Muslim Life Malaysia

2007-10-08T00:58:00.000+08:00

Guidebook for Muslims in space

By MAZWIN NIK ANIS

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has come up with the world’s first concise and comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Abdullah Md Zin said the book of guidelines would be translated into English, Russian, Arabic and possibly more languages, for the benefit of future Muslim astronauts.

“There is a lot of interest in the book prepared by the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).

“We even have foreign broadcasting stations like Al-Jazeera and Japan Broadcasting Corporation requesting for interviews solely on the guidelines.

“The reason we formulated guidelines for Muslims in space is because we wanted to ensure our astronaut could fully concentrate on his mission, without having to worry about how he should perform his religious obligations in space,” he said yesterday.

Malaysia’s Angkasawan will blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct 10.

While medical officer Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, 35, and Armed Forces dental surgeon Kapt Dr Faiz Khaleed, 27 are both eligible to go to space, it is highly likely that Dr Sheikh Muszaphar will be the lucky one.

Abdullah said astronomy was an integral part of Islamic civilisation and several prominent astrologers in world history were Muslims.

He said the book, titled Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites at the International Space Station, among others teaches the Muslim astronaut how to cleanse himself the Islamic way, on performing ablution, determining the Qiblat (the location of Kaabah) and prayer times as well as on how to fast in space.

“Jakim painstakingly collected views and opinion from ulamas, religious scholars and scientists, before coming up with the guidelines. We are happy to share this 18-page book with the rest of the world,” he said.

Source : The Star Online

Jakim's Director of Research, Anan C. Mohd said the chosen astronaut has the option of either fasting in space or replacing those days when he is back on earth as he is considered a traveller.

"Should he choose to fast in space, it would be a great experience and we would look forward to him sharing his experience so that we can document it."

Islam allows for a certain flexibility in observing the rituals.

Anan said the astronaut will be observing his fast and other religious obligations following the time of the nearest place to the ISS. In this case, it will be based according to the local time at Baikanor, the launching pad.

The astronaut need only pray five times daily following the practice on Earth, even though the ISS will be orbiting Earth 16 times a day.

On the direction for praying, he should be facing Makkah. However, under the circumstances that do not permit him to do so, he should face the direction of Makkah or Earth or any direction, in that order.

When it comes to ritual cleansing or ablution, owing to the limited supply of water and the absence of dust in the ISS, the astronaut only needs to rub both his palms on the wall, glass or seat.

"There is no conflict between Islam and science.

"Islam encourages its followers to appreciate and explore outer space," Anan added.

Source :Program Angkasawan Negara Advertorial

Download of A Guideline To Ibadah At ISS
(Right click, Save Link As..)

2007-09-16T00:49:00.000+08:00

The "Yoga" Of Islamic Prayer

By Karima Burns, MH, ND

Called “one of the oldest systems of personal development encompassing body, mind and spirit” by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, yoga has become one of the fastest growing health trends today. It has been renowned for centuries for its curative powers of movement.

Yoga consists of a number of “asnas,” or body positions, which one retains for a desired length of time while either reciting “mantras” or breathing in a rhythmic manner. Its benefits have been researched by many doctors who now recommend it to their patients, by many medical schools such as Harvard, and by many foundations such as the Menninger Foundation.

In fact, yoga has become so popular that secretaries have developed a simplified sitting version that they can do at their desks. The elderly, pregnant women and athletes also have their own versions.

Interestingly, for the millions of people enrolled in yoga classes, the Islamic form of prayer has provided Muslims for fourteen centuries with some of yoga’s same (and even superior) benefits. This simple form of “yoga” offers physical, mental, and spiritual benefits five times a day as Muslims assume certain positions while reciting Qur’an and athkar (remembrances).

Of course, not all the yoga positions are found in the Islamic prayer. However, hospital researchers have concluded that patients benefit from even a simplified version of yoga, and most hospital yoga programs, such as those at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Massachusetts, consist of only five to seven positions.

The Muslim prayer has five positions, and they all (as well as the recitations we make while performing the prayer) have a corresponding relationship with our spiritual and mental well being, according to modern scientific research. The benefits of performing specific movements and recitations each day come from the correct rendition of the position or action itself, the length of time the position is held, and from careful and correct recitation techniques.

Each of the five prayer positions has a corresponding yoga position, and the positions together “activate” all seven “chakras” (energy fields) in the body. The idea of activating a chakra may sound linguistically strange, but it is easier to understand once one translates that word into more familiar language.

Eastern healers believe that each of the chakras correlate to major nerve ganglia that branch forth from the spinal column. Thus, the concept of activating these nerve centers is akin to getting a chiropractic adjustment or installing a medical stimulating device on the spine to correct corresponding bodily malfunctions.

In layman’s terms, the idea of chakras can be understood by thinking about how the sense of “feeling” functions. One notices, when touching any part of the body, that that part responds by being more “awake” and aware. Another part of the body that was not touched, but is along the same nerve pathway, may also respond.

When a person is sitting, for instance, they may not be thinking about their legs, which are momentarily at rest; however, if someone touches them, they will again be “aware” of them. Chakras work in much the same way.

Studies have found that varying areas of the body, when activated by touch, movement or thought, evoke specific emotional and physical responses in much the same way that a smile can evoke the feeling of happiness, and actually increase circulation – even if one was feeling sluggish and unhappy before smiling. This is one of the reasons that it is so important to perfectly perform all of the movements of the Islamic prayer, rather than haphazardly rushing through them.

The Takbir and Al Qiyyam together are very similar to the Mountain Pose in yoga, which has been found to improve posture, balance, and self-awareness. This position also normalizes blood pressure and breathing, thus providing many benefits to asthma and heart patients.

The placement of the hands on the chest during the Qiyyam position are said to activate the solar plexus “chakra,” or nerve pathway, which directs our awareness of self in the world and controls the health of the muscular system, skin, intestines, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and eyes. When the hands are held open for du’a, they activate the heart “chakra,” said to be the center of the feelings of love, harmony, and peace, and to control love and compassion. It also governs the health of the heart, lungs, thymus, immune system, and circulatory system.

Muslim researchers have shown that when Muslims recite the Qur’an, old thoughts, feelings, fears and guilt are released or healed, and blood pressure and stress levels are reduced. Virtually all of the sounds of the Arabic language are uttered while reciting Qur’an, creating a balance in all affected areas of the body.

Some specific sounds, in fact, correspond to major organs in the body. In his research and creation of eurhythmy, Rudolph Steiner (founder of the Waldorf Schools), , found that vibrations made when pronouncing the long vowels, 'A', 'E' and 'U,' stimulated the heart, lungs, and the thyroid, pineal, pituitary, and adrenal glands during laboratory tests.

The position of Ruku is very similar to the Forward Bend Position in yoga. Ruku stretches the muscles of the lower back, thighs, legs and calves, and allows blood to be pumped down into the upper torso. It tones the muscles of the stomach, abdomen, and kidneys. Forming a right angle allows the stomach muscles to develop, and prevents flabbiness in the mid-section.

This position also promotes a greater flow of blood into the upper regions of body – particularly to the head, eyes, ears, nose, brain, and lungs – allowing mental toxins to be released. Over time, this improves brain function and ones personality, and is an excellent stance to maintain the proper position of the fetus in pregnant women.

The Sujud is said to activate the “crown chakra,” which is related to a person’s spiritual connection with the universe around them and their enthusiasm for spiritual pursuits. This nerve pathway is also correlated to the health of the brain, nervous system, and pineal gland. Its healthy function balances ones interior and exterior energies.

In Sujud, we also bend; thus activating the “base chakra,” which controls basic human survival instincts and provides essential grounding. This helps to develop levelheaded and positive thinking along with a highly motivated view of life, and maintains the health of the lymph and skeletal systems, the prostate, bladder, and the adrenal glands. We also bend the “sacral chakra” during Sujud, thus benefiting and toning the reproductive organs.

The position of Al Qaadah, (or Julus) is similar to the Thunderbolt Pose in yoga, which firms the toes, knees, thighs, and legs. It is said to be good for those prone to excessive sleep, and those who like to keep long hours. Furthermore, this position assists in speedy digestion, aids the detoxification of the liver, and stimulates peristaltic action in the large intestine.

Last, but not least, the “throat chakra” is activated by turning the head towards first the right and then the left shoulder in the closing of the prayer. This nerve path is linked to the throat, neck, arms, hands, bronchials, and hearing – effecting individual creativity and communication.

It is believed that a person who activates all seven nerve pathways at least once a day can remain well balanced emotionally, physically and spiritually. Since this is the goal of all sincere Muslims, we all should strive to attain the perfection of stance, recitation, and breathing recommended in the Hadith while performing our prayers – the very same techniques of perfection taught in popular yoga, Tai Chi, and many other exercise classes.

Source :-IslamOnline.net

The arrival of the month of Ramadhan has given us the opportunity to increase our ibadah. May the above article make us more diligent in the performance of of our prayers, especially in the Tarawih prayers.

kilamxx

Also see:- Illustrated Muslim Prayer M ovements

2007-08-28T00:35:00.000+08:00

Minimum Amount Of Water Needed For Ablution

Question

I have one litre water. Can I use this water for wudhu before shalah? How much water minimum we use for wudhu?

Fatwa

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

One litre of water is sufficient for performing ablution; rather a Mudd (which equals 0.688 litre) is enough. It is confirmed that the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) used to perform ablution only using one Mudd and would perform Ghusl (ritual bath) using one Saa' (which equals 4 Mudds), as reported by Al-Bukhaari and Muslim may Allaah have mercy upon them. Therefore, whoever uses a Mudd properly in ablution; it will be enough for him.

As regards the minimum quantity of water which is sufficient for ablution, then most of the scholars may Allaah have mercy upon them are of the view that there is no minimum quantity of water. What should be considered is that the limbs which must be washed in ablution are washed. Therefore, if a person performs ablution and washes all the limbs that should be washed in ablution even with a quantity lesser than a Mudd, then his ablution is acceptable. Indeed it is confirmed that the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) performed ablution with a third of a Mudd. [Al-Haakim].

