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35 Words of Wisdom You Will Never Forget


The world is full of wisdom--it isn't at all hard to find if you are looking for it. At its best, if this wisdom holds fundamental truths that can lead you to the happiness you want, and it leads you to the success you are looking for and the life you have always dreamed about.

Here are 35 of wisest truth, if you can make them part of your daily life and never forget them, you are well on your way to cultivating a life that you have always wanted.

1. You create your own opportunities. Success doesn't just come and find you--you have to go out and get it.

2. Never break your promises. Keep every promise; it makes you credible.

3. You are never as stuck as you think you are. Success is not final, and failure isn't fatal.

4. Happiness is a choice. For every minute you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of your own happiness.

5. Habits develop into character. Character is the result of our mental attitude and the way we spend our time.

6. Be happy with who you are. Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect but that you have decided to look beyond the imperfections.

7. Don't seek happiness--create it. You don't need life to go your way to be happy.

8. If you want to be happy, stop complaining. If you want happiness, stop complaining about how your life isn't what you want and make it into what you do want.

9. Asking for help is a sign of strength. Don't let your fear of being judged stop you from asking for help when you need it. Sometimes asking for help is the bravest move you can make. You don't have to go it alone.

10. Replace every negative thought with a positive one. A positive mind is stronger than a negative thought.

11. Accept what is, let go of what was, have faith in what will be. Sometimes you have to let go to let new things come in.

12. A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to what it was. Experience is what causes a person to make new mistakes instead of old ones.

13. If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn no one can stop you.

14. Be confident enough to encourage confidence in others. Show those around you that you have confidence in them.

15. Allow others to figure things out for themselves. The fixer ends up becoming the enabler. Let people figure it out for themselves; give them a chance to learn.

16. Confidence is essential for a successful life. Don't compare yourself to others; compare yourself to the person you were yesterday and give yourself the confidence to be better tomorrow.

17. Admit your mistakes and don't repeat them. If you can't admit your mistakes, you are destined to repeat them.

18. Be kind to yourself and forgive yourself. You can't know what you haven't yet learned, you can't become proficient without first being a beginner and you can't be perfect. Welcome to the human race.

19. Failures are lessons in progress. Failure is always forgivable if you have the courage to learn its lessons and move forward in a new way.

20. Make amends with those who have wronged you. Apologizing doesn't always mean that you're wrong and the other person is right. It just means that you value your relationships more than your ego.

21. Live your life on your terms. Define what your life is on your own terms and achieve it by your own rules. Build a life you're proud to live.

22. When you don't know, don't speak as if you do. If you don't know, simply don't speak.

23. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Live by the Golden Rule. Always.

24. Think before you speak. Never say anything that doesn't improve on silence.

25. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have.

26. Life isn't as serious as our minds make it out to be. Life is too short to always be taken so seriously.

27. Take risks and be bold. At the end, we regret only the chances we didn't take.

28. Remember that "no" is a complete sentence. Learn to say no without having to explain yourself.

29. Don't feed yourself only on leftovers. When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself.

30. Build on your strengths. The struggle you are in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.

31. Never doubt your instincts. Trust your hunches; they are usually based on facts filed away in your unconscious mind.

32. FEAR doesn't have to stand for Forget Everything and Run. Sometimes it can be Future Expectations Appearing Real.

33. Your attitude will influence your experience. How you respond is at least as important as what happens to you.

34. View your life with gentle hindsight. Stop beating yourself up about things from your past. Instead of asking yourself, "What was I thinking?" ask yourself "What was I learning?"

35. This too shall pass. Just because today is terrible doesn't mean tomorrow won't be the best day of your life. You just have to get there.
by Lolly Daskal, inc.com

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Islamic Revival رساله تجديد الاسلام ‏

An in-depth study of the Qur’an and Islamic religious history reveals startling facts. “Risala-e-Tajdeed-ul-Islam” is a message to develop positive change in the thought and practices of Muslims.
قرآن اور اسلام کے گہرے مطالعه سےحیران کن حقائق کا انکشاف ہوا، "رساله تجديد الاسلام" مسلمانوں کے انداز فکروعمل میں مثبت تبدیلی کا پیغام ہے:

Artificial intelligence makes human morals more important

Image result for artificial intelligence
Machine intelligence is here, and we're already using it to make subjective decisions. But the complex way AI grows and improves makes it hard to understand and even harder to control. In this cautionary talk, techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci explains how intelligent machines can fail in ways that don't fit human error patterns — and in ways we won't expect or be prepared for. "We cannot outsource our responsibilities to machines," she says. "We must hold on ever tighter to human values and human ethics."

