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Corruption is an incurable cancer that kills millions of Filipinos. It needs chemotherapy to stop the cancer. Corruption kills, and corruption is pervasive. It affects all dimensions of people’s daily lives from poorly building roads, high prices for electricity, business practices, crime, violence, as well as unequal access to health care, education, medicine. Corruption erodes people’s sense of equity and their belief in justice. It undermines trust in the police, government, judiciary, military, business sector, and society. According to Transparency International Corruption takes many forms, but always involves the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” I am not trying to blame the Philippines government for failing to tackle corruption, but rather I want to talk about the change that President Elect Rodrigo Duterte is talking about that we all can take part in to stop corruption.Duterte stressed that the death penalty must be reimposed during his administration. He was to deliver the promised crackdown on criminality plaguing the country. “I need it to combat crime and to deter it,” Duterte said during a media conference, before meeting foreign dignitaries who were among his well wishers. Duterte has made it clear that under his administrations, the war against drugs will start from the barangay level; Duterte said he would recruit militiamen similar to the special Civilian Armed Auxiliary, but they must have completed the basic Reservation Officer Training course. Continue reading →

According to Islam, one of the signs of the Last Day is the rising of the sun in the West. Of course, throughout history many people have interpreted the glory of the sun and the stars according to their own superstitions thinking that the universe is indestructible and will last for all eternity. However, according to the Quran this kind of perfect design that has lasted billions of years is the work of Allah who created everything and by his command, it will come to an end in a similar way. Also according to the Quran, the time when the universe, all forms of life from human beings to microorganisms, the stars and galaxies, come to an end is an hour. This is a particular hour used in the Quran to describe the Last Day. The Quran does not tell when it will happen, but only that there are many signs to be expected such as the Second Coming of Jesus, the killing of the anti- Christ (Dajjal), the appearance of Mahdi, and the dominance of Islamic morality throughout the world, including the increase in the number of wars, anarchy, poverty, adultery, prostitution, and sexual perversion, and the increased frequency of disasters and earthquakes. Many will recognize a similar list from the Christian New Testament, written six centuries before the Quran. Furthermore, Islam teaches that the world will suffer from many material and spiritual problems. Continue reading →

With this election season’s campaigns in the home stretch, the quadrennial in the US and in the Philippines, the quadrennial and sexennial, respectively, contest for lying, misdirection, fact bending, half-truths and lies in the challenge to win the hearts and minds of voters is in full swing. The lying seems to be a means of capturing the electorate’s vote; lying is reaching its apogee and the question is why are politicians getting away with lies? No matter what politicians say or claim, eventually someone digs up the truth. Then, because it is the truth, it eventually floats to the surface. If politicians have not been honest up until this point, how have they been lying? When politicians renege on campaign promises, they are not being “economical” with the truth but cheating the public in order to win the election. Everything politicians say about each other is probably true, but everything they say about themselves is most likely not true. Most of time politicians cheat their way to power because, evidently, that is the only to appear on the ballot box. The one who actually speaks the truth usually does not make it that far. Other politicians or media eliminate them beforehand. Continue reading →

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waits for the arrivals of leaders and representatives of the Islamic countries before the opening of the 13th Organization of Islamic Cooperation, OIC, Summit in Istanbul, Thursday, April 14, 2016. Turkey hosts the two-day 13th OIC Summit with presidents, prime ministers and ministers attending to discuss several issues.(Presidential 

The leaders of the Islamic world met at their 13^th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Istanbul as the Muslims of the world face their greatest challenge in history. The Summit ended last week with Turkey’s Erdoğan becoming the term president. Muslims have lost their sense of nationalism, which was and still is the hallmark of the Islamic ideology. The Muslim world faces huge changes within; Iran is in a proxy war with Saudi Arabia in Yemen and Syria; Turkey is at war with the Kurds in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Turkey; and Iraq is fighting the Kurds– all with Muslims killing Muslims. As of now the Shia-Sunni conflict is of primary importance, but the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) failed to take any measure to stop the killing. Continue reading →

It is a fact that the majority of profound thinkers in America are conservative; they used to have a conservative outlook on life, but this has been declining in that they have devising worldviews just like their liberal colleagues whether in the National Review, the City Journal, the Commentary Magazine, or the Wall Street Journal, among others institutions. Of course, there are bright leftist and liberal thinkers, but those who understand the depth of human nature, the state of mankind, life, history, and wisdom of the great conservative thinkers and writers hold to traditional values. I write this because true conservatism believes in American exceptionalism, that it is the only country founded on the principles that all men are created equal and that their human rights such as life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, are unalienable because they are granted, not by any government, but by the Creator. If the Creator does not create these rights, they are essentially worthless, since the government can declare them null and void at any time it wishes. Continue reading →