Ibn Qudaamah may Allaah have mercy upon him said: “This is the view of Ash-Shaafi'i and the view of the majority of the scholars may Allaah have mercy upon them.”

However, some scholars may Allaah have mercy upon them are of the view that less than a Mudd is not sufficient as the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) said: “A Mudd is enough for ablution and a Saa' is enough for Ghusl.” [Ahmad and Ibn Maajah]. According to this view, the narration sets the estimation of the quantity of water which is sufficient for ablution and that anything less than that is not sufficient.

Any way, according to both views, if the limbs that must be washed in ablution are not properly washed with a Mudd, and there is a need for more water, then it is acceptable as long as there is no extravagancy.

Allaah Knows best.

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb

2007-08-26T00:39:00.000+08:00

NO AMERICAN PRESIDENT CAN STAND UP TO ISRAEL

By Paul Craig Roberts

"No American President can stand up to Israel."

These words came from feisty Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations (1967-1970) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1970-1974). Moorer was, perhaps, the last independent-minded American military leader.

Admiral Moorer knew what he was talking about. On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked the American intelligence ship, USS Liberty, killing 34 American sailors and wounding 173. The Israelis even strafed the life rafts, machine-gunning the American sailors leaving the stricken ship.

Apparently, the USS Liberty had picked up Israeli communications that revealed Israel's responsibility for the Six Day War. Even today, history books and the majority of Americans blame the conflict on the Arabs.

The United States Navy knew the truth, but the President of the United States took Israel's side against the American military and ordered the United States Navy to shut its mouth. President Lyndon Johnson said it was all just a mistake. Later in life, Admiral Moorer formed a commission and presented the unvarnished truth to Americans.

The power of the Israel Lobby over American foreign policy is considerable. In March 2006, two distinguished American scholars, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, expressed concern in the London Review of Books that the power of the Israel Lobby was bending US foreign policy in directions that serve neither US nor Israeli interests. The two experts were hoping to start a debate that might rescue the US and Israel from unsuccessful policies of coercion that are intensifying Muslim hatred of Israel and America. The Israel lobby was opposed to any such reassessment, and attempted to close it off with epithets: "Jew-baiter," "anti-semitic," and even "anti-American." Today Israeli citizens who oppose Zionist plans for greater Israel are denounced as "anti-Semites."

Many Americans are unaware of the influence of the Israel lobby. Instead they think of the US as "the world's sole superpower," a macho new Roman Empire whose orders are obeyed without question or the insolent nonentity is "bombed back to the stone age." Many Americans are convinced that military coercion serves our interest. They cite Libya, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and now they are ready to bring Iran and Pakistan to heel with bombs.

This arrogance results in the murder of tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of men, women and children, a fate that many Americans seem to believe is appropriate for countries that do not accept US hegemony.

Coercion is what American foreign policy has become. Macho superpatriots love it. Many of these superpatriots derive vicarious pleasure from their delusions that America is "kicking those sand niggers' asses."

This is the America of the Bush Regime. If some of these superpatriots had their way every "unpatriotic, terrorist supporter" who dares to criticize the war against "the Islamofacists" would be sent to Gitmo, if not shot on the spot.

These Bush supporters have morphed the Republican Party into the Brownshirt Party. They cannot wait to attack Iran, preferably with nuclear weapons. Impatient for Armageddon, some are so full of hubris and self-righteousness that they actually believe that their support for evil means they will be "wafted up to heaven."

It has come as a crippling blow to Democrats that "their" political party is comfortable with Bush's America, and will do nothing to stop the Bush regime's aggression against the Iraqi people or to prevent the Bush regime's attack on Iran.

The Democrats could easily impeach both Bush and Cheney in the House, as impeachment only requires a majority vote. They could not convict in the Senate without Republican support, as conviction requires ratification by two-thirds of Senators present. Nevertheless, a House vote for impeachment would take the wind out of the sails of war, save countless lives and perhaps even save humanity from nuclear holocaust.

Various rationales or excuses have been constructed for the Democrats' complicity in aggression that does not serve America. Perhaps the most popular rationale is that the Democrats are letting the Republicans have all the rope they want with which to produce such a high disapproval rating that the Democrats will sweep the 2008 election.

It is doubtful that the Democrats would assume that men as cunning as Karl Rove and Dick Cheney do not understand the electoral consequences of a low public approval rating and are walking blindly into an electoral wipeout. Rove's departure does not mean that no strategy is in place.

So what does explain the complicity of the Democratic Party in a policy that the American public, and especially Democratic constituencies, reject? Perhaps a clue is offered from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune news report (August 1, 2007) that Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison will spend a week in Israel on "a privately funded trip sponsored by the American Israel Education Federation. The AIEF--the charitable arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)--is sending 19 members of Congress to meet with Israeli leaders. The group, made up mostly of freshman Democrats, has plans to meet with Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and [puppet] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The senior Democratic member on the trip is House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who has gone three times. . . . The trip to Israel is Ellison's second as a congressman."

According to the Star-Tribune, a Republican group, which includes Rep. Michele Bachmann (R, Minn), led by Rep. Eric Cantor (R, Va) is already in Israel. According to news reports, another 40 are following these two groups during the August recess, and "by the time the year is out every single member of Congress will have made their rounds in Israel." This claim is probably overstated, but it does show careful Israeli management of US policy in the Middle East.

Elsewhere on earth and especially among Muslims, the suspicion is rife that the reason the war against Iraq cannot end, and the reason Iran and Syria must be attacked, is that the US must destroy all Muslim opposition to Israel's theft of Palestine, turning an entire people into refugees driven from their homes and from the lands on which they have lived for many centuries. Americans might think that they are merely grabbing control over oil, keeping it out of the hands of terrorists, but that is not the way the rest of the world views the conflict.

Jimmy Carter was the last American president who stood up to Israel and demanded that US diplomacy be, at least officially if not in practice, even-handed in its approach to Israel and Palestine. Since Carter's presidency, even-handedness has slowly drained from US policy in the Middle East. The neoconservative Bush/Cheney regime has abandoned even the pretense of even-handedness.

This is unfortunate, because military coercion has proven to be unsuccessful. Exhausted from the conflict, the US military, according to former Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, is "nearly broken." Demoralized elite West Point graduates are leaving the army at the fastest clip in 30 years. Desertions are rapidly rising. A friend, a US Marine officer who served in combat in Vietnam, recently wrote to me that his son's Marine unit, currently training for its third deployment to Iraq in September, is short 12-16 men in every platoon and expects to be hit with more AWOLs prior to deployment.

Instead of re-evaluating a failed policy, Bush's "war tsar," General Douglas Lute, has called for the reinstitution of the draft. Gen. Lute doesn't see why Americans should not be returned to military servitude in order to save the Bush administration the embarrassment of having to correct a mistaken Middle East policy that commits the US to more aggression and to debilitating long-term military conflict in the Middle East.

It is difficult to see how this policy serves any interest other than the very narrow one of the armaments industry. Apparently, nothing can be done to change this disastrous policy until the Israel Lobby comes to the realization that Israel's interest is not being served by the current policy of military coercion.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Source :- Counterpunch.org

It is the Jewish lobby which chooses the US president, not the American people. But most Americans don't realize this.

kilamxx

2007-08-12T23:34:00.000+08:00

A Troubling Case

By Fareena Alam
Date: 18 June 2007

In January 2002, Q-News carried an exclusive interview with a young American Muslim named Musa Abdun Nur Maguire speaking about his cousin, Sulayman. Both were converts to Islam. Both grew up in upwardly mobile, aspirational, West Coast liberal families who accepted their children's religious changes with genuine openness and respect. So far, so good. The trouble was that Sulayman's other name was John Walker Lindh, dubbed - in the throes of post-9/11 hysteria - the "American Taliban". It was a case that intrigued and troubled us then. It is a case that should trouble all of us now.

Taken prisoner by American forces in December 2001 in Afghanistan, "enemy combatant" John Walker Lindh was the focus of a campaign of disinformation from the start. Musa's description of John's intense spirituality, sensitive political awareness and desire to work for social justice bore little resemblance to the way he was painted in the American media. With the trail of Osama bin Laden going cold, the nation was searching in vain someone else to direct its collective anger and hurt towards. Finding John Walker Lindh was the next best thing. Reports portrayed him as a traitor who wanted to kill American troops, a henchman of al-Qaida, a confidante of OBL himself. In short: a Kurtz-like, brainwashed, terrorist killer. The allegations were so blatantly false that even the United States government couldn't prove them when the Lindh case came before the courts in October 2002. The true story is in fact emblematic of everything that has gone wrong in this so-called "war on terror".

Last week, Frank Lindh - John's father and a San Francisco-based lawyer - came to London to talk about the gross miscarriage of justice that followed his son's capture and the human rights implications of his continued incarceration. The event, Frank Lindh's first lecture in the United Kingdom, was brought together by Q-News in conjunction with Cageprisoners and with support from Islamic Circles and The City Circle. His deeply moving presentation is available as a podcast on iTunes.

Frank Lindh (a practising Catholic) is a warm, straightforward man. His campaign to clear his son's name and gain his release in the face of American public opinion that has been shaped by continued false allegations and reactionary, bully patriotism (of the Rush Limbaugh / Fox News variety) is courageous. The story he tells of John Walker Lindh's journey from the killing fields of Afghanistan to an American prison cell is extraordinary.

Having converted to Islam at the age of 16, after reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, John Walker Lindh had travelled to Yemen and later Pakistan to study classical Arabic and Islamic studies - decisions he made with the blessing and permission of his parents and about which he was completely transparent. His parents respected their son's right to choose his own confessional path. His father remarked, reflecting on John's religious transformation, "Islam fit him. It was like he had always been a Muslim."