 China-Russia-Pakistan axis looks real: What course will Delhi chart vis-a-vis Islamabad?


Before it becomes a 'universal truth', driven by the echo-chamber effects of mass media, it is time to challenge a notion that is of late gaining huge traction in India - that post Uri, Pakistan now lies boxed in a sulky diplomatic corner.

Subscribers of this view point to recent Indian success in leading five Saarc nations into boycotting the host Islamabad. The Narendra Modi government's efforts to boost Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative For Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) ties - a regional realignment excluding Pakistan and comprising Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal - and the decision to invite the leaders during the recent Goa Brics Summit have been lauded as a diplomatic masterstroke that further reinforced Pakistan's isolation.

Though Brics and Bimstec declarations refrained from taking Pakistan's name, Indian foreign policy experts have pointed to the meaty stress on terrorism, from what are essentially geo-economic alliances and have interpreted these as more proofs of Pakistan's growing ostracisation.

If anything, China has masterfully sought to fuel this impression. In its state-run mouthpiece Global Times, it accused India of using Brics-Bimstec Summit to "outmaneuver and force Pakistan into becoming a regional pariah", conveniently forgetting its own role in influencing Russia against checkmating India's almost every move of cornering Islamabad.

As usual, the truth is layered and infinitely more complex. Behind India's ceremonial triumphalism and China's smoke-and-mirror game lies the fact that Pakistan is no more isolated on international stage now than it already was before Uri. If anything, the shifting sands of global power and realigning of regional forces indicate that Islamabad now sits more smug than ever due to its close relationship with the world's newest superpower - China.

It was seen as little more than a frustrated bluff from Pakistan when one of Nawaz Sharif's 22 envoys recently visited Washington to 'apprise the world on India's brutalities in Kashmir' and ended up threatening the US over its growing coziness with India. He finished with a typical rhetorical flourish that Pakistan simply doesn't care if US chooses to side with its enemy, because China is on its side. And yet, Special Kashmir Envoy of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Mushahid Hussain Syed, who talked aggressively of a new China-Russia-Pakistan axis, wasn't far from truth.

A barely reported fresh development on South China Sea that promises to have far-reaching consequences has gained little attention in India. As we remained fixated on Pakistan, Philippines - America's oldest strategic ally in Asia and among its staunchest - cut off (or at least threatened to) its umbilical cord with US and fell onto rival China's lap like an overripe fruit.

This was a move so little anticipated, dramatic and profound that it left China squeaking in delight like a kid in candy shop and triggered deep tremors in Washington. Consider the significance. It was Philippines, under former president Benigno Aquino III, who dragged China into the international tribunal for its territorial claims and military-strategic advances on South China Sea. And it was only in July this year that Beijing was handed a sound thrashing for breaking international maritime laws.

For Philippines, therefore, to effect what Foreign Policy calls an abrupt "vertigo-inducing change in Manila's orientation" is beyond staggering. It may totally reshape the regional alignments where plucky Philippines set the tone for Malaysia and Vietnam to take on China's increasingly assertive and aggressive dominance. With the biggest US ally moving towards Beijing, China's hegemony on the crucial passage of South China Sea, which facilitates the passage of $5 trillion worth of trade each year, is only going to become near total.

China's sleight of hand was evidently on display by the way it dangled the booties

Strategists in Washington are at a loss to explain Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte's move. Explanations have ranged from his congenital dislike of Barack Obama (he insulted the US president as 'son of a w**re') to China's dangling of a slew of economic carrots which proved irresistible for Manila. Be that as it may, the very fact that Duterte, during the just-concluded visit to Beijing, warmed up to China like a moonstruck lover and talked of Xi Jinping as 'elder brother', point to China's growing clout.

As PTI reported from Beijing last Thursday, after a meeting with Jinping, Duterte perhaps shocked even the room full of Chinese and Filipino business delegates themselves by declaring: "I announce my separation from the United States. Both in military, not maybe social, but economics also. America has lost… I've realigned myself in your ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to [President Vladimir] Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world - China, Philippines, and Russia. It's the only way."

