Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund by assets under management, said today in a review of its 2011 performance that up to 45 per cent of its total portfolio has been invested in developed market equities, while up to 20 per cent is deployed in emerging market equities, and government bonds.

Real estate assets comprised up to 10 per cent of ADIA’s portfolio, private equity formed 8 per cent, and infrastructure made up 8 per cent. Credit, alternative investments and cash were each capped at 10 per cent in the ADIA portfolio. Investments in small cap equities were capped at 5 per cent, ADIA said.

“That’s our benchmark for the total portfolio and the range for 2011 was the same as 2010,” an ADIA spokeperson told Gulf News by telephone.

North America and Europe accounted for the biggest chunk of ADIA’s investments, with about 60 to 85 per cent going to the regions.

The ADIA Review provides a broad overview of its activities in 2011, including analysis of market conditions across the many asset classes in which it invests in.

Powerful headwinds

“2011 was a year in which financial markets and global economies once again proved their resilience in the face of powerful headwinds. While buffeted by considerable volatility, and a series of unforeseen events, including the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the year drew to a close with a renewed sense of optimism that the most serious risks may finally be behind us,” Shaikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ADIA’s managing director, said.

He added: “Despite facing undoubted short-term risks, the global economy offers many exciting and important opportunities. Economic advances require the input of capital through a range of vehicles, from private equity and direct investments to public equities, hedge funds and also government bonds. As a long-term investor, we see ourselves as providers of this necessary capital, with the advantage of patience and the ability to ride out dips in the economic cycle.”

ADIA said with the current level of government bond yields, the valuation of global equities remains attractive for long-term investors in general and especially in the emerging market space.

“Indeed, emerging markets have already outperformed their developed peers over the past decade and we expect this trend to continue. As inflation crests, we expect emerging market central banks such as those in China and India to continue with their counter-cyclical monetary policies, which will in turn support some expansion in valuation multiples, assuming consensus top-line growth expectations continue to be realised,” it added.

Risk aversion

ADIA, whose assets range from Citigroup bonds to a stake in Britain’s Gatwick airport, said high volatility in emerging market stocks had more to do with increased risk aversion among investors than fundamental concerns.

“Looking forward, it is likely that such volatility will decline over time as investors gain confidence in the ability of emerging markets to manage the various challenges they face and begin to focus more on economic fundamentals,” the fund said in its latest review.

ADIA returned 6.9 per cent on an annualised basis over a 20-year period, as of December 31, 2011, a slight drop from the 7.6 per cent it posted in 2010. On the same basis, the fund returned 8.1 per cent over a 30-year period, similar to 2010.

Restructuring

In 2011, ADIA restructured its external equities department, separating indexed funds from active funds as part of a more focused strategy.

It merged what had been four departments into one for the active funds, while a new indexed funds department is also being set up. An internal restructuring was undertaken last July.

ADIA does not disclose its assets but analysts estimate the value of assets under its management range between $400 billion to $800 billion.

SOURCE:gulfnews.com

While Egyptians inside Egypt were split in their vote in their recent election, Egyptians living in the West were overwhelmingly in support of the Islamist candidate. Indeed, many Egyptian Americans who have dual citizenship and are living in America voted at Egyptian consulates throughout the United States. They did so both in the primary Egyptian elections, which occurred a few weeks ago, and now in the recent final elections for president of Egypt between the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi and the former Prime Minister, Ahmed Shafiq.

Both Alarabiya TV and Egyptian national TV reported that Egyptian immigrants voted 75% in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate in the primary. Now in the final elections, again Egyptian immigrants voted over 75% for Mursi. If we consider the Christian Egyptian Americans who voted for the former prime minister of Egypt, the percentage of Muslim Egyptian Americans who voted for Islamists could have reached over 95%.

While voters inside Egypt are almost equally split 50/50 between Sharia and no-Sharia, we find the votes of American Egyptian Muslims reflecting an unprecedented level of radicalization that surpasses most Muslim countries. This should be very troubling to Americans, especially to those who care about Homeland Security.

Over the last 3 or 4 decades, American Islamic groups and mosques have managed to radicalize a large number of Muslim Americans, especially those who attend mosques. While they publicly tell us they are “moderate” and that there is nothing to fear from Islamic law, they turn around in private and hold the banner of jihad and Sharia and command Muslim Americans not to assimilate in America.

