Asian Century

HONG KONG — For its blistering economic growth and rising political power, global dominance is moving from the United States and Europe to Asia, in what is predicted to be the new Asian Century.

"Yes, absolutely, I think this decade demonstrates the real promise of Asia," Alan Dupont, director of the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Sunday, December 27.

"The last two years in particular have seen a sea shift in real power.

“I think that's been highlighted by the travails the Americans and the Europeans have had after the global economic and financial crisis."

China and India -- the world’s two most populous countries – have become leading world players in recent years over their rising economic and political might.

China has made a blistering economic growth rates of more than 8.0 percent while India achieved growth rates of more than 7.0 percent.

In contrast, Western countries slumped into recession.

Beijing is also considered the world’s biggest creditor country.

Analysts predict that the rise of China and India would define the decades to come after the American Century and the British Century before that.

“Power really has shifted to the East and away from Europe and North America," said Dupont.

Soft Power

The rising political power of China and India is also accelerating Asia’s titling to global dominance.

"There is a shift of the assets and, with that, political power towards China in particular and Asia in general," said Robert Broadfoot, managing director of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.

This is evident in failure to reach any global agreements without the consent of the two Asian giants.

For instance, Beijing’s opposition to a deal that puts a brake on its economic growth nipped in the bud Copenhagen talks to reach a climate agreement this month.

And beyond that lies "soft power" -- the sort of cultural influence wielded last century by the US in particular, from Hollywood through pop culture to fast food.

For example, China's Confucius Institutes around the world now compete with other organizations that project national cultural influence, such as the British Council or France's Alliance Francaise.

Chinese-born actors such as Gong Li, Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi now have Hollywood star power. Writers Ha Jin and Yu Hua are acclaimed internationally.

In addition, Beijing set up a 6.5-billion-dollar fund to expand the global footprint of state-controlled media companies like Xinhua, China Central Television and China Radio International.

Hosting the Olympics last year was also an emphatic declaration of China's global arrival and some of its sportsmen -- such as basketballer Yao Ming and former world-record hurdler Liu Xiang -- have celebrity status.

Chinese scientists are also becoming more prominent, with the nation's space program leading the way.

China was the world's third nation to put a man in space and has ambitions to send a man to the moon.

India has also enjoyed success in space with the announcement in September that its first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, had found evidence of large quantities of water on the moon's surface.

"It has really focused everybody on the fact that China has now arrived and India is not that far behind,” said Dupont.
IslamOnline

Basement Islam

The Battle of the Minarets is spreading across the borders of Switzerland and spilling into France where it’s starting to shine an uncomfortable spotlight on the country’s real attitude towards its six million Muslims.

Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, is a champion of his country’s Republican values, forged in the Age of Reason and Enlightenment. He was quick to declare that he was shocked and scandalized by the result of the Swiss referendum last month which backed a ban on the building of minarets.

But one of the men who shares the same cabinet table as him, the Industry Minister, Christian Estrosi has a radically different attitude.

He also happens to be the Mayor of Nice - a minaret-free zone - and he’s vowed to keep it that way.

The issue has arisen in the midst of a government-sponsored national debate on what it means to be French. It’s a debate that has had some unfortunate side-effects. It has allowed the country’s xenophobes to emerge from under their stones and give their extremist views the oxygen of publicity.

The Mayor though is an eloquent convert to that debate, speaking amidst the elegant frescoes of his City Hall he told me:

“Why not always nourish the debate around the humanist vision of France so that everybody can feel proud to be French, to share the same national identity? Look at me… I’m the son of an immigrant.”

President Nicolas Sarkozy has refused to condemn the result of the referendum in Switzerland and has called on all believers to practice discretion in their religious observance.

He has said politicians should start trying to understand what so many people in Europe - and in France - are now feeling. The President’s political opponents accuse him of a poorly camouflaged attempt to steal some the extreme right’s clothes with local elections due in just three months time.

Nationalists in Nice like Phillipe Vardon don’t mince their words: “ Minarets are just the visible tip of an iceberg of Islamisation - like burkas in the streets of France, halal meals being served in prisons, schools and hospitals. It’s becoming almost obligatory,” he told me.

In a suburb in western Nice we found equally uncompromising opinions amongst the residents of what was supposed to be a temporary re-settlement camp - set up in the early sixties for immigrants following the Algerian war of independence from France.