In Foreign Policy, Max Boot details the history of US-Filipino relationship: "The US ruled the Philippines as a colonial power from 1899 to 1942 and implanted its culture in the archipelago. In World War II, US and Filipino troops fought side by side against the Japanese occupiers. In 1951, Washington and Manila signed a mutual defence treaty. For decades afterward, the Philippines hosted two of the largest US military installations overseas at Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base… In 2014, President Barack Obama signed an agreement with then-president Aquino III that would allow US forces more regular access to bases in the Philippines and increase the tempo of training exercises and military cooperation between the two countries."

So this wasn't just an indication of China's growing clout; it was also an unequivocal symbol of how smaller powers align themselves to whom they feel would better protect their interests. After the Modi government's NSG ambition was vetoed by Beijing, triggering deep resentment in India, China offered a piece of advice to outraged Indians. It said that if India wishes to become a global power, it must first figure out how the big boys operate. China's sleight of hand was evidently on display by the way it dangled the booties.

A report in Bloomberg points out: "China will provide $9 billion in soft loans, including a $3 billion credit line with the Bank of China, while economic deals including investments would yield $15 billion, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told reporters in Beijing on Friday. Preliminary agreements in railways, ports, energy and mining worth $11.2 billion were signed between Philippine and Chinese firms.

And The Economist writes: "Duterte wants lots of infrastructure, particularly railways. China is offering cheap loans. He wants the country to export more. China is offering to reopen its markets to Philippine fruit. He wants help with the war on drugs. A Chinese businessman is building a big rehab centre. And he wants Filipino fishermen to be able to return to their traditional fishing grounds around the Scarborough Shoal. China has told Philippine officials that it is open to an accommodation."

Suddenly, the pieces seem to be falling in place. Given the way Russia - now increasingly indebted to Chinese capital, investments and even to tourists from world's most populous nation - has shown every sign of cozying up to Beijing and has even opened new military-strategic ties with Pakistan, that China-Russia-Pakistan axis now looks like an increasing possibility.

India shouldn't count its chickens. Yet.

China-Russia-Pakistan axis looks real: What course will Delhi chart vis-a-vis Islamabad?
by Sreemoy Talukdar, firstpost.com


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What Is Russia's Plan With India?

Russian president Vladimir Putin visited India for the bilateral meeting of leaders of Russia and India, and the BRICS summit in Goa. As usual, president Putin spent few hours in India.

This made it more difficult to cover all the important issues of the strategic partnership between Russia and India. Russia seemed reluctant to go into details on some issues. Pakistan was one of them.

As ex-speaker of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin, who is now chief of Foreign Intelligence Service, noted in 2015, the cooperation of Russia and Pakistan has “particular and intrinsic value.” In other words, the most comfortable position for Russians is to have separate tracks and approaches with Pakistan and India.

But it doesn't go down well in south Asia, and it isn't acceptable for Indians, who are following the dramatic development of the military cooperation between Russia and Pakistan with growing concern. Just a week before Putin’s visit, Russia and Pakistan held joint military exercises, Druzhba-2016 (Friendship-2016).

Moscow and Islamabad initially agreed trainings in two places, including Rattu in Gilgit-Baltistan, which is seen by Delhi as an Indian territory, occupied by Pakistan. However, on September 18, there was an attack on a military facility of the Indian Armed Forces in Uri, a town in the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir. India blamed the attack on a Pakistan-based jihadi group, and the situation added to anger in India over its strategic partner, Russia, deciding to undertake military drills with Pakistan.

In response to the Indian reaction Russia decided to hold Druzhba-2016 exercises only in Cherat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, rather than in in the disputed region of Gilgit-Baltistan. It would have been wiser to postpone the drills if not to cancel them at all, if Russia sought to take into account the negative feelings of India’s bureaucracy. Yet, to India, Russian authorities seemed almost deaf to voices from Delhi.

In general, before and during Putin's visit to India there was little explanation from the Russian side as to why Russia had decided to boost military cooperation with Pakistan. Indians hardly took seriously the words of the Russian ambassador Alexander Kadakin, as reported in India Times: “"India should not be concerned about military exercises between Russia and Pakistan because the theme of the exercise is anti-terror fighting. [It's] in India’s interests that we teach the Pakistani army not to use itself for terror attacks against India.” The key point of the Indian position, that it considered Pakistan not only part of solution of the terrorist threat in South Asia, but also part of the terrorism problem, was not addressed by the Russian authorities.