While in Pakistan, memorising the Quran at a madrassah, he decided that he would volunteer to spend the summer with Afghan armed forces controlled, at that time, by the Taliban who were fighting the Northern Alliance, the tribal warlords involved in their own campaign of murder and plunder. It seems like an unusual, even foolhardy decision. But it's no more a crime than that of thousands of American (and British) who went abroad to fight in the Spanish civil war, or in Bosnia. John later acknowledged: "I want the American people to know that had I realised then what I know now about the Taliban, I would never have joined them."

John's account of his time in Afghanistan has not been disputed by the American authorities who captured and later prosecuted him: John received basic infantry training at a camp funded by Osama bin Laden, who was actively supporting the Taliban government (as was the US government who in April 2001 gave the Taliban government $41 million in aid). The camp was not a terrorist training camp. Those camps were quite separate from the Taliban military infrastructure (for an inside view of what that variety of camp looked like, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's report on one-time Guantanamo detainee Abdur Rehman Khadr is instructive).

The real story of John Lindh's service in the Afghan army is less sexy than the hype that followed: he served sentry and cooking duty in Tahar on the frontlines of the confrontation with the Northern Alliance. It was only after the commencement of American bombing that the Taliban line was broken and John Lindh fled along with other Taliban troops to Kunduz, 60 miles away. American soldiers never served in the Tahar region. It was then that things turned really ugly.

Captured by the brutal warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, John Lindh and his comrades were at first offered safe passage through Northern Alliance territory. This shaky deal fell apart when some Taliban captives became nervous and revolted at the Qala-i-Jhangi fortress where they were being held. John was shot in the leg, but took refuge with the few other survivors in the basement of the fortress. The orders now changed: all the prisoners were to be killed. American (and British) forces looked the other way. After several unsuccessful attempts to take the prisoners, Dostum's forces finally flooded the basement where they were hiding, Most of the injured and weary prisoners drowned. Remarkably, John Walker Lindh survived. Enter the American forces who took possession of him.

Learning of the capture of an American among the Qala-i-Jhangi prisoners, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered military interrogators to "take the gloves off". Locked up in a metal shipping container (similar to the one in which hundreds of Taliban prisoners had died earlier, suffocated and shot to death), blindfolded, duct-taped to a stretcher, taunted and threatened by US soldiers, denied a lawyer, denied access to medical treatment for a festering bullet wound in his leg, denied access to the Red Cross, photographed naked and blindfolded, John Walker Lindh was among the first to experience what post-9/11 American justice would feel like.

The administration relished the capture of Lindh. It was exactly the kind of symbol they needed to sell the "war on terror" to the American public. All kinds of outlandish and false statements were made. President Bush stated emphatically that, "Obviously, Walker is unique in that he's the first American al-Qaida fighter that we have captured." False. Rumsfeld, no doubt gleeful after having ordered the gloves off, said that John Walker Lindh was "captured by US forces with an AK-47 in his hands." False. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert declared Lindh a "terrorist" who belonged to "an organisation that took American lives and came against the American Constitution." False.

Bush's father (the former president) was near hysterical: "I thought of a unique penalty. Make him [John Lindh] leave his hair the way it is and his face as dirty as it is and let him go wandering around this country and see what kind of sympathy he would get."

Bush Sr was only outdone by "liberal-minded" Rudolph Giuliani, then-Mayor of New York: "When you commit treason against the United States of America, particularly at a time when the U.S. is in peril of attack and further attack, I believe the death penalty is the appropriate remedy to consider."

When he was finally brought to trial later that year, nine of the 10 indictments against John Lindh were eventually dropped. That didn't prevent Attorney-General John Ashcroft declaring that Lindh dedicated himself to "killing Americans" - though he must have known that the remaining indictment said nothing about this.

Although he was exonerated of all terrorism-related charges, John was forced into a plea bargain. Already tried and convicted by public opinion, a fair jury trial was deemed impossible and could have resulted in an even worse outcome. John Lindh finally agreed to plead guilty to one crime: breaking the economic sanctions imposed on the Taliban regime - by the Clinton administration. For this he was given a 20-year sentence. Attempts to force John's lawyers to agree to a lifetime travel ban eventually failed: John Lindh insisted that he wanted to leave the US at least once - to go on Hajj, the pilgrimage in Mecca.

John Walker Lindh is now housed in the highest security prison in the United States. He was initially forbidden to speak or pray audibly in Arabic. Even greeting other Muslim prisoners with "Salams" was prohibited. These were part of the "special administrative measures" placed on him. He is now in isolation. Visits with family are highly controlled. He spends his time studying religious texts, memorising the Quran and praying.

John Lindh's case is remarkably similar to that of Yaser Hamdi, an American citizen who also survived the massacre at Qala-i-Jhangi and captured. Hamdi was taken to Guantanamo, but once his US citizenship was discovered, he was shipped to a naval brig in Virginia where he was held as an "enemy combatant". Hamdi's case was finally heard by the Supreme Court last year, which ruled that Hamdi could not be held without charge and was entitled to a hearing. With no evidence against him, the US government released Hamdi, stripped him of his US citizenship and sent him to his country of origin, Saudi Arabia. If Hamdi is free, John Walker Lindh should be as well.

While the Lindh case has largely been forgotten, a few brave American voices have tried to keep it in the spotlight. Grammy award-winning (and politically progressive) country musician Steve Earle released the track John Walker's Blues, an imagined telling from Lindh's own perspective:

I'm just an American boy raised on MTV
And I've seen all those kids in the soda pop ads
But none of 'em looked like me
So I started lookin' around for a light out of the dim
And the first thing I heard that made sense was the word
Of Mohammed, peace be upon him."
(For the rest of the lyrics click here)

It was a powerful, humanising antidote to the disinformation campaign. Predictably, country music stations banned the song for being unpatriotic.

Tom Junod of Esquire Magazine reconstructed John (now Hamza) Walker Lindh's current life through extensive interviews and concluded: "He is a better person than you or I ... He has a spiritual presence ... He's very kind ... He's very concerned about the poor - so concerned that he's lived among them. He's committed to social justice, though he's the first to admit that he's made some bad decisions in that regard. But that's another thing about him. He never lies. He never changes his story, even when he has every reason to. He's very consistent, to put it mildly."

Frank Lindh's campaign deserves our support. Like the calls to close down Guantanamo, come clean on secret prisons and tell the truth about extraordinary renditions, the call to commute John Lindh's sentence is right and just.

Source :-yvonneridley.org

Further Reading:-

Free John Walker Lindh

Profile: John Walker Lindh

The Real Story of John Walker Lindh
by his father Frank Lindh

Who Will Stand Up For The Tortured And Gagged
by Dave Lindorff

2007-08-05T23:43:00.000+08:00

Fasting : Scholars Reject Women Be Allowed To Work Half Day

From Utusan Malaysia Online

Translated by kilamxx

Scholars rejected the proposal by CUEPACS (Congress Of Unions Of Employees In The Public And Civil Services) that the government shortens the daily working hours of female employees by half during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The general opinion overall is that the proposal would raise problems in the workflow and in fact some see it as a way to exploit the holy month in avoiding work.

The excuse given by CUEPACS that the proposal would give female employee, especially those living in the Klang Valley, the chance to go home earlier to manage the housework including the preparation of food for the breaking of fast was dismissed as inadmissible.

The Perlis Mufti, Dr. Mohd. Asri Zainul Abidin, said the proposal was impractical and hoped the government would take into account the views from various quarters before deciding on the issue.

“There is nothing in the teachings which said that work should be set aside just for the breaking of fast, but instead the emphasis should be on performance of pious duties or worship,” he said when contacted here today.

He added, it would be better to encourage the reading of the Holy Quran, thus increasing the good deeds (pahala) and continue working to increase productivity.

Yesterday, CUEPACS President, Omar Osman proposed that the government shortens the working hours of female employees to half day during the Ramadan month which is expected to begin on 14^th September.

The excuse was that the traffic congestion during the fasting month exposes them to the risk of accidents besides the responsibility of managing the children and the preparation of food for the breaking of fast.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Mufti of Pahang, Datuk Abdul Rahman Osman said, religion has never differentiated the way of working within the month of Ramadan with any other month.

“There is no evidence or reasoning in Islam which compels us to shorten the work time during the fasting month just for the sake of preparing food for the breaking of fast.

“There are only some Hadiths which allow one to lessen the workload a bit but not to the extent of incurring difficulties on others,” he explained.

He said a compromise can be reached whereby the working hours for female employees may be slightly shortened.

“A one or two hour remission may be allowed but not until a half day.

“But this should be made up for by coming in to work earlier,” he said.

Free lance preacher Mohd. Daud Che Ngah described the proposal as an attempt to ‘evacuate’ the women from the ‘battlefield’.

“Why should they be allowed to get home early on the excuse of preparing food for the breaking of fast while the men are left to toil hard at the workplace?” he asked.

The breaking of fast should not be the highlight of the month of Ramadan. The emphasis should be on how we fill up the days and nights with our good deeds and piety.

kilamxx

2007-07-22T23:55:00.000+08:00

Bringing back the caliphate

By Inayat Bunglawala

Osama Bin Laden wants it back, as does Hizb ut-Tahrir and also, according to a recent poll organised by an American university, a majority of Muslims across the world do so too. But what is the caliphate (Arabic: Khilafah) and what would it look like today?

Before he died in 632 CE, the Prophet Muhammad succeeded in establishing a single state in Arabia, in which he was both the spiritual head and also the temporal ruler. Within a period of just over 20 years, Muhammad had unified the Arabs, smashed the centuries-old practice of idolatry and inculcated in them a deep love for Islam: voluntary submission to God's Will.

It was an astonishing achievement and the Islamic state would, after Muhammad's death, continue to expand and draw in new converts to Islam from other peoples. Islam, with its pristine monotheism, stood in stark contrast to the many competing versions of Christianity with their endless bickering over the true nature of Christ and also the rather narrow tribalism of Judaism.

The Prophet's successors (Caliphs) tried to maintain this system but it was inevitably beset with divisions and rivalries, and in time, multiple regional caliphates came into existence. The last caliphate to be widely recognised - Ottoman Turkey, which in its latter days came to be known as the "sick man of Europe" - was abolished by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1924.