Nowadays, a very interesting question about the relationship between Islam and democracy arises: Is Islam compatible with democracy and democratic values or any form of government that empowers the people and limits the power of leaders to hold merely representative offices with limited terms of public service? Can Islam be modernized? Can the West and Islam coexist? Can the West defeat fundamentalism and stop terrorism? Can the West be successful in selling its version of democracy to Muslims? The answer to these questions has a huge impact on the lives of 1.4 billion Muslims around the world. The impact results from the fact that the overwhelmingly majority of Muslim populations are governed by either non-democratic nations or unstable democracies. In Islam the state is intended to be inseparable from religious rule. Islamic law, or Sharia–regulation that is complete and not designed to coexist with or to be subordinate to other legal systems. Continue reading →

The book tells us that we shall know them by their fruits. It is rather ironic that many mainstream media publish so many opinion articles about Donald Trump’s being the world’s most dangerous man, a racist, a bigot, and a Nazi, and the United Kingdom has even tried to ban him from entering the UK when he is not even in power. I am not a Donald Trump supporter, but I do not think Trump is a racist or an extremist, nor are the people who support him a bunch of haters, racists, or bigots. Americans are angry because their politicians have promised much and delivered little. My choice of candidates was Ben Carson, and he is already out of race, strangely endorsing Donald Trump. But what I have seen here is an example of superficial bias in journalism influenced by political ideology. I think that Donald Trump is playing to the crowd because he speaks to their language; he understands people are angry. Donald Trump’s rhetoric is like what George Orwell in his seminal “Essay Politics and the English Language” referred to as language for concealing and not expressing thought rather than as an instrument of expressing thought. Orwell argues that our language has become, “ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” While Trump’s language, and perhaps thought, is slovenly, his push for power is concerted. Continue reading →

Muslims around the world have been deceived by the idea that the West and America are the enemies of Islam, and that they are modern day Crusaders who want to destroy Islam and to subjugate them. But what Muslims have failed to understand all along is that the real enemies of Islam are within Islam. I would argue that the real enemy of Islam is not the West, not the United States, not the Jews, not Donald Trump, but Islam’s worst enemies are Muslims themselves. They are the ones using religion for their own gain. When someone points out these facts of truth, they conveniently condemn them as an enemy of Islam or call them Islamaphobic.Muslims should look in the mirror and face the inescapable facts. They should do some soul searching and ask themselves why Muslims fail to be united against the tyranny of Bashir Al- Assad. It is time to ask how, in the modern world of the twenty-first century, the Muslim world has produced ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama Bin Laden, and many other of the world’s most brutal demagogues. Why do most of the terrorist groups call themselves Muslims? It is true that religion should not sanction the killing of innocent people, especially women and children, least of all Islam. Continue reading →

Russia’s military action in Syria has no exit plan. Pundits and experts have argued about whether Russia is trying to rescue Assad or whether it is fighting ISIS. What is Russia‘s Putin really trying to do in the Middle East? Another question is will Putin’s foreign policy in the Middle East succeed? These questions are often politically significant; however, the Western perception that Putin is there to fight against ISIS is wrong. The international system is in crisis and urgently needs a new system of governance. Turkey’s President Recep Tayip Erdogan rightly argues that our world is bigger than five, which means that more than 193 countries’ peace and security depend on five countries in the United Nations’ Security Council, a ratio that must change. I do not understand why the international community is not pressuring the United Nations’ Security Council to change. Continue reading →

Turkey is shelling Kurdish forces across the border in northern Syria. As Kurdish forces move forward, village after village is falling under the control of these Kurdish forces as they are trying to gain access to Azaz, Syria and to the surrounding areas, which are very important to Turkey. Turkey does not want the Kurds to have access to the Mediterranean corridor just as it does not want the Kurds to have an independent Kurdish canton as its neighbor like Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Turkey has long insisted that Syria’s Kurds pose a greater threat to its security than ISIS and is upset that the United States is helping the Kurds. Therefore, Turkey wants to portray the Kurds in Syria as a terror group and as a threat to the US and to the international coalition, characterizing their territory as a place where they also can act against the Islamic State group. However, the Kurds never killed any Turks, and for decades the Kurds in Syria have lived in their homeland without citizenship. The Kurds in Syria could not work, could not travel, and could not get the proper jobs because they did not have any proper documents or citizenships. The Kurds have been oppressed by the regime for decades, so this is a great opportunity for them to get their freedom. Kurds are like any other nation in that they would like to live in their homeland free and equal. No one has a right to take away God-given right from the Kurds. Continue reading →