For Indian leaders the bilateral summit in Goa became a unique opportunity to convince Russia to change its course in south Asia, and to understand the Russian position about hot topics in the region, including cross-border terrorism and the territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. But when prime minister Narendra Modi explained Indian concerns to president Putin, the Russian response seemed less concerned than expected. Just before Putin’s visit to India, Russia's land force commander-in-chief general Oleg Salyukov confirmed that Russia would hold another round of military exercises with Pakistan in 2017.

As for now it looks like Russia doesn’t want to change its course in south Asia. However, observers could see that the Russian delegation was warmly welcomed by Indian counterparts at the BRICS summit. It might seem like India’s anger over the military cooperation between Russia and Pakistan was over. Yet it would be wrong for Russians to become complacent.

The positive coverage in India could be explained in two ways. First, political leaders of Russia and India decided not to let hot issues leave closed doors. It is in the interests of Putin and Modi to show cordial relations between Russia and India, each for different reasons. At a time of big problems with the West, Moscow tried to show that it has close friends and almost allies around the world. For Modi it was important to show that the foreign policy of India remains diversified and balanced (not pro-American as it’s seen by some inside and outside India).

The second explanation of the positive reaction is that for the Indian side it wouldn't be wise to focus on the drills with Pakistan at a time when they are agreeing the purchase of S-400, stealth frigates, and, reports suggest, the possible lease of a second nuclear submarine. How else could Delhi could give the green light to such strategic projects with the Russians, whose flirting with Pakistan gives them reason for serious concerns?

Being very interested in such projects, India seemed to prefer to stay mute over the issue of the relations between Russia and Pakistan. Moscow could use the planned military-technology cooperation to tackle Delhi's openly negative reaction to the Druzhba-2016 drills. It looks like Moscow succeeded in doing this.

It is widely believed that the Russian leadership is stronger at tactics, short-term planning, than at strategy and long-term foreign policy. If that is the case, the Russian strategic partnership with India may become a victim of this.

Moscow will remain one of the key sources of military technologies for India for many years. No doubt, the Indian path towards acquiring strategic military technologies would be harder and longer without Russian assistance. Moscow played a very important role in the development of the civilian nuclear sector of India. At the summit in Goa, Moscow confirmed its intention to be one of the key players in the oil and gas sector of the Indian economy. And Indians appreciate that.

But the problem is that these long-term projects may be developed separately from the wider relationship between Russia and India, where there is poorer economic interdependence, weaker political contacts, and bigger suspiciousness and even mistrust. Russian tactical gains in the fields of military technologies and energy may be sunk by strategic failures in political and economic relations between Russia and India. To avoid this Russia badly needs to produce a long-term strategy towards India and the region of south Asia, and to stop thinking about India and Pakistan tactically and separately.
by Petr Topychkanov, newsweek.com

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How to Avoid Falling for an Internet Hoax


We’ve all seen them from time to time, those attention-grabbing headlines that either infuriate or profoundly amaze us to the point that we drop whatever it is we’re doing to find out more. Sometimes friends and family members are already sharing the news via social media, thereby helping to either infuriate or amaze an even greater number of people. The problem? The news isn’t real. It is a Hoax!

Just What is an Internet Hoax?

To define an internet hoax is actually quite simple; it is false information that is deliberately made to masquerdade across the internet as factual. In other words, it’s a lie. Most commonly, such hoaxes are intended to fool as many people as possible in as little time as possible.

Everyone has fallen for an internet hoax at one point or another. Sometimes we don’t even find out that what we’ve been told is false. On the surface, there may appear to be nothing inherently wrong with this. And it is true that these hoaxes are often silly and seemingly pointless. In reality, however, internet hoaxes can not just make people feel foolish– they can do real damage to both individuals and society as a whole.