The fact that it has become a permanent ghetto for Araba from all over North Africa is a testament to the failures of integration in the city. One young man there said since Sarkozy came to power the police had started treating them like thieves. “They see an Arab face and that’s it. You get it”

In Marseille the local administration has given permission for the Muslim community to build a Grand Mosque with a twenty-five metre high minaret.

It’s a decision that has enraged the National Front in the city. One of their leading activists told me: “We must have no minarets and no cathedral like mosques. They are for us a symbol of a Muslim desire for political conquest. It goes way beyond just religious expression.”

Muslim activists in the city say they’ve seen it all before.

Ahmed Najjar told me he wished they could go back to quietly practicing Islam in their basements again:

“ The recipe before every election in France is to wave the scarecrow of immigration … but not every kind of immigration. It’s only the Arabs from North Africa and the blacks. Immigrants the establishment here think practice a kind of religion that is not able to integrate successfully in France … non-solvent religions”

The Muslim community in Marseille still need to find twenty million dollars before they can start to build their Grand Mosque. But no Quranic verses will be broadcast from the minaret. Instead a bright light will sweep the city for the call to prayers.
By David Chater

'Mousavi nephew' among Iran dead

The nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is reportedly among at least five people killed in continuing clashes between police and protesters.

An aide to the leader said on Sunday that Seyyed Ali Mousavi died after being shot by the police, but the claim could not be independently verified as foreign media are barred by the authorities from covering street unrest.

Police said that five people were killed in clashes in the capital Tehran in a "suspicious way".

Ahmad Reza Radan, Iran's deputy police chief, also said that 300 protesters had been arrested following the violence.

"In the incident several people were killed. One fell off a bridge, two died in car accidents and one was killed by a bullet," Radan said.

Referring to the person shot dead, he said: "As the police was not using firearms this (death) is suspicious and it is being investigated."

Opposition websites said at least four protesters were killed in Tehran while another four died in a violent crackdown on opposition protests in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

"During clashes between security forces and protesters ... at least four protesters were killed in Tabriz and many others wounded," the Jaras website said.

It earlier said that four protesters had died in Tehran and protesters chanted angry slogans seeking revenge.

"We will kill those who killed our brothers," it quoted demonstrators as chanting.

Pictures linked on the Twitter microblogging site appeared to show a man with a wound to his head being carried away by opposition protesters.

Ashoura protests

The clashes came as the country's Shia Muslims marked Ashoura, a religious event commemorating the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

Amateur video footage posted on the internet, said to be from the protest, showed protesters running away from riot police or Basij militias on motorbikes.

Al Jazeera's Mohammad Hassan al-Bahrani, reporting from Tehran, said the police had arrested a number of protesters.

"Hundreds of supporters of the Iranian opposition, mainly of reformist forces, have protested and chanted slogans supporting [Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali] Montazeri and Mir Hossein Moussavi," he said.

"The police had earlier threatened to face any unlicensed gatherings, and this is what really happened on Saturday and Sunday."

The opposition had urged people to gather in central Tehran on Sunday morning in defiance of warnings of a harsh crackdown on any protests during Ashoura.

There were also unconfirmed reports of fierce clashes in the city of Isfahan and Najafabad.

Ghanbar Naderi, a journalist with the Iran Daily, an official government newspaper, criticised the protesters for choosing the day of Ashoura to stage demonstrations.

"This is the wrong place and the wrong time for the reformist camps to ask their supporters to get to the streets because this is a very important religious day for the whole of the nation," he told Al Jazeera.

"If they are going to challenge the system now, they have no place among the ordinary citizens. People want to mark and commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein and not their support of any political group or faction."

Difficult day

Sadegh Zibakalam, a professor at the University of Tehran, told Al Jazeera that the sheer number of people gathering in the street for religious commemorations would make it difficult for the police to keep control.

"It's very difficult for the police to prevent the crowds today because Ashoura is the most important day in Shia religion. Hundreds and thousands and millions of people come out in the street towards noon.

"It will be very difficult for the police to distinguish between genuine mourners and those who want to use the procession to register their protest against the government."

The latest protests came after violence broke out on Saturday when a speech by Mohammed Khatami, the former president, was cancelled.

Widespread protests have been held in Iran following the disputed presidential election on June 12.

Protests against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triggered deadly clashes between protesters, security forces and government-backed militia.

Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Kharroubi have said the election was rigged.
Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia relaxes family visa rules

RIYADH: Family visas to expatriates living and working in Saudi Arabia will now be issued on the basis of salary, and not on the basis of the profession mentioned on the visa and iqama (residence permit), newspapers here said on Saturday.

Until now family visas were the prerogative of white collar professionals.

The news is a relief for many of the seven million expatriate workers, including Pakistanis, who until now were unable to bring their families on resident visas due to their profession.

A large number of even white collar expatriates, whose visa categorised them as labourer or who fell in blue collar category, were until now not allowed to bring in their families to Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi foreign ministry and the recruitment office issues permanent resident and visit visas to those in white-collar jobs such as engineers, doctors and executives.

Hence many expatriates often resort to underhand means to obtain family visas.

Local daily Al Yaum report said the ministry would only look at the financial status of the applicant.

“The family visa is no more linked with profession,” a governmental source was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

As per the new system, the salary of a person would be taken into account for issuing visas rather than the profession mentioned on the iqama.

“This is great news for thousands of professionals like me who are unable to bring their wives and children to the kingdom because of the profession in iqama,” said Shabeer Ali, a computer engineer based in Jeddah, whose iqama said he was an electrician.

Ali said he has been trying to bring his family to the kingdom ever since his marriage. “Until now I could not, because they look at the profession on my iqama, which is an electrician. I had presented my Masters Degree in computer science attested by the Saudi Embassy, as well as my salary certificate, but they rejected my application,” he said.

Over the past three weeks, the ministry’s Riyadh office was issuing visit visas to all expatriate workers for their families without considering their profession.

However, the ministry’s branches in Jeddah and Dammam have not implemented the new system as yet as they have not been informed about the changed criteria.

Yemen says Houthi rebel leader may be dead

RIYADH: The leader of Yemen’s Shia rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website and media said on Sunday.

In a separate development, al Qaida’s wing in Yemen said in an Internet statement that it would take revenge over raids targeting the group this month, which it said were carried out by US jets and killed about 50 men, women and children.

The Shia rebels, known as the Houthis after the family name of their leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, are fighting government troops in impoverished Yemen’s mountainous north, complaining of social, religious and economic discrimination.

Yemen’s defence ministry website said Houthi was wounded in an attack by troops and might have died from his wounds.

“There are increasing reports about the death of the terrorist Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who was severely injured in an attack aimed at a gathering with a group of terrorist elements,” the website said, adding that he may have been buried already.

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television also said the rebel leader was dead, citing unnamed Yemeni sources as saying he was killed in an airstrike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report.

The rebels could not be contacted and their website did not comment on the reports. Past reports about Houthi’s death were never confirmed but the latest reports appeared to be stronger.

The conflict drew in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, after the Houthis seized Saudi territory last month, prompting Riyadh to launch strikes against them.

The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaida will exploit instability in Yemen to stage attacks in the kingdom and beyond.

The rebels said in a statement on their website on Sunday that Saudi Arabia launched 31 air raids on the Jaberi area — a Saudi territory with a large rebel concentration — in addition to 15 air strikes on areas in Yemen on Saturday night.

“Air strikes and missiles continued all of last night...,” the statement said. “This morning, the Saudi army began to advance inland into Jaberi.”

Saudi officials could not be reached for comment.

Qaida, Iran connections?

“We will not let Muslim women and children’s blood be spilled without taking revenge,” Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said in its statement dated Dec. 20.

The statement appeared on Islamist websites as US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Washington was investigating whether al Qaida was involved in a Christmas Day attempt to blow up a passenger jet.

But there was no evidence so far that the Nigerian suspect in the case was part of a larger plot, she said.

After renewed attacks on al Qaida on Dec. 24, Yemen said it may have killed the top two leaders of the regional wing of the group as well as an American Muslim preacher linked to the man who shot dead 13 people at a US army base.

Apart from the Houthis and al Qaida, Yemen faces separatist sentiment in the south. On Sunday, the opposition called a strike that shut many shops and offices, witnesses said.

The Houthis rejected accusations by the Yemeni government and some of its regional allies that they have links with al Qaida militants or Iranian groups.

Sanaa has repeatedly accused the rebels of having links to al Qaida, a Sunni Muslim group whose regional wing has staged attacks inside Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

“The allegation about our relationship with what is called the al Qaida group is a fabricated lie and defamation,” the office of Houthi said in comments emailed to Reuters this week before reports appeared about his possible death.