Muslim immigrants to the West have, in general, rejected taking the hard role of positively changing their countries of origin and inspiring them with new ideas of freedom, democracy and human rights. Instead, Muslims in America have focused on building mosques with aid from Saudi Arabia rather than protesting against Iran’s execution of apostates and stoning of women. They have focused on defending and lying about Sharia in America rather than teaching values of life liberty and pursuit of happiness to their countrymen. They have focused on a message of anti-Semitism, blaming America and holding Israel apartheid weeks, rather than on assimilating in America, initiating peace dialogue or holding an olive branch out to Jewish students.

Contrary to logic and to the brotherhood of all humans and cultures, American Muslim groups have maintained the same high levels of hate, anger and victim mentality that exists in many areas of the Muslim world. And now Muslim Egyptians in the West have not only ignored the welfare of the 50% Egyptians who do not want to live under Sharia, but have also ignored the reasonable fears from Islam by the American public and instead insulted them as racists and “Islamophobes.”

The situation in Egypt is very grim with forces of radical Islam now coming down on anti-Sharia Egyptians from every direction, even from Egyptians in the West. There are reports that many businessmen with their families are already leaving the country on their private planes from Cairo Airport. A couple of friends of mine in Egypt are begging over the phone and by email to get them out of Egypt, as though I have the authority.

With all the internal problems of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood appears to be itching for a confrontation with Israel. It has been reported that the Brotherhood has encouraged missile attacks on Israel from Gaza in coordination with Hamas. Consider that in addition to the missiles striking the Israeli Red Sea city of Ilat last April from the Egyptian Sinai. Furthermore, the Egyptian authorities seized a large number of artillery from civilians in the governorate of Bahariya in the Egyptian Delta.

America must register the fact that American Muslims are more radical than Muslims in many Muslim countries and that this radicalization must be exposed and its source stopped. The U.S. must fight to stop Sharia legally, socially and culturally before we get a demand for Sharia by the growing Muslim population in America. The West must understand that Sharia is rejected and feared by many Muslims in the Middle East and that wherever Sharia is practiced, freedom and democracy cannot exist. The example of Egypt today should be clear as to what America must do to fight Sharia and Islamists and never allow them to flourish. America must never leave the job of fighting Sharia to our children and grandchildren to fight it when it is too late in the streets of America.

What is happening in Egypt today should be a lesson to the West as to what can happen to a once-upon-a-time great civilization that flirted with Sharia.

SOURCE:FRONTPAGEMAG.COM

(Reuters) – An instructor who provoked debate in his classroom of military officers by suggesting the United States was at war with Islam has been relieved of teaching duties at a military college and the course ordered redesigned, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

The course at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, part of the U.S. National Defense University, had been offered since 2004, according to Colonel David Lapan, spokesman for the chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Lapan said “institutional failures in oversight and judgment” resulted in changes to the content about two years ago that resulted in inappropriate materials being introduced.

These materials included one slide that asserted “the United States is at war with Islam and we ought to just recognize that we are (at) war with Islam,” Pentagon officials said in April when they launched a review of the course in response to a student complaint.

The instructor was a U.S. military officer. Lapan declined to identify the instructor by name, citing privacy requirements.

Discovery of the course material embarrassed the military at a time when U.S. officials are trying to mend ties with the Muslim world following a spate of incidents in Afghanistan, including the burning of copies of the Koran and pictures showing U.S. soldiers posing with corpses of Afghans.

Lapan said an inquiry found the initial course content in 2004 was fine but “over time bad decisions and poor judgment was exercised in how the course was modified.”

“The inquiry recommends the course be redesigned to include aspects of U.S. policy and reduce its reliance on external instruction,” Lapan said in a statement.

“The elective course’s military instructor has been relieved of his instructor duties until his permanent change of station, which was previously planned for 2012,” the statement said.

It was not immediately clear how many students at the college for top military officers had taken the course over the past two years, but Lapan said there were no plans to offer new training to update them on U.S. policy toward Islam.

Lapan said the instructor used provocative statements about Islam in an effort to stimulate thinking and debate in the classroom.

“It was meant to be something … to stimulate discussion and challenge people’s beliefs,” Lapan said. “The flaw was that it didn’t clearly define that it was meant to be provocative.”

The inquiry also recommended a review of actions by two civilian employees at the staff college to see if disciplinary action was merited because of their failure to exercise proper oversight, Lapan said. Administrative counseling was recommended for a second military officer, he said.

Lapan said the course content was considered inappropriate because it failed to include U.S. government policy on countering extremism and “the material on Islam … was presented almost all in a negative light.”

“It was not focusing on certain radical elements of Islam that do provide a threat but instead painting all of Islam in a negative light,” he said.

Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ordered the review of the course on Islam and military education in general after a soldier complained about the content of the course entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamite Radicalism” at the college in Norfolk, officials said.

SOURCE:REUTERS