The Harm in Hoaxes

The best internet hoaxes are well-written and appear to be very reliable (at least to the common victim), and they are designed to incite intense, unnecessary feelings and promote ignorance. For example, in 2013 news spread like wildfire across the internet that Jackie Chan died in an accident while filming a new movie. To most, the story was very believable. After all, it was reported on numerous websites (even some with general news credibility), and the idea of Chan dying in a filming accident was plausible because he had long been known for performing his own daring stunts in action movies. Nevertheless, the story just wasn’t true, and Chan himself eventually proved it by taking a photo of himself with a newspaper printed days after his “death”.

Even worse, internet hoaxes are often designed to get their victims to give up personal information about themselves or even infect their computers with viruses. The Jackie Chan death hoax not only misled people everywhere, but the main source of the hoax also lured many of its victims into clicking on malicious links.

Other times hoaxes are not entirely false, but the context in which they are presented is misleading and harmful. One such example was an incident in 2008, where an income security firm advisor read a news article about United Airlines filing for bankruptcy. The airline’s stock plummeted as a result, and it wasn’t until the bankruptcy story was revealed to be six years old (it was first published in 2002) that their stock began to recover.

Then of course there are hoaxes that cause severe harm to a person’s professional and/or personal life. Victims of these types of hoaxes are often celebrities, politicians or other public figures, but in truth anyone can unwittingly have harmful falsehoods spread online about them. For example, a Florida woman named Sue Scheff fell victim to such a hoax or “smear campaign” in the early 2000s. Various postings naming her as a con artist and a fraudster appeared in 2002 and throughout 2003, which caused Scheff’s business to suffer and stifled her ability to gain new clients (much less keep old ones). The good news is that Scheff did go on to win a $11.3 million defamation lawsuit (though not until 2006) against the creator of the hoax, a woman from Louisiana named Carey Bock, but by then the damage had been done.

Spotting a Hoax

The internet can certainly be a cruel place, but that doesn’t mean you can’t navigate around its pitfalls successfully. The No. 1 rule to follow when it comes to internet hoaxes is that you can’t believe everything you read. So, whenever you see some incredulous news or a juicy scandal being exposed online, it’s time to do a little extra digging to make sure it’s legit. Keep in mind that legitimate news will check out in multiple areas, so you should always keep numerous factors in mind:

Check the source (Is the website a reliable and respected source? Have you even heard of it before? Believe it or not, there are actual internet hoax websites devoted entirely to spreading false information).
Is it being reported by multiple, reliable sources?
Is the date current?
How well is the post or article written? (Legitimate sources often have professional writers and editors working for them).
Look at the surrounding advertisements (if they appear to be largely spam, the info may not be legitimate)
Beware of pop-ups (if there are multiple pop-up advertisements, exit your internet browser immediately).
Are you being asked to give personal information? (If so, close the window right away).
Are you being asked to “share this post” to receive further information and/or gain some other reward? (Don’t do this. It’s most likely a hoax).
If the information is received in an email, take a look at the sending address. Do you recognize it?
Social media is the most common area in which you’ll first become exposed to a hoax. In fact, the Facebook hoax is among the most common of all. The sad thing is that many of our friends and family members often share information they came across without investigating it very deeply, and they often shrug it off when someone does happen to point out that it’s all a hoax. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean you should cease with the warnings when your friend does happen to share a hoax. After all, their privacy and security could be at risk. And besides, nobody likes to see someone they care about get duped and made to look like a fool.

In addition to checking the factors already mentioned above, one easy way to investigate potential hoaxes is to copy and paste the original news message (or at least a good portion of it) into a search engine. If it’s legitimate, multiple websites (reliable and established websites, with names you recognize) will have most likely reported the same information. If not, there may even be warnings already that it’s a hoax.

Helpful Websites

Although there are plenty of scam websites and sites designed just to promote false information, the good news is that there are others working against them. A great website to check out the validity of something is Snopes.com, a website that’s been investigating and debunking online hoaxes for years. Just a quick search on Snopes will tell you whether something is true or not (and if there is no listing yet for the post in question, you can also contact the Snopes staff and ask them to investigate it).

Another great hoax-debunking tool is Hoax-Slayer.com. This website takes interest in all internet scams, specifically hoaxes spread via social media and email. Hoax slayer also offers spam filters and anti-spam and virus tips for your email and other accounts.

