Special Reports for the Gulf News in Dubai before returning home to launch the South Asia News Agency in Colombo in 2003, supplying feature articles on almost every aspect of Sri Lanka aimed mainly at catering to Sri Lankan expatriates in the Gulf region, Europe, the Americas and the Far East.

His book “War on Terrorism – The Untold Truths” was first published in Malaysia in May 2006 by SIRD. The book highlights all global issues since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and provides the other side of the US led campaign on the so called “War on Terrorism” which in fact is a global campaign against Islam and Muslims. It is being translated into many languages including Tamil.

Latheef Farook now resides family in Colombo.

2) Dr. Farish Noor

Dr. Farish A. Noor is a political scientist and historian and is presently Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University; and Director of Research for the Research Cluster ‘Transnational Religion in Southeast Asia’.

He is also affiliated professor at Muhamadiyah University, Surakarta and Sunan Kalijaga Islamic University, Jogjakarta, where he teaches both political theory and comparative religion.

He is the author of Islam Embedded: The Historical Development of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party PAS: 1951-2003. (In two volumes), Malaysian Sociological Research Institute (MSRI), Kuala Lumpur, 2004.
His other writings include: Writings on the War on Terror (Globalmedia Press, India, 2006), From Majapahit to Putrajaya: Searching For Another Malaysia (Silverfish Books, Kuala Lumpur, 2005), Islam Progresif: Peluang, Tentangan dan Masa Depannya di Asia Tenggara (SAMHA, Jogjakarta, 2005), Di San Zhi Yan Kan Ma Lai Xi Ya (Sin Chew Jit Poh Press, Petaling Jaya, 2004), The Other Malaysia: Writings on Malaysia’s Subaltern History (Silverfish Books, Kuala Lumpur, 2003); and New Voices of Islam, (International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands, 2002).

Apart from his academic writings he is also a columnist for several newspapers across Southeast Asia, South Asia, South Africa and Europe. His columns have appeared in The New Straits Times, Sin Chew Jit Poh, Malaysiakini.com, The Star, The Pakistan Daily Times, The Khaleej Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, Jakarta Post, Bangkok Post, al-Qalam, and others. He has also been a radio essayist for the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4.

For any further details please contact Ms Choong: 019-3503563 or Zul at 019-3083804 or our office at: 03 79578343/ 8342

(The Strategic Information and Research Development Centre (SIRD) is an independent publishing house founded in January 2000 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The SIRD list focuses on Malaysian and Southeast Asian Studies, Economics, Gender Studies, the Social Sciences, Politics, and International Relations. Our books address the scholarly community, students, the NGO and development communities, policymakers, activists, and the wider public.

SIRD also distributes titles (via its sister organization, GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise Sdn. Bhd.) published by scholarly and institutional presses, NGOs, and other independent publishers. We also organize seminars, forums, and group discussions. All this, we believe, is conducive to the development and consolidation of the notions of civil liberty and democracy.)

***

Any takers?

8 comments:

KahJoon said...

ahem, someone can take over carmen's job of posting about event happening around us d..so much info lah u..

Liz / Ying Xiang said...

I want Malik Imtiaz!

But this sounds interesting enough.
I'm considering.

KahJoon said...

liz u should go lah..dont consider d..haha

that day did u took pics with malik?

amy2kyo said...

i think she did... hmm.. are we going? seems so busy now... how?

KahJoon said...

siao har amy, we can't afford to go this one lah..alot of things to do

amy2kyo said...

say me siao here? in front of other ppl? you siao ah? grr! haha.

of course we've got a lot of things to do, just asking la..

Liz / Ying Xiang said...

nvmd ppl, nvmd. if i went i'd be siao also.

but i didn't go la.

wah, next sem also a siao sem kah?

yes, got a pic with him, malas wanna show off on my blog so no one nampak yet.

KahJoon said...

yeah...y2s1 alot of writing..but very little presentation. so yeah, its crazy..