On Wednesday, writing on Cif, Brian Whitaker, questioned the relevancy of the caliphate in the modern world, saying:

Whatever the historical merits (or not) of this now-defunct system of government, it is difficult to see how anyone could seriously regard its return as a step forward in the 21st century.

Brian looked at some of the articles of the draft Hizb ut-Tahrir constitution for their particular conception of the caliphate and, I must admit, it did not really look like a place where I would want to live in or bring up my kids in. But need it be that way?

The same US poll that cited majority support for the caliphate amongst the public in Muslim countries also found even larger majorities who thought that a democratic political system was a good way of governance. So clearly, many Muslims believe that democracy need not conflict with their Islamic ideals.

Hizb ut-Tahrir have posted an article on their website titled "Poll confirms massive support for the caliphate in the Muslim world" but have strangely omitted any mention of the finding that an even greater number of people favoured the establishment of democracy as their preferred method of achieving a well-governed state. Hmmm ...

In my view, the findings of the US poll serve to confirm the argument made by a Sudanese Islamic philosopher, Abdelwahab el-Affendi, in his 1991 book, Who Needs an Islamic State? Affendi urged Muslims to look at their history and be willing to learn from their experiences and also from that of others:

Wisdom dictates that we should be pessimistic about the qualities of our rulers, something which should not be too difficult, given our experiences. The institutions of a Muslim polity, and the rules devised to govern it, should therefore be based on expecting the worst.

Human experience shows that democracy, broadly defined, offers the best possible method of avoiding such disappointment in rulers and affords a way of remedying the causes for such disappointments once they occur.

The caliphate clearly has an enormous emotional pull on Muslims and for understandable reasons as it aspires to break down national/tribal borders and unify Muslim countries under a just government as opposed to their current crop of mainly unelected and dishonest rulers. Is the caliphate really unattainable? It depends on how you conceive it. El-Affendi has a model in mind which may surprise you:

The model we are proposing here could suggest a way in which a polity is not strictly territorial. Political associations should make it possible for members to move in space without losing their rights of membership. This entails a concept of an international order based more on coexisting communities than on territorially-based mutually-exclusive nation-states. The European Community and the United States of America reflect some of the characteristics of the model we have in mind.

A confederation of democratic states based on the model of the European Union. Now that would be a caliphate that I can imagine myself living in!

Source :- commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

As Inayat Bunglawala has shown in his article above the concept of a Caliphate can be something flexible and open to interpretation. Muslim and even non-Muslim minds should not be closed to the idea. On the same token the concept of an Islamic state may also be just as loosely defined.

kilamxx

2007-06-17T01:51:00.001+08:00

Welcome to 'Palestine'

By Robert Fisk

Published: 16 June 2007

How troublesome the Muslims of the Middle East are. First, we demand that the Palestinians embrace democracy and then they elect the wrong party - Hamas - and then Hamas wins a mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza Strip. And we Westerners still want to negotiate with the discredited President, Mahmoud Abbas. Today "Palestine" - and let's keep those quotation marks in place - has two prime ministers. Welcome to the Middle East.

Who can we negotiate with? To whom do we talk? Well of course, we should have talked to Hamas months ago. But we didn't like the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. They were supposed to have voted for Fatah and its corrupt leadership. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement.

No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building - vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 per cent of "Palestine" still left to negotiate over ?

And so today, we are supposed to talk to our faithful policeman, Mr Abbas, the "moderate" (as the BBC, CNN and Fox News refer to him) Palestinian leader, a man who wrote a 600-page book about Oslo without once mentioning the word "occupation", who always referred to Israeli "redeployment" rather than "withdrawal", a "leader" we can trust because he wears a tie and goes to the White House and says all the right things. The Palestinians didn't vote for Hamas because they wanted an Islamic republic - which is how Hamas's bloody victory will be represented - but because they were tired of the corruption of Mr Abbas's Fatah and the rotten nature of the "Palestinian Authority".

I recall years ago being summoned to the home of a PA official whose walls had just been punctured by an Israeli tank shell. All true. But what struck me were the gold-plated taps in his bathroom. Those taps - or variations of them - were what cost Fatah its election. Palestinians wanted an end to corruption - the cancer of the Arab world - and so they voted for Hamas and thus we, the all-wise, all-good West, decided to sanction them and starve them and bully them for exercising their free vote. Maybe we should offer "Palestine" EU membership if it would be gracious enough to vote for the right people?

All over the Middle East, it is the same. We support Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, even though he keeps warlords and drug barons in his government (and, by the way, we really are sorry about all those innocent Afghan civilians we are killing in our "war on terror" in the wastelands of Helmand province).

We love Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose torturers have not yet finished with the Muslim Brotherhood politicians recently arrested outside Cairo, whose presidency received the warm support of Mrs - yes Mrs - George W Bush - and whose succession will almost certainly pass to his son, Gamal.

We adore Muammar Gaddafi, the crazed dictator of Libya whose werewolves have murdered his opponents abroad, whose plot to murder King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia preceded Tony Blair's recent visit to Tripoli - Colonel Gaddafi, it should be remembered, was called a "statesman" by Jack Straw for abandoning his non-existent nuclear ambitions - and whose "democracy" is perfectly acceptable to us because he is on our side in the "war on terror".

Yes, and we love King Abdullah's unconstitutional monarchy in Jordan, and all the princes and emirs of the Gulf, especially those who are paid such vast bribes by our arms companies that even Scotland Yard has to close down its investigations on the orders of our prime minister - and yes, I can indeed see why he doesn't like The Independent's coverage of what he quaintly calls "the Middle East". If only the Arabs - and the Iranians - would support our kings and shahs and princes whose sons and daughters are educated at Oxford and Harvard, how much easier the "Middle East" would be to control.

For that is what it is about - control - and that is why we hold out, and withdraw, favours from their leaders. Now Gaza belongs to Hamas, what will our own elected leaders do? Will our pontificators in the EU, the UN, Washington and Moscow now have to talk to these wretched, ungrateful people (fear not, for they will not be able to shake hands) or will they have to acknowledge the West Bank version of Palestine (Abbas, the safe pair of hands) while ignoring the elected, militarily successful Hamas in Gaza?

It's easy, of course, to call down a curse on both their houses. But that's what we say about the whole Middle East. If only Bashar al-Assad wasn't President of Syria (heaven knows what the alternative would be) or if the cracked President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad wasn't in control of Iran (even if he doesn't actually know one end of a nuclear missile from the other).

If only Lebanon was a home-grown democracy like our own little back-lawn countries - Belgium, for example, or Luxembourg. But no, those pesky Middle Easterners vote for the wrong people, support the wrong people, love the wrong people, don't behave like us civilised Westerners.

So what will we do? Support the reoccupation of Gaza perhaps? Certainly we will not criticise Israel. And we shall go on giving our affection to the kings and princes and unlovely presidents of the Middle East until the whole place blows up in our faces and then we shall say - as we are already saying of the Iraqis - that they don't deserve our sacrifice and our love.

How do we deal with a coup d'état by an elected government?

Source:- The Independent

2007-05-30T23:03:00.000+08:00

The New Imperialism - Economic Warfare, Consumer Products And Disease Exports

By Mike Adams
29th May 2007

History tells us that imperialist nations quite predictably invade weaker nations on a regular basis... especially when those weaker nations happen to be standing on valuable natural resources like oil or uranium. Thanks to this desire for strategic control over territories, the twentieth century was the bloodiest in human history, with more people being lost to war, greed and conquest than during any single century in recorded history (including the centuries spanning Greek and Roman civilizations).

War remains as supported as ever today, and in fact, many nations actually thirst for war. Just look at the pro-war coverage on Fox News and the unending war games being played on computers and game consoles by young men who find entertainment in war. (In fact, the U.S. Army is actually recruiting young men now through a free, downloadable video game that teaches young boys how to pick up a rifle and kill people with it.)

Why some nations create war

The people of some nations actually create war (or support it) in their quest to express a sense of nationalistic heroism. Failing nations need heroes, and when those heroes are no longer found in the realms of science, art, politics or global achievement, they will be fabricated from the false victories of war.

The tearful American mom whose son dies in Iraq is, indeed, suffering a tremendous personal loss, but her loss is a necessary part of feeding the population's desire to proclaim there are heroes among them. Through the sacrificing of young men who are killed in Iraq, the people of America can find common connection, righteousness, and purpose where none existed before. War gives meaning to empty lives, and it delivers a masochistic form of entertainment to those who are too young, too old or too wealthy to participate. This is precisely why, throughout human history, the leaders of failing nations have habitually turned to military imperialism as a method to distract the people from far more serious problems at home. When the sons of a nation are returning home in body bags, nobody pays much attention to failures in education or the economy.

This is not to say that there are not some instances in which going to war has genuine justification. When a nation is threatened by an invading force, for example, going to war to defend your own land against invading aggressors is not only necessary, it is also truly heroic. Defending your own land is courageous; invading your neighbor's land is cowardly. (Some people claim, by the way, that the only way to protect America's land is to invade other countries first. This concept, called "preemptive war" is based on mass distortions used to falsely justify actions of war.)

In America today, the thirst for war remains as strong as ever. But the real war being waged on the world right now by America is not merely found in the limited military action in the Middle East. That's only the blunt instrument of this war. The real American invasion is happening through foods, medicines, personal care products, international banking and intellectual property law. Through the proliferation of fast food restaurants, pharmaceutical companies, chemically-contaminated consumer products and similar items invented in America, the world is being bombarded by systems of food, medicine and distorted intellectual property claims that are producing far more casualties than any bombs-and-bullets war.

How to control a nation

In World War II, the Germans attempted to steal natural resources from neighboring nations by forcefully occupying and controlling the targeted territories. Today, war is far more sophisticated: America steals national resources by patenting seeds, genes, medicines and ideas, then applying economic and political pressure against targeted nations to forcefully take a cut of their productivity through the application of intellectual property law. Only Thailand has offered any sort of resistance in an attempt to protect its people from the predatory, monopolistic drug pricing of Big Pharma, for example, but most countries just go right along and pay tribute to the western world through outrageous patent royalties on medicines that should belong to the people.