Keeping Yourself in the Clear

In addition to not falling for hoaxes in general, it’s crucially important that you do not become the direct target of one (remember the smear campaign mentioned earlier). Online lies about you or someone you know personally are most likely not going to be ranking among the top internet hoaxes anytime soon, but they can still wreck havoc in the most important areas of your life. After all, employers today often Google job applicants to find out more about them, and anything they find– whether complimentary or unflattering– can greatly influence the decision to hire.

So, here are a few tips you can use to protect your online presence from hoaxes:

Google your name on a regular basis to see what comes up when people search for you.
Do not post any photos or information that portray you in a socially unnacceptable manner.
Do not post any photos or information that could tie you to criminal activity (whether real or fake).
Do not accept friend requests on social media from people you do not know and/or do not trust.
Take immediate action if you discover information about you that isn’t true. If it was posted by someone you know, ask them to take it down. Even if it is someone you don’t know, do not be afraid to reach out to them and ask for the post’s removal.
Take legal action if necessary. If other attempts are not working, you may have to resort to getting a lawyer. They can not only help you successfully get the false information removed, but they can also file a defamation lawsuit on your behalf.
Get good virus protection softwar. This will also help protect your computer from hackers.
The Bottom Line

Being proactive when it comes to internet hoaxes is key. Never take something at face value, and don’t be afraid to let your friends and family members know that something is a hoax. Help keep the internet safe.
Source:https://nobullying.com/hoax/


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Islamic Revival رساله تجديد الاسلام ‏

An in-depth study of the Qur’an and Islamic religious history reveals startling facts. “Risala-e-Tajdeed-ul-Islam” is a message to develop positive change in the thought and practices of Muslims.
قرآن اور اسلام کے گہرے مطالعه سےحیران کن حقائق کا انکشاف ہوا، "رساله تجديد الاسلام" مسلمانوں کے انداز فکروعمل میں مثبت تبدیلی کا پیغام ہے:

Does France have an issue with Islam? La France at-un problème avec l'islam?


According to Francois Hollande, "France is having an issue with Islam". The French president, who is likely to run for another term in elections to be held next spring, has not hesitated to fuel the already sensitive debate on the question of identity through remarks about Islam and the Islamic veil in France in an upcoming "tell-all" book called A President Should Not Say That, which features 61 interviews with the president by Le Monde journalists Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme.
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Sharia doesn’t ask women to cover face - Niqab》》》》》

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What is it we can find in this book? Various thoughts and considerations about his girlfriend Julie Gayet, remarks about French national football team players who are referred to as "naughty and rude kids" or "uber-wealthy celebrities," comments about what "cowards" magistrates can be, and above all many observations on an issue France has been obsessing about: Islam.

First of all, Francois Hollande says something that he has never attempted to say before: "There’s an issue with Islam, this is a given, no doubt.

"Nowadays, Islam is being used as a political, ideological and even terrorist advocacy tool, in order to destabilise democracies and the French Republic. Let’s not pretend there’s no issue here: there is one. However, we have to overcome it."

Living up to his reputation of being compromising, or, as some like to say, "always vague," Hollande adds "the real danger that Islam raises here does not lays in the religion itself, but in how the religion fits in the Republic. The real problem would be if Muslim people do not report any extremist action, or if the imams would speak in ‘anti-Republican’ terms."

A few pages on, we read that "the veiled woman of today" will be "the Marianne [symbol of the French Republic] of tomorrow".

"If we provide the right environment for her to thrive, she will free herself, take off her veil and become a French woman, a religious French woman if she wants to, capable of rooting for what she believes in […] What is it we are wishing for here? We wish that this woman will chose liberty over servitude […] Maybe for the moment the veil is a protection for her, but tomorrow she won’t need it anymore, there will be a place for her in society."

Left- and right-wing reactions

As soon as the juicy details leaked in the press, politicians of all stripes stepped in to comment. Marine Le Pen, president of the far-right Front National, started it off by saying she was "grieved" and asked herself "when does the president actually work?".

"How can the president of the Republic spend that much time with journalists?" she asked, referring to the president's allegedly pronounced taste for meetings with journalists, which takes up to "a third of his time," according to some sources.

In the French Republic, the idea of having a veiled Marianne as the state's symbol did not go down well. Bruno Le Maire, candidate to the Republican primaries, struck back on social media by saying that "tomorrow as it was yesterday, Marianne will never be veiled!" Guillaume Larrivé, an MP close to Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who is aleady campaigning to be elected next spring, said: ‘France won’t regress’.

