Understand The Times, International

Comment from UTT:

A major shift in the global affairs in now underway. Islamic nations empowered by petroleum are now suggesting Allah is "punishing" non Islamic countries by the financial meltdown that is presently underway. Expect to see a global currency be proposed as a means of solving this global problem with a global solution.

October 11 - Haniyeh: American Empire is collapsing

America's opponents in the Middle East are gloating at the financial meltdown in the United States, describing it as the divinely inspired collapse of an overstretched empire.

Hardline clerics across the region as well as representatives of US opponents like Hamas and al-Qaeda have described the plummeting stocks and frozen credit markets in the United States as a kind of retribution for American misdeeds.

"We are witnessing the collapse of the American Empire," Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in the Gaza Strip, told worshippers during Friday prayers. "What's going on in America is a result of the violation of the rights of people in Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Muslims around the world."

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a high level Iranian cleric, was more blunt when he addressed worshippers on Oct. 3, describing the situation as God's punishment. "We are happy that the US Economy is in anarchy and the anarchy is reaching Europe," said Jannati. "They are seeing the result of their own ugly doings and God is punishing them."

Al-Qaeda, America's arch-nemesis in the region, was one of the first to express satisfaction over the financial crisis in a half hour video message early in the month. "The enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the expanding crisis their economy is experiencing," said American al-Qaeda member Ahmed Gadahn.

"God has responded to the supplications of the oppressed people," Mufti of Mount Lebanon Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Jouzo told the state-run news agency Thursday. "It is the curse that hits every arrogant power