If that's not enough to dominate the targeted nation's economy, America sends in the World Bank. The World Bank makes predatory loans to desperate nations, knowing full well they cannot pay them back. It then uses the leverage of debt to invade those nations with western financial institutions. Those banks and lending institutions subsequently turn around and engage in predatory financial practices that soak the people of the target nation, skimming off productivity and exporting it back to the West where rich white men cash in billions without a single honest day's work.

The World Trade Organization, for its part, makes sure that targeted nations comply with imperialistic western trade practices. The huge push of Big Tobacco into Asia, for example, is the result of support by "world trade" proponents who threatened to impose trade sanctions against Asian nations if they tried to ban cigarette advertising. Today, more than a third of Chinese men are addicted to cigarettes, generating billions in annual profits for Big Tobacco companies who are right now producing more Chinese casualties than any war in China's long history.

Western medicine is also invading the continents around the world, bringing its expensive, heartless and corporate-controlled system of medicine to nations who were actually far healthier, happier and more financially solvent before America showed up with all its patented chemicals. Chinese medicine, for example, is routinely discredited in China by arrogant Chinese doctors who went to med school in America then returned home to betray their own fellow citizens. Drug companies see China's one billion people as nothing more than revenue-generating patients, and convincing all those people to take more medicines will require a well-planned, well-funded economic and philosophical assault on Chinese medicine. Essentially, Big Pharma must find a way to disconnect the Chinese from their heritage, turning them all into depressed, diseased "white" consumers whose medical mythology worships the falsehoods of western reductionism.

Consequences of the great American invasion

All around the world, America is invading nations through its foods, medicines, consumer products, dangerous economic practices, synthetic chemicals and intellectual property. And everywhere that American products are adopted, widespread disease and death soon follows.

Small island nations in the South Pacific, for example, had never heard of diabetes, heart disease or depression just two generations ago. But then American-made processed food products invaded their islands, edging out traditional foods like raw coconut, fresh fish, seaweed and taro. Today, South Pacific populations are suffering from widespread diabetes, depression, heart disease, learning disabilities, asthma and much more -- all thanks to the "invasion" of American foods, medicines and products.

America is the world's largest exporter of disease. Through our popular soda products, cigarettes, fast food chains and manufactured foods, we have caused more death and disease around the world than any nation in human history (including Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot). And it all remains perfectly legal. Our chemical companies even manufacture and export pesticide chemicals that have been banned in the United States. Poor agricultural nations openly use those deadly pesticides on their crops, then ship the produce back to the U.S. where consumers buy it at grocery stores. It's all perfectly legal and, in fact, encouraged by U.S. political leaders.

Resistance is futile

It's actually more than legal: It's required! Any nation that says "no" to western products and intellectual property is immediately branded an enemy of world trade and is targeted for legal action by the WTO. Even creating pro-consumer safety standards such as banning aspartame, sodium nitrite or hydrogenated oils can be deemed a violation of international trade agreements. Product sales, you see, are the No. 1 priority, even when nations are being decimated by the products manufactured and exported by American companies.

Poor nations with undereducated populations suffer enormously under western economic imperialism. It's easy to sell Pepsi, cigarettes and lotto tickets to people in a country like Panama, for example, where the education level remains low and people are easily tricked into thinking that western products will make them happier. Pepsi, in fact, is the dominant consumer product throughout most of Central and South America. You can hardly travel anywhere south of the U.S. / Mexico border without being inundated with Pepsi propaganda. The Pepsi logo is more prominent than images of the Virgin Mary or the Pope, even though many South and Central American populations are Catholic. (It's quite clear what they actually worship!)

These international product invasions are important to the bottom line of U.S. corporations, of course, who are expanding their propaganda campaigns to non-U.S. countries following the wising up of American consumers. Only uneducated, ignorant consumers drink soft drink products in America these days. It's the same crowd that buys lotto tickets, smokes cigarettes, watches TV infomercials and lives on frozen dinners. Smart consumers in America switched to healthier drinks long ago. That's why soda sales continue to fall each year, and that's why U.S. soda corporations have to increasingly crank up their marketing machines in countries that haven't yet caught on to the toxicity of aspartame or the links between diabetes and high-fructose corn syrup.

The west is conquering the world

There's no more need to drop tanks, soldiers and bombs on nations in order to conquer them. Countries can be controlled through economics, intellectual property law, banking and finance systems. Consumers can be controlled through advertising, publicity and corporate-fabricated fake news.

The corporations, as always, rake in the profits while the consumers pay the price all over the world. They eat their American hamburgers, drink their American sodas, take their American medicines and think they're cool, sophisticated consumers even while their internal organs are beginning to fail from all the toxic chemicals. Soon, they will suffer from American diseases: Cancer, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis, heart disease, obesity and violent, psychotic behavior. In fact, we're already seeing it: Countries like Thailand and Japan are witnessing unprecedented obesity for the first time in history, and diseases like diabetes and depression are only a few years away from becoming pandemic throughout Asia. This is almost entirely from their adoption of western diets and medical practices.

Those nations that continue to worship western culture are engaged in a dangerous game of paying homage to precisely the wrong group. Worshipping American foods, products and medicines will only destroy the health and happiness of any nation, and mimicking American financial markets will only spell economic suicide in the long run. There is nothing good that can come of debt spending, intentional disease proliferation (through ignoring disease prevention programs), widespread chemical contamination and corporate dominance over the people and the government. These are the things that will come to destroy the world's nations, probably starting with America.

The last days of America as we know it

The era of American dominance in the world is nearly over. It will likely be replaced by an era of Chinese dominance, in which western medicine, western science, western debt spending and western culture will ultimately be rejected by most world nations.

It's time for Americans to face up to the reality of the country they're living in. Take the issue of health care as a rather important example. Did you know that you can get better health care in Cuba than America? Did you know that the life expectancy of a Cuban citizen is the same as an American citizen, and yet Americans spend hundreds of times more money per capita on disease care and sickness care than Cubans? American medicine is an utter failure, and it's destroying the economic viability of the entire country. Businesses are going bankrupt or moving offshore because of health care costs, and even those that can afford to operate on U.S. soil are faced with the reality that it's almost impossible to hire employees who can actually think these days thanks to the widespread use of brain-damaging prescription drugs. Success stories like Google are increasingly rare.

I remember living in Taiwan in the 1990's, and I paid something like $4 / month for health insurance coverage. A visit to the doctor cost me $2 out of pocket. Every person in Taiwan who has a job gets automatic health insurance coverage, and the nation has prospered economically over the last four decades in a way that the U.S. simply cannot match. The Taiwan people are innovative, resourceful and hard working. Of course, they're also hopelessly corrupt when it comes to politics, but that seems to be a universal law: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

America's reputation is in shambles

If you travel the world these days and ask about America, you might be surprised at the negative answers you'll hear. This is not obvious to people living in America because, of course, they only have access to the controlled, pro-America news sources that dominate mainstream thinking. But the world opinion of America has already suffered a severe setback under the leaderhip of President Bush, and in time, the world will reject American intellectual property, the American medicine scam and the harmful effects of American foods and beverages.

History will reveal America to be a nation that burned itself out on drugs, debt spending and junk foods, destroying the health its own people until its population could hardly even reproduce without medical intervention. Lacking any useful ideas, steeped in the defense of the status quo and abandoning the true needs of its own people, American political leaders have set our nation on a destructive course that may prove impossible to reverse. And they seem to want to destroy as many other nations as possible along the way -- as long as it generates more profits for U.S. corporations in the short term. "Poison the world and reap the profits!"

The future belongs to smart nations

Any nation that wishes to protect itself from the same fate America is headed towards would be wise to reject American foods, medicines, beverages, consumer products, intellectual property laws and financial practices.

The nations that survive and prosper over the next hundred years will be:

• Those nations that save money and invest in their future (rather then spending it on war or underfunded entitlement program).

• Those nations that reject western foods and pass laws to protect their populations from dangerous chemicals in foods, beverages and consumer products.

• Those nations that reject American intellectual property guidelines and ban corporations or private individuals from "owning" patents on medicines, seeds and genes.

• Those nations that invest in education, energy efficiency and environmental cleanup in order to create a better future for their children.

• Those nations that invest now in energy independence, teaching their people to use less energy while switching to vehicles that can run on electricity (which can be produced domestically in any country).

• Those nations that reject elite-controlled banking and money systems and restore the power of the currency to the people, where open trade can happen with zero inflation, creating enormous abundance for the people.

No nation will likely fully embrace all these points, but those that manage to fulfill at least some of them will do far better than those who don't. What's certain is that those nations attempting to mimic the culture of America will suffer the same fate as America -- a fate that will soon be obvious to even the most insistent deniers who claim that environmental pollution, endless debt spending and the mass contamination of food and medicines with deadly synthetic chemicals are somehow sustainable practices. The end result of all this is not in question by any serious thinker: Widespread bankruptcy, disease pandemics, environmental collapse and a bursting of the food production bubble.

Papua New Guinea may ultimatey emerge as one of the few successful, sustainable nations in the world. If you're not sure why, I urge you to read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, and then study the history of human civilization from a geographic viewpoint. You will see that the only nations with any sort of future are those that protect and nurture the health of their people and their environment, taking a long-term perspective rather than short-term economic gain. America has no long-term vision other than controlling world oil resources. America has no investment whatsoever in the health of its people and virtually no effort to protect its environment. America is fixated on short-term thinking and stop-gap measures, ignoring the greater concerns of education, renewable energy, individual health and individual liberty. And finally, America is a bankrupt nation by any honest accounting method, and it is only by the grace of debt holders of Asia that America can continue to sell debt at all.

No wise nation will follow America into this quagmire (and why should they, when they have their own quagmires to explore?).

