Headline News 19/05/2017

Headlines

• Donald Trump's Speech on Islam being Drafted by Muslim Ban Architect Stephen Miller

• Trump to Unveil Plans for an Arab NATO in Saudi Arabia

• China Takes Project of the Century’ to Pakistan

Details

Donald Trump's Speech on Islam Being Drafted by Muslim Ban Architect Stephen Miller

Donald Trump's speech on Islam is being drafted by Stephen Miller, who previously drafted the administration's failed travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries. The speech on combating radical Islam is to be given to around 50 Muslim leaders during the President's first official visit to Saudi Arabia. The President will “will deliver an inspiring but direct speech on the need to confront radical ideology and the president’s hopes for a peaceful vision of Islam to dominate across the world,” National Security Adviser HR McMaster said. “The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilization and to demonstrate America’s commitment to our Muslim partners,” he added. Mr Miller, who is senior adviser to the President, played a key role in drafting the Trump administration's ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries, which was denounced as a ban on Muslims. He also reportedly wrote Mr Trump's inauguration speech, though the President claims he wrote it himself. While he was a student at Duke University, Mr Miller co-founded the Terrorism Awareness Project, an initiative run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which has been accused of ties to anti-Muslim hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. At the time, Mr Miller said the project was aimed at educating students about the risk of "Islamofascism". [Source: The Independent]

How can fifty leaders of the Muslim world listen to and avid hater of Islam who openly promotes vitriol against Muslims and their belief system?

Trump to Unveil Plans for an Arab NATO in Saudi Arabia

When President Trump arrives in Riyadh this week, he will lay out his vision for a new regional security architecture White House officials call an “Arab NATO,” to guide the fight against terrorism and push back against Iran. As a cornerstone of the plan, Trump will also announce one of the largest arms-sales deals in history. Behind the scenes, the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia have been conducting extensive negotiations, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The discussions began shortly after the presidential election, when Mohammed, known in Washington as “MBS,” sent a delegation to meet with Kushner and other Trump officials at Trump Tower. After years of disillusionment with the Obama administration, the Saudi leadership was eager to do business. “They were willing to make a bet on Trump and on America,” a senior White House official said. In that meeting and during a follow-up meeting three weeks later, the Saudis proposed a broad elevation of the U.S.-Saudi relationship and proposed various projects to increase security cooperation, economic cooperation and investment, White House officials said. The Trump team gave the Saudis a list of Trump priorities, calling on the kingdom to step up actions to combat radical Islamic extremism, intensify the fight against the Islamic State and share the burden of regional security. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has tasked various government agencies to develop a series of announcements Trump will make this weekend. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is now heavily involved. One main objective is to put forth a framework and basic principles for a unified Sunni coalition of countries, which would set the stage for a more formal NATO-like organizational structure down the line. “We all have the same enemy and we all want the same thing,” the official said. “What this trip hopefully will do is just change the environment.” The idea of an “Arab NATO” has been bandied about for years — and has always had strong Saudi support — but until now was never openly endorsed by the U.S. government. Officials said the concept fits three major tenets of Trump’s “America First” foreign-policy frame: asserting more American leadership in the region, shifting the financial burden of security to allies and providing for U.S. jobs at home (through the massive arms sales). [Source: Washington Post]

The Saudi’s continue to cement American hegemony in the region by buying arms from the US and by spearheading plans to invade fellow Muslim countries at the behest of America. Now Trump travels to Riyadh to give a speech on Islam after accusing Saudi Arabia of carrying out 9/11. Despite this, Saudis are keen to welcome Trump. Have the Saudis lost all sense of reasonability to protect Islam and the Ummah?

China Takes ‘Project of the Century’ to Pakistan

It is the pet project of Xi Jinping, China’s president, who described the infrastructure-driven scheme this week as “the project of the century” when he met heads of state to discuss progress. On the surface Pakistan is on schedule to be one of the largest beneficiaries of Mr Xi’s ambition and arguably no country has as much to gain. Growth in gross domestic product is running at close to 5 per cent a year but it is not enough to absorb the 2m to 3m people entering the job market annually. “Pakistan has not been part of the world for a long time,” says Khurram Dastgir Khan, the commerce minister. “We were in a dark bubble and we are only just emerging.

There is a fear that China will sell us cheap goods because we can’t compete. [But] China is the only game in town.” Such concerns are an acknowledgment that Pakistan’s economy has struggled, not only when compared with neighbouring India but also against the likes of Bangladesh, which has built a large manufacturing base.

Beijing is set to invest more than $55bn in its neighbour, building power plants, roads and railways to give its infrastructure a much-needed upgrade as it seeks to emerge from years of political instability. Estimates from the Pakistan Business Council suggest the projects could account for 20 per cent of the country’s GDP over the next five years and boost growth by about 3 percentage points. But Pakistan’s policymakers also hope the relationship — Beijing last month provided more than $1bn in loans to help Islamabad stave off a currency crisis — will insulate it from the possibility that China will use its investments as a way to grab resources, profits and political power from its smaller, poorer neighbour. [Source: Financial Times]

China is not giving away billions of dollar to Pakistan so that the country can stand on its own feet. On the contrary, the loans are intended to make Pakistan indebted to China, in the same way, America gave loans to control Pakistan. But Pakistan’s leadership is deliberately oblivious to this reality and is openly embracing Chinese money.