"The Rushdie controversy erupted at a time when the Cold War was ending. The Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979, the gradual collapse of the Soviet Union, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, signalled the end of the Communist threat. Add to that the events in the Middle East, particularly the intensifying Palestinian struggle for liberation, the 1980’s hostage crisis in Libya, and the issuing of the fatwa (religious decree) by Imam Khomeini in 1989, and you end up with the stereotype of Islam as a violent religion that breeds terrorism."

"Like Christmas, Dewali and Hannukah, Eid-ul-Fitr is a joyous occasion that brings family and friends together, giving away gifts. The festive atmosphere is displayed by everyone wearing their best attires, and decorating their homes, and feeding guests and anyone who knocks on the door."

"Islamic law and tradition provide a waiver to the young and the sick as well as those traveling. Instead they are expected to make a contribution to a needy family. This year the futra meal to be given to a poor family should not be less than 2.5 Jordanian dinars (US $4). This collectiveness and social networking might be one of the major differences between the individual culture in the West and the collective culture of the East."

"...many far-right settlers are turning their backs on those secular laws that clash with their own convictions. One Israeli observer has noted that these settlers no longer see their chief loyalty to the state of Israel but to the Land of Israel, a land promised by God not politicians."

"This is "The House that George Built" and it, like the famed Yankee Stadium of old, will be with us for generations. Make no mistake, history will be a harsh judge. There will be no monuments built to George W. Bush and no one eager to see his records broken. Only a dramatic change in direction and hard work will enable the U.S. to recoup the stature it has lost and rebuild the fractured nations and tattered relationships this president leaves behind."

When the Congress was debating the $700 billion bailout of the greedy bankers on Wall St., an overconfident Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Baltimore hawking her book, “Know Your Power.” On Sept. 29, 2008, the House of Representatives, responding to a taxpayers’ revolt, rejected the Bush-Cheney Gang’s bailout scheme. Speaker Peolsi, in her library spiel, conveyed a false sense of security about the grim economic situation facing the nation.

"Clearly, this is not matter on which an election anywhere should rest, much less in the world’s most powerful country, one staggering through war and financial crisis. Indeed, the Republican campaign, as it well deserves, has faltered on the merits. McCain is a tired old man with a sour temperament and a narcissistic personality who picked as his sidekick a person who would have reached the limits of her talent as captain of a cheerleading squad. Although certainly not the limits of her ambitions, but isn’t that what America is about, your reach exceeding your talent?"

"The provisional centre of gravity of the Al Qaeda lies in non-state actors in Pakistan and the Arabian Gulf. It is going to be a long bloody war for the US to alter this particular strategic situation."