The good news in all this, by the way, is that you don't have to follow the fate of your nation. By protecting your own health, saving your own wealth and investing in the future of yourself and your children (through education, fertile land, etc.), you can avoid the worst of what's coming and actually thrive during difficult times. That's why taking charge of your own life right now is more important than ever. Be independent from the mainstream. Learn how to protect your own health and reject medical propaganda. Understand the basic laws of economics and how debt is manufactured and sold. (A good book on that is called the Concise Guide to Economics and it's available free at http://www.conciseguidetoeconomics.com ). Teach yourself the basic principles of sustainable living, green living and "hippie wisdom." These are the things that will get you through the tough times ahead.

In terms of financial news, be sure to read the Daily Reckoning (www.DailyReckoning.com) if you want to hear the truth about world financial news. Also check out the book Empire of Debt, which earns my top recommendation for the best book available on the coming financial collapse of America.

I haven't even mentioned peak oil yet, by the way. Ever wonder what happens when the oil runs out? Check out this page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil.

Mike Adams is a natural health researcher and author with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, Pilates and organic gardening. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org

From:-

Newstarget.com

2007-05-16T00:18:00.000+08:00

Censoring The Muftis?

by kilamxx

It looks like some of our senators are not too well versed on the contents of our Constitution. A couple of them are demanding that a Federal religious department be empowered to act against statements issued by State appointed muftis.

As reported by Bernama :-

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 -- A senator today said that the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) should be given extra powers to monitor and act against statements issued by all state mufti to prevent confusion.

Senator Datuk Syed Ali Alhabshee said this was in light of statements on Islamic rulings made by several muftis which had caused confusion and differences of opinion among Muslims in the country.

He cited the one involving Perak Mufti Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria who reportedly said that Muslims were prohibited from attending the "Jom Heboh" concert and carnival held in Ipoh recently.

Syed Ali said this during the debate on the motion of thanks for the royal address at the Dewan Negara here.

Concurring, Senator Mohd Puad Zarkashi said that a mufti should not issue statements on Islamic rulings at whim without referring to Jakim or the National Fatwa Council.

"And there was this mufti who once said that the `Maulidur Rasul' went against Islamic teachings, creating confusion among Muslims, especially in Johor, who would normally celebrate the life and struggle of the Prophet Muhammad in a big way," he said.

Senator Datuk Abdul Rashid Ngah was also supportive of Syed Ali's suggestion, pointing out that the fatwa council should view the matter seriously as some Muslims would regard statements issued by a mufti as religious decrees.

The last we heard of the National Constitution, religion falls under the jurisdiction of the Sultan or Raja of each state. The state appoints its own mufti who may issue statements or fatwas on Islamic religious matters affecting Muslims in the state.

I'm sure the muftis don't go around making statements just for the fun of it. The statements are usually on urgent matters of concern that an opinion has been asked for. And most muftis are not just any Tom, Dick or Harry who has been given a post by the Menteri Besar as a reward for political support. They certainly have their academic and religious credentials backing them up.

To dismiss a mufti's statement as being his own personal opinion and nothing more is just a way for some quarters to carry on with what they want to do when they are religious objections to their plans. The 'Jom Heboh' matter in Ipoh is surely a good example. The Perak mufti Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria has repeatedly stated that it is haram to stage, attend or support the 'Jom Heboh' concert. Yet the authorities gave permission for the concert to go ahead. As usual, this is what happens when money speaks louder than religion.

It seems that if we carry on this way we should stop addressing the muftis as 'muftis'. Just give these state officials any other name. They're certainly not being allowed to function as they are appointed to do. This is from Jakim's own defination of the function of a mufti.

2007-05-15T00:08:00.000+08:00

WHAT TO SAY

1. When starting to do something: "Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem."

(In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.)

2. When reaffirming one’s faith. “Laa Ilaahaillallah.” (There is no god except Allah.)

3. When praising something say, "Subhanullah." (Glory to Allah.)

4. When in pain or distress. "Ya Allah." (O Allah.)

5. When appreciating something say, "Masha-Allah." (As Allah willed.)

6. When thanking someone. "Jazakullah." (Allah reward you.)

7. When you see something bad. "Nowthzubillah." (Allah protect us.)

8. When saying you're sorry to Allah for a sin. "Astaghfirullah." (Allah forgive.)

9. After sneezing or when you're happy about something. "Alhumdulillah." (Praise Allah.)

10. When meeting someone. "Assalamu 'alaykum." (Peace be upon you.)

11. Replying to the above greeting. "Wa 'alaykum assalam." (And upon you be peace.)

12. When hearing about a death or tragedy. "Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajiun."

(To Allah we belong and to Him we return.)

13. When giving in charity. "Fee eemanullah." (In Allah's faith.)

14. When taking an oath. "Wallah." (I Swear to Allah.)

15. If someone sneezes and they say, "alhumdulillah," you reply with, "Yarhamakullah." (Allah have mercy upon you.) The sneezer will reply back, "Yehdikumullah" which means, "Allah guide you."

16. When mentioning something that will be done in the future. "Insha'llah." (If Allah wills.)

17. When you have nothing to say. “Allahhuakbar.” (Allah is the greatest.)

Reference:-

Guide To Islam For New Muslims

2007-05-13T23:45:00.000+08:00

Artificial Blood

By kilamxx

The Mufti of Perlis, Dr. Mohd. Asri Zainul Abidin has said that the use of artificial blood is not against the teachings of Islam and in fact, it is encouraged if it is for the good of mankind (Utusan Malaysia Online 10 May 2007). He was commenting on the possibility that Malaysia might become the largest producer of artificial blood if negotiations go through.

Dr. Asri said this is because there is no verse in the Quran or Hadiths which forbids its use. Anything which is for the good of mankind is allowed as long as it is according to Islamic guidelines and Shariah law. Just as in the use of artificial limbs, there are no grounds that can be found in the Quran and Hadiths which forbid its use.

According to Dr. Asri, in the field of medicine or economy, if something is guaranteed to be beneficial to human livelihood and is not against syarak (divine law), then it is definitely allowed as in the case of artificial blood. The field of medicine is always expanding and the Muslim ummah must keep up with the advances in world technology including medical technology as in the case of artificial blood for the sake of economic development.

The Mufti of Terengganu, Datuk Ismail Yahya, has regarded the effort of the Government to produce artificial blood as something that is encouraged by Islam as it is for the good of mankind. However he said the government must ensure that the methods and resources used to produced artificial blood do not contain haram elements in order to safeguard its purity. He regarded the effort to produce artificial blood as similar to the act of donating blood to save human lives.

What Is Artificial Blood?

Artificial blood, which is also known as substitute blood, is a product made to act as a substitute for red blood cells. While true blood serves many different functions, artificial blood is designed for the sole purpose of transporting oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body.

Why Is There A Need for Substitute Blood?

Public concern over the safety of transfusion and the impact of reduced blood donations is leading to annual shortages in blood. Shortages are an increasing problem and have worsened over recent years as a result of many factors, such as:

An ageing population
Advancement in surgical procedures
Public opinion on virus transmission (e.g. HIV)

It has now been realised that there is a strong case for the development of 'blood substitutes' since an effective substitute could, in principle, solve problems associated with using donated blood for transfusion.

What Are The Advantages Of Artificial Blood

Unlike red blood cells, a blood substitute could be sterilised, this would mean the problems of disease spreading would be removed from transfusions.
Problems of human error, (mismatching of blood types) with donated blood would be removed since a substitute would not contain the properties of blood that cause this.
A blood substitute could be stored stably for a long time, which would allow for transport to third world countries or to a battlefield, or site of natural disaster without the need for refrigerators. Effectively there would be trouble free availability of blood.

What Is Artificial Blood Made From

Currently there are two main types of blood substitutes being developed with each being made from different base material:-

1. Haemoglobin-based substitutes

2. Perfuorocarbon-based substitutes.

1. Haemoglobin-based substitutes

These are usually made from haemoblobin extracted from outdated waste donor blood or from cow blood haemoglobin which has been modified.

Haemoglobin can also be manufactured synthetically from amino acids which are chemicals that plants and animals use to create the proteins that are essential for life. Hemoglobin synthesis requires a specific type of bacteria and all of the materials needed to incubate it. This includes warm water, molasses, glucose, acetic acid, alcohols, urea, and liquid ammonia.

2. Perfuorocarbon-based substitutes

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are synthetic liquids that dissolve large volumes of oxygen, and also have the capacity to transport carbon dioxide. They are biologically inert materials that can dissolve about 50 times more oxygen than blood plasma. They are relatively inexpensive to produce and can be made devoid of any biological materials. This eliminates the real possibility of spreading an infectious disease via a blood transfusion.

From a technological standpoint, they have two significant hurdles to overcome before they can be commercially utilized as artificial blood. First, they are not soluble in water, which means to get them to work they must be combined with emulsifiers—fatty compounds called lipids that are able to suspend tiny particles of perfluorochemicals in the blood. Secondly, they have the ability to carry much less oxygen than hemoglobin-based products. This means that significantly more PFC must be used.

References:-

1 How Artificial Blood Is Made
2 Euro Blood Substitutes

2007-05-07T23:40:00.000+08:00

Don't Rock The Boat, Guys

by kilamxx

Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Othman, the religious adviser to the Prime Minister, made quite a revealing statement last week. Commenting on the Perlis mufti council’s fatwa that converts were no longer required to change their names, Tan Sri Hamid said, by having their names changed, converts could assimilate themselves easily into Muslim society in general. As reported in the New Straits Times (1 May 2007), Tan Sri Hamid said :- "Some of the names before conversion were not suitable for Muslims. Can we maintain such names in Islam? "The present practice where converts are required to change their names should continue as this has long been established. "Do not simply say this (practice) is wrong, sinful in Islam and so on. It has been there for so many years and has also been successful in enhancing solidarity between converts and other Muslims all these years."

In reply to this the New Straits Times (7 May 2007) published the following letter sent in by a reader.

Nothing in the Quran, Hadith that compels name change

Rosey Wang Ma, Kuala Lumpur.