Some analysts have suggested al Qaida may exploit border fighting and may even cooperate with the Houthis. Others dismiss this as al Qaida is partly inspired by Saudi Arabia’s austere Sunni school of Wahhabism, which considers Shias heretics.

The rebels also denied being backed by Iran. Yemen and some Saudi officials have accused clerics in Iran of funding them.

Iran denies involvement and calls for a negotiated solution.— Reuters

Five killed, 300 arrested in protests: Iran police

TEHRAN: Iranian security forces fired on stone-throwing protesters in the center of the capital Sunday in one of the bloodiest confrontations in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said. At least five people were killed.

Some accounts of the violence in Tehran were vivid and detailed, but they could not be independently confirmed because of government restrictions on media coverage.

Police, who denied using firearms, said dozens of officers were injured and more than 300 protesters were arrested.

The dead included a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, according to Mousavi's Web site, Kaleme.ir.

The clashes were sure to deepen antagonism between the government and a reform movement that has shown resilience in the face of repeated crackdowns.

The street chaos coincided with commemorations of Shiite Islam's most important observance, Ashoura, fueling protesters' defiance with its message of sacrifice and dignity in the face of coercion.

Still, many demonstrators had not anticipated such harsh tactics by the authorities, despite police warnings of tougher action against any protests on the sacred day.

Amateur video footage purportedly from the center of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one casualty, chanting, ''I'll kill, I'll kill the one who killed my brother.''

In several locations, demonstrators confronted security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform Web sites.

Protesters tried to cut off roads with burning barricades. One police officer was photographed with blood streaming down his face after he was set upon by the crowd.

There were unconfirmed reports that four people died in protests in Tabriz in northwest Iran, the pro-reform Rah-e-Sabz Web site said. Fierce clashes also broke out in Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran and Shiraz in the south, it said.

Mousavi's Web site said the nephew, Ali Mousavi, was shot in the back on Azadi Street, or Freedom Street, during clashes in which security forces reportedly fired on demonstrators, and was taken to Ibn Sina Hospital. It said Mousavi and other family members rushed to the hospital.

A close aide to Mousavi, a presidential contender in a disputed June election, said Ali Mousavi died of injuries in the hospital. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of reprisals from the government.

The protests began with thousands of opposition supporters chanting ''Death to the dictator,'' a reference to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as they marched in defiance of official warnings of a harsh crackdown on any demonstrations coinciding with Ashoura.

The observance commemorates the seventh-century death in battle of one of Shiite Islam's most beloved saints.

Security forces tried but failed to disperse protesters on a central Tehran street with tear gas, baton charges and warning shots. They then opened fire on protesters, said witnesses and the Rah-e-Sabz Web site.

The site said that in addition to Mousavi's nephew, four protesters were fatally shot _ Mahdi Farhadinia, Mohammad Ali Rasekhinia, Amir Arshadi and Shahram Saraji.

Witnesses said one victim was an elderly man who had a gunshot wound to the forehead. He was seen being carried away by opposition supporters with blood covering his face.

More than two dozen opposition supporters were injured, some of them seriously, with limbs broken from beatings, according to witnesses.

An Iranian police statement said five people were killed in the unrest. ''Experts are seeking to identify the suspicious elements,'' the statement said.

Iran's deputy police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, said one person died after falling from a bridge, two were killed in a car accident, and a fourth was fatally shot.

''Given the fact that police did not use firearms, this incident looks completely suspicious and the case is under investigation,'' Radan said.

He said dozens of injured police were treated in hospitals, and more than 300 ''seditionists'' were arrested.

The clashes marked the bloodiest confrontation since the height of unrest in the weeks after June's election. The opposition says Ahmadinejad won the election through massive vote fraud and that Mousavi was the true winner.

Reporters from foreign media organizations were barred from covering the demonstrations on Tehran's central Enghelab Street, or Revolution Street. Video footage circulating on the Web could also not be authenticated.

Ambulance sirens wailed near the site of the protests. Police helicopters circled as smoke billowed over the capital.

Cell phone services were unreliable and Internet connections were slowed to a crawl, as has happened during most other days of protest in an apparent government attempt to limit publicity and prevent protesters from organizing.

The Dec. 20 death of the 87-year-old Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a sharp critic of Iran's leaders, has given a new push to opposition protests.—AP