Finally, within the Socialist Party, the crisis procedures have been activated. The first secretary of the party, Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, said that "all of that is far from being the French people's main concern".

Indeed, according to the latest opinion polls, unemployment is the most important concern of the French.

Between resignation and anger

Middle East Eye has met and interviewed French Muslim people. Amel, 38, shrugged it off:

"Another controversy against Muslim people. That is old news. There’s no Islam, there’s Muslim people. How am I an issue for France? And why can’t I represent France with my veil on?"

The spokesperson of the Fédération des Musulmans du Sud (Muslims of the South Federation), Feïza Ben Mohamed, said the president's comments were "shocking".

"Hollande doesn’t preach social cohesion here. The elections are coming up, we are in the midst of the State of Emergency and threatened by terrorists, but the president blames it all on a religion whilst advocating for the live-together concept and reject prejudices," she said in comments to MEE.

"I don’t know what is up with all those politicians in France," said an inhabitant of Nice, where a terror attack claimed by the Islamic State group occurred last 14 July.

"He is clear: to be considered as French you need to take off your veil. As if there was only one way of being French. If Islam bugs people that much it’s only because Muslim people have become visible. French Muslim people have political aspirations, like any other citizen."

'Aren't you pretty? Unveil yourself!' French colonial poster distributed during the Algerian Revolution. pic.twitter.com/48zwC90EK3

‘Aren’t you pretty? Take that veil off!’: French colonial poster that was distributed during the Algerian revolution, posted on Twitter during the burkini controversy last summer (@musab_ys)

An election-oriented manoeuvre

Pierre Tevanian, a professor of philosophy and author of Unveiling: From the Hijab to the Burqa: a French Obsession, called Hollande's comments a risky discourse.

"Saying that a religion is an issue in France is a problem itself. Or, we have to admit that France has an issue with Islam and we need to treat Muslim people equally," he told MEE.

The author especially condemned what the president said about Marianne.

"The woman who is wearing a veil will be Marianne only if she takes it off. She will have to submit herself to the diktats imposed by a man, by the parliament. Her freedom is scorned. In his sentence, [Hollande] forfeits her nationality to the woman who does not take off her veil.

"Yet, the majority of the women veiled in France are French. Not foreigners. This is another way of excluding a fringe of the population. This is exactly what the Front National is saying."

Nacira Guenif, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Paris VIII University, made the same observation:

"Hollande is depicting a Muslim woman who needs to be rescued. This is the same discourse as the neoconservatives who were in favor of the war in Iraq or in Afghanistan, claiming that they would save women from obscurantism and Muslim men.

"The majority of women who are actually wearing the veil have no problem whatsoever with their identity and live in peace. Hollande gives an orientalist twist to this veil, which is, on the contrary, for a lot of women, a means to emancipate themselves.

"In the French society, the oppression does not come from the veil itself, it comes from the public discourse, from all discriminatory practices in the labour market," she told MEE.

Was it a provocation? A blunder? A way of showing that Francois Hollande has in mind the next presidential elections and will probably run?

With his remarks about Islam, did the president stir the identity brew France has been boiling in, whilst trying to bring people together?

According to Nacira Guenif, he did.

"Hollande is campaigning and wallowed in the most populist comments. Apparently, he has completely changed his position, and he is no longer talking as the president. He is doing what the left-wing party has been doing for the past 30 years, meaning, recycling the Front National theses and making them appear more ‘left-wing’. But it doesn’t work."

If the French president, who is likely to run for another term, has grasped the two main tendencies that dominate public opinion in France - obsession over Islam and bringing people together - his appearence of always being in the middle makes him inaudible and even dangerous.

"He goes from pulling at the threads of identity anxiety, to trying to keep up a left-wing apparence. This is schizophrenia. While saying that there will be no civilisations war in France, he is obviously sowing its seeds."

This article was originally published on Middle East Eye's French website and translated by Nassima Demiche.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Hassina Mechaï is a French-Algerian journalist based in Paris. She holds a Masters Degree in Law and one in International Relations and is specialised in Africa and Middle East affairs. Her topics of reflexion are world governance, civil society and public opinion, and media and cultural soft power. She has worked for various French, African and Arab media, including Le Point, RFI, Afrique Magazine, Africa 24, Al Qarra, and Respect Magazine.