IT is beyond my comprehension that the religious adviser to the prime minister, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Othman, can try to make blanket decisions for the country’s Muslims based on practices which have "long been established" (by whom, I wonder) rather than what is given to us in the holy Quran and Hadith.

To my knowledge, I do not recall anything in the Quran about names Muslims should have. I do remember though that the Prophet Muhammad advised: "Bestow on your children names with good meanings." And this is what Chinese parents, and almost all parents do.

Chinese names have a meaning because each word or character has a meaning. Chinese believe names will reflect the character and life pattern of the person.

Try as I may, I cannot think of any name that has a bad meaning and could therefore be deemed non-suitable for Muslims. (I must plead ignorance about names of non-Chinese origin).

As for Hamid’s claim that by changing their names, converts can assimilate themselves easily into Muslim society in general, I beg to differ, based on my 15 years of research and counselling work with converts (Chinese) in Malaysia.

I can’t see why any Muslim would accept better a Hussein bin Abdullah who may not practise an Islamic way of life than a Tay Guo Rong (without a name change) who lives a life according to the straight path.

Also, why the need to assimilate? We take pride in our multiculturalism; becoming Muslim is accepting a universal faith. Should it be viewed as "assimilating" into the Malay society?

Let’s remember that the new Muslim still has a family he was born into, parents who brought him up and an entire life environment before he accepted the Muslim faith. Islam places great emphasis on parents and family.

For countless many, the name change has been a serious issue, for the person himself and for the family, sometimes leading to consequences as dire as breaking family ties.

For those who wish to take on a Muslim name when they convert, it is their choice and to them will belong their reward; but for those who do not, let us remember that this is not a religious requirement.

Kudos to Rosey for spelling it out for those who are supposed to be more knowledgable on the subject.

2007-05-03T00:44:00.000+08:00

PM's Religious Advisor Says No Chinese Mosque

Middle East Times

A top religious official dismissed a request from Malaysia's Chinese community to build its own mosques fearing segregation of the country's Muslims, a report said Tuesday.

Abdul Hamid Othman, the religious advisor to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, called on the government to disregard such requests as there were sufficient mosques in the country for all Muslims, the New Straits Times daily reported.

"If this is allowed by the authorities, I am afraid it will lead to disunity and segregate Muslims in the country," he said.

Othman said that the request by Chinese Muslims for their own mosques was unthinkable and carried wide political connotations.

"Now they want their own mosques, the next time around they will be asking for leaders to represent their ethnic groups," he said.

Danial Hakim Boey, a Chinese-Muslim who has been trying to build a Chinese mosque in Kuala Lumpur, said that the issue of building a mosque with Chinese architecture had been misinterpreted by the authorities.

"We just want a Chinese-designed mosque. There is no reason to have only Chinese going to the mosque, that is too partisan," Boey said. "Islam is, after all, for everybody, so we can have any design and it should reflect the universality of the religion," he said.

Boey, a practicing Muslim for 13 years, chairs the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Community in central Selangor state, where a majority of the country's 60,000 Chinese Muslims reside.

Boey pointed out that Indian Muslims in Malaysia had their own mosque buildings that reflected their culture.

"At the end of the day, we all pray in Arabic. We are not trying to change anything," he said.

Boey said that there was an underlying notion that Islam in Malaysia belonged to the Malays, who are defined as Muslims in the constitution.

"Islam is not a religion reserved for Arabs or just Malays, it is for everybody," he said. "Confusion arises when some Muslims who lack understanding of Islam give a wrong interpretation," he added.

Boey's perception echoes that of an outspoken young Muslim cleric in Malaysia, who has said that the Chinese should be allowed to build their own mosques and to preach in their own language.

"Malays assume they are the only pure Muslims, although Chinese Muslims may have stronger faith," Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin was quoted by the New Straits Times as saying in February this year.

Multicultural Malaysia's almost 27 million population is made up of 60 percent Muslim Malays, 26 percent ethnic Chinese, and 8 percent ethnic Indians. The latter two groups are mostly Christians, Buddhists, or Hindus.

Source: Malaysia-Today

When it comes to the propagation of Islam in this country we seem to be bogged down by conservatives in high places who seem to have lost touch with what’s happening on the ground. Hamid Othman places politics (UMNO politics, ie.) above the sanctity of Islam.

Islam is for all races. Tell me, how is the elderly Chinese or Indian auntie or uncle going to deepen his knowledge of Islam if his mother tongue is not Malay. Does he or she have to master Malay first?

Sure, we have Bahasa Malaysia to foster unity among Malaysians. That is for communication among Malaysians.

But when it comes to truly understanding your faith or belief, you need to grasp the deeper message of the religion. For those weak in other languages, they need to listen to sermons or khutbahs in their mother tongue. That's what the Chinese or Indian mosque is for.

No, Mr. Danial Boey is wrong. The Chinese community there does not just want a Chinese-designed mosque. They NEED a mosque which can provide sermons and lessons on Islam in the Chinese language whether it be Mandarin, Cantonese or Hokkien.

To Hamid Othman and his kind,
Bahasa Malaysia may be sufficient for Malaysians but Islam is for ALL Races of the world.

kilamxx

2007-04-27T00:23:00.000+08:00

Marmaduke Pickthall - Quran Translator And Servant Of Islam

By kilamxx

Since the last half century or so, if one was looking up the English translation of a certain verse or passage of the Quran, then it would most probably be from one of two well known translations :- Marmaduke Pickthall’s The Meaning of the Glorious Koran and Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary. These two works are the most widely used in the English speaking world and yet not many of us know much about their authors. This blog will be on the author of the first, which was published in 1930, just eight years before the second.

Marmaduke William Pickthall was born in 1875 in London to Mary O'Brien and the Reverend Charles Grayson Pickthall, an Anglican clergyman. He was a contemporary of Winston Churchill at Harrow, the famous private school. From his early years, he perfected a talent for languages.

At the age of eighteen he traveled among the Arab population between Egypt and Syria for two years, picking up fluency in Arabic and a love for Islam. However, his attempt to convert to Islam was rejected by his teacher then, the Sheykh-ul-Ulema of the great mosque at Damascus.

He ended up back in England, got married to Muriel Smith in 1896 and started writing novels. Most of his novels were based on his experiences in the Middle East and were critically acclaimed by his contemporaries, among them being H. G. Wells.

Between writing novels he traveled extensively to the Arab world and Turkey. His affinity for the Turkish Caliphate led him to write in Turkey’s defense against the British Empire during the years leading to the First World War and thereafter. As Daphnée Rentfrow described in her biographical piece on Pickthall :-

More and more, it was becoming obvious to Pickthall and his readers that he was a strong and eloquent proponent of Islam and its varied cultures. Yet Pickthall's background assumed an adherence to the rule of the Church of England. His father and his father's father were clergymen; two step-sisters were Anglican nuns; it was through church contacts that Pickthall first went east. Little by little, however, the actions of the Christian community, especially missionaries, disappointed Pickthall. Before the war, Pickthall was still a practicing Anglican: but with loyalties split between the British and Turkish empires, Pickthall had a crisis of faith and nerves, evident in his writings for The New Age. Finally, in November 1917, at the last of a series of talks to the Muslim Literary Society on "Islam and Progress," Pickthall openly declared his acceptance of Islam. He took the name Mohammed and almost immediately became a pillar of the British Islamic Community.

In 1919, Pickthall worked for the London-based Islamic Information Bureau that among other things published the weekly Muslim Outlook. After completing his last novel the Early Hours in 1920, he departed for his new assignment in India to serve as the editor of the Bombay Chronicle.

India became home to the Pickthalls for the next fifteen years. Muslim communities throughout India invited Pickthall regularly to deliver Friday khutbas as well as lectures.

Ever since he converted to Islam, the mission of translating the Quran had always preoccupied Pickthall’s mind. He saw that there was an obligation for all Muslims to know the Quran intimately. Pickthall took a two-year sabbatical in Hyderabad to complete his translation of the meaning of the Quran, a work that he considered as the summit of his achievement. In 1930, Pickthall published The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. Pickthall maintained that the Quran, being the word of God could not be translated.

Pickthall returned to England in 1935 where he died a year later on May 19^th. He is buried in the Muslim cemetery at Brookwood, Surrey. Sixteen years later another distinguished translator Abdullah Yusuf Ali joined him in this resting place.