Photo: Paris Mosque rector Dalil Boubakeur (C) walks with French President Francois Hollande (L) as they visit the Grande Mosquee de Paris prior to a ceremony to unveil a memorial for Muslim soldiers (AFP)
Does France have an issue with Islam? That's what Francois Hollande is sayinno
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/does-france-have-issue-islam-thats-what-francois-hollande-saying-1804519708

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We are facing the possibility of a second Cold War – and if it happens, Isis will never be defeated

When America and Russia cannot act together in the face of a common threat on the scale of Isis, then there is little cause for optimism Getty
At the risk of sounding a little foolish, there is, sadly, much evidence that World War Three has already arrived, though not quite in the way so many futurologists of the past imagined it, as a clash between superpowers, their tanks chasing each other across the North German plain.
Nowadays, our planet is much more kaleidoscopic and asymmetric in its violence than that, and the world is pretty much in flames already, should we care to look. The question is whether all the present (relatively) little wars could actually mutate into, or trigger, a real superpower conflict involving the US, Russia and China, at the least.
We are probably not yet at the most dangerous pass since 1945: the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and the early 1980s felt more frightening in those terms, in truth much more than after 9/11, traumatising as that event was. But we are certainly in risky, unstable, uncertain times.
Former Mi6 Chief says we’re entering an era ‘more dangerous than Cold War’
There are about 195 countries in the world. Only a dozen or so can be said to be properly at peace: Iceland, the world’s most peaceful country according to the Global Peace Index, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Slovenia and Finland. A tiny proportion of the world’s population reside in these outposts of calm. The list of conflicts, wars, civil wars, insurgencies and permanent states of terror is a much longer one, from the all-too-familiar agonies of Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Boko Haram in west Africa, and Yemen through to less well-covered conflicts such as the drugs wars in Mexico and insurgencies from Burma to Armenia and Azerbaijan to (until recently) Colombia. Britain, one way or another, has been in some sort of conflict every year since 1914, with the sole exception of 1968.
So the world is at war, and more so than at any point than in most people’s lifetimes. It is a way of life for most of humanity. Each conflict is different, of course. Slogans such as the “war on terror” or the “war on militant Islamism” fail to capture this reality. After all, many of these conflicts – as we see graphically in Syria and Yemen, for example – are between different groups of militant Islamists, with the Sunni-Shia divide more or less visible. Closer to home, in Northern Ireland, some of the bloodiest moments in the Troubles came when armed Republicans fought armed Loyalists, rather than the security forces. The tendency with al-Qaeda and Isis is for semi-autonomous or autonomous groups, or just random disaffected individuals armed with only a light truck or a smuggled gun, to “affiliate” themselves, often after the event.
The “clash of civilisations”, the famous phrase coined by Samuel Huntington a quarter century ago, has not materialised in the sense he envisaged – substantial blocs of nation states fighting conventional wars across “faultiness”. Instead, we have these fragmented, chaotic, unpredictable sets of “players” that vary in size and potency from the United States of America to a lone maniac with a machete on a train in Germany, or gangs of drunken child soldiers in the Central African Republic. There are proxy wars which defy easy categorisation into a pattern of “the West versus the Rest”. Where America wants to retain friendlier relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose side is the US on in the proxy war between Tehran and Riyadh in Yemen? When the Hutu and the Tutsi attempt genocide, they do so for ethnic not geopolitical reasons.
Even so, the immediate danger now is Cold War 2, much more than a “hot” Third World War, though one could grow out of the other. The US-Russia relationship is on a pivot between progress and failure, more so than at any time since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Also unsteady are America’s and Russia’s respective relations with China, which, as has been true since the Sino-Soviet split in 1961 and Richard Nixon’s historic visit in 1972, can be categorised, in Huntington’s terms, as a “swing superpower”, and a better armed, active and richer one nowadays.
When America and Russia cannot act together in the face of a common threat on the scale of Isis, then there is certainly little cause for optimism. Putin won his war in the Ukraine with the annexation of Crimea and the de facto capture of eastern Ukraine, on the very borders of Nato and the European Union. Perhaps, had Donald Trump not been so enchanted by Vladimir Putin, we would have heard more about that particular failing by the Obama administration in the presidential campaign.


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