References:-

1. Peter Clark, Marmaduke Pickthall: British Muslim; London: Quartet, 1986.

2. Daphnée Rentfrow, The True Call: Marmaduke Pickthall.

3. Marmaduke Pickthall: A Brief Biography (British Muslim Heritage).

2007-04-17T00:05:00.000+08:00

I Wish Guantanamo Was Like This

British sailors held in Iran

By Yvonne Ridley
Date: 3 April 2007

I must confess that the events of the last few days involving British woman Faye Turney and her Royal Navy shipmates have filled me with mixed emotions.
Faye is a captive of the Iranian Government and I can't help drawing parallels with my days as a prisoner of the Taliban way back in September 2001.
Like Faye, I was simply doing my job and just like her I ended up being plastered across the world's newspapers portrayed as a victim of an evil, brutal regime.
Funnily enough, I went tresspassing too. Although to be fair to Faye she might not have realised she was entering Iranian waters whereas I was caught banged to rights for my illegal trip into Afghanistan without a passport and visa.
And, just like Faye, once my captors realised I was a nicotine addict, they kept me topped up in cigarettes for the duration of my ordeal.
Mercifully, the Taliban did not parade me with fag in gob for the media, that would have been too cruel ... my mother would never have forgiven me! She despised my cigarette habit and would certainly not have approved of me puffing away in public, stressed or otherwise.
I do hope Faye's ordeal does come to a rapid end. It is not much fun being anyone's prisoner but she should count her blessings that she's in the hands of the Iranians.
Imagine if she had been caught by the Americans? By now she would have been shaved, shackled and sodomised at the very least in her first week of capitivity.
She would almost certainly be wearing an orange jumpsuit after being thrown into a rat-infested cage via a rendition flight to Guantanamo.
I just thank God that she was, like me, captured by an evil, brutal regime instead of the US military!
George Bush and Tony Blair's indignation over her arrest, and the Western tabloid outpourings regarding Faye's black headscarf has certainly been something to behold. Although, with regard to the head covering, to a certain extent, I can see their point - by contrast the Taleban issued me with a rather fetching little hijab, a sort of autumnal blend of colours. Black can be too drab without the right accessories.
Muslims don't have any such fashion dilemmas when they find themselves in the hands of the British or the Americans because there's nothing like a good old fashioned hood over the head to hide your blushes, and some sticky tape across your mouth will certainly curtail such anti-social and potentially life-threatening habits like smoking.
We only know this because those nice folk from the US and British military were thoughtful enough to take lots of pictures and videos of their treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Basra, Guantanamo and elsewhere.
How thoughtful, as I say, to hide their identities and prevent them from being publicly paraded in the same way as Faye and her naval colleagues.
And of course a hood over the head would have stopped them from talking publicly infront of the cameras about how they strayed into Iranian waters under the orders of the UK military.
Mind you, the Brits appear to have become regular little chatterboxes haven't they? According to declassified US documents Khalid Sheikh Mohamed had to be coaxed with CIA watersports before he overcame his shyness.
I wonder if like the Australian David Hicks, the British naval crew will be allowed to enjoy five years in solitary confinement before being charged with anything?
Given the choice, what do you think Faye and her mates would prefer - Western justice Bush and Blair-style or Islamic justice?
Just in case you are struggling with an answer, here are some clues to help you supplied by my man in Virginia who has outlined below some of the CIA's Enhanced Interrogation Techniques.
All have been tried and tested on Muslim detainees at secret locations on military bases in regions from Asia to Eastern Europe.
* The Belly Slap: A hard open-handed slap to the stomach designed to cause pain, but not internal injury.
* Long Time Standing: Prisoners are forced to stand, handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an eye bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours.
* The Cold Cell: The prisoner is left to stand naked in a cell kept near 50 degrees. Throughout the time in the cell the prisoner is doused with cold water.
* Water Boarding: The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt.
CIA officers who subjected themselves to the water boarding technique lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in. They said al Qaida suspect Khalid Sheik Mohammed, won their admiration when he was able to last between two and two-and-a-half minutes before begging to confess.
According to Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and a deputy director of the State Department's office of counterterrorism: "What real CIA field officers know firsthand is that it is better to build a relationship of trust … than to extract quick confessions through tactics such as those used by the Nazis and the Soviets."
Ah, ha. So now we know. Those devious Iranians are trying to build up a relationship of trust with their captives by acting in a civilised manner.
Quick George, Tony ... get the Brits out now before it is too late!

Source:- yvonneridley.org

They're all back home now laughing with the prospects of making some money with their stories while the 385 odd detainees at Guantanamo Bay are being tortured daily. Some of them are on a hunger strike now.

kilamxx

2007-04-14T00:17:00.000+08:00

Don't Invest In Internet Investment Schemes

by kilamxx

The Malaysian National Fatwa Council has finally announced that it is forbidden for Muslims to invest in internet share schemes which promise fixed high returns. As reported in the Star (13 April 2007) :-

KUALA TERENGGANU: The National Fatwa Council has ruled that any form of share investment through the Internet that promises a steady profit is haram (forbidden) because of the elements of riba (interest) and gharar (chance).

In passing the fatwa (edict) yesterday, council chairman Prof Datuk Dr Abdul Shukor Husin advised Muslims who dabbled in shares on the Internet, such as the Swiss Cash Mutual Fund, to withdraw their money.

There were many alternative investments based on Islamic principles, which they could participate in, he said after chairing the 77th National Fawta Council meeting here yesterday.

The fatwa has been long overdue, with more than 500,000 Muslims already involved in various internet investment schemes like SwissCash, BuyEbarrel and ABBFund (Utusan Malaysia13 April 2007).

Various Shariah experts have already elaborated on the haram elements in these types of investment, among them being Ustaz Zaharuddin Abdul Rahman at Zaharuddin.net.
An in-depth article(in Bahasa Malaysia) can be found here.

Beside the above mentioned names there are more than fifty other get rich quick schemes which use the convenience provided by the internet to lure victims to invest in the various plans they offer. Among others are www.WinliFund.com; www.empay.com; www.buyebarrel.us; www.eaindex.com; www.fical.us; www.GlobalForex.us; www.Arabic.com; www.eracapital.com; www.e-investpro.com; www.GG-trade.com and www.smartindex.net.

I would like to represent an excellent piece on a typical internet get rich quick investment scheme written by Exiang on his Exiang Blog.

Beware of E Barrel

Another pyramid scheme. The first time i heard of it is during December 2006 during my trip to Bentong Thailand. An uncle, obviously a rich boss is telling it to everyone on the bus.

The second time i heard bout it is during CNY, where my gf bro told me bout this. I shoot his mouth off.

Third time, i heard bout it from a friend of mine, that is around End of March.

I made a search to the domain name: http://whois.domaintools.com/buyebarrel.us, found the following facts:

1) The server is located in Hong Kong
2) The registrar is located in Singapore
3) The server is hosted by Kartz Global, world famous anonymous hosting company

Now, let me explain idea that i have gotten from this 3 facts

If I am the founder of Ebarrel, i would love to setup my server in hong kong mainly bcs of my target market of the huge population of chinese people in China. There is another fact: everyone that doing MLM is targeting China market as well.

Register my domain name in singapore could be a way to hide my real identity. I am definitely not an American.

Using anonymous hosting is more suspicious! Why would a International company wanted to hide his own real identity?

Conclusion, this is very obvious that EBarrel is not making money from investing in oil and energy. They are making money from the money you give to them for investment.

How it works?

I hav a sum of money as start cash, probably none too
Then i spread the news out
I just need 2-3 curious and yet greedy ppl to join
Then, i giv them the money as promise

Normally these ppl wont put 1000k directly
at starting, they will try with 100
but it's ok, nvm, coz at the starting I dont have such large amount of pay out capital too

I pay them money day by day
it is tempting and believing

After 3 months, they get back 100 + profit
Now, they will be greedy
i will be sure they will put the 100+profit back
some even add more money to reach 3% per day (different plan have different return rate, that is to encourage people to put in more money)

ok. they will spread around the news too
so my group of income growth

Last, all i need to do is let it expands... up to a point where it is impossible to cover anymore
i will close this company!
by tat time, i will be damm rich
and lots of late joiner will die

p/s: some of the big boss willing to invest big money into it bcs they think they will beable to quit before the company shut down

2007-04-08T22:59:00.000+08:00

KANGAROO COURT FOR KANGAROO SKINNER HICKS

This was a trial?

By Jennifer Daskal

Published: April 1, 2007

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba:

While the Bush administration might try to paint the guilty plea by David Hicks plea as a triumph, the truth is that the Australian's conviction shows in painful detail just how illegitimate and dysfunctional the military commissions truly are.

Five years after Guantánamo was opened to take detainees in the "war on terror," the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks are no closer to seeing justice done. The military commissions were supposed to prosecute the "worst of the worst;" instead, the very first conviction was for a mere nine months of continued incarceration, which would have been a slap on the wrist in the federal justice system that they abandoned as inadequate.

Last Monday, Hicks, clean-shaven and long-haired, entered the brand-new, air-conditioned courtroom, escorted by two U.S. Army sergeants, and sat down in front of his parents, who had met with him earlier that day for the first time in over a year.

Hicks began the day with three lawyers - his military defense counsel, Major Dan Mori, and two civilians - but within hours he was down to one and pleading guilty to a single count of material support for terrorism, a crime that is normally prosecuted in federal court.

First to go was the assistant defense counsel. The judge, Ralph Kohlmann, unsure whether a civilian government employee could serve as defense counsel, decided not to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt and provisionally dismissed her.

The response from Hicks: "From my understanding, I just lost a lawyer."

Next up was Joshua Dratel, chief defense counsel for Hicks for several years. He was also dismissed by the judge, because while he agreed to abide by all "existent" rules, he refused to agree to "all" rules for the tribunal without first knowing what those rules stated. "I'm shocked because I just lost another lawyer," said Hicks, and counsel number two left the courtroom.

The judge then rejected the remaining defense attorney's request for more time to file motions. This judge would give Major Mori just 13 days to prepare file all legal motions in a totally new system with specially created rules and regulations - and even new crimes.

A highlight of the day was the judge's fashion lesson, when he explained the nuances of "business dress" to Hicks, who was wearing a short-sleeved khaki prison garb. The judge suggested the former kangaroo skinner choose his preferred combination of jacket, tie, and button down shirt before the next proceeding: Such proper attire would ensure that Hicks was adequately protected by the presumption of innocence.

But if Hicks, already detained for over five years, thought that this presumption carried little weight, who could really argue? After all, he had just watched his two civilian defense counsels barred from representing him, and every substantive motion denied in proceedings that had barely begun. He might reasonably have wondered what chance he had of receiving a fair trial when judge, jury and remaining counsel all report to the same executive that once lumped him together with the "vicious enemies" and "killers" housed at Guantánamo Bay.

A few minutes before 9 p.m., Hicks entered a plea of guilty - apparently choosing not to test his fate in a system that deems statements obtained through severe physical abuse an acceptable form of evidence.

And, four days later, the court disclosed a plea agreement that appeared to be more about protecting the government against disclosure of abuse than prosecuting any alleged terrorist. In exchange for a sentence of nine months incarceration, the government extracted a statement that Hicks had not been subjected to "illegal" treatment. This is a concession that means little for a government that interpreted waterboarding (mock drowning) as compliant with U.S. and international law at the time of Hicks' arrest. Moreover, the agreement includes a one-year gag rule - a provision that serves the sole purpose of hiding the very conduct the United States denies.

The U.S. secretary of defense, Robert Gates, has urged President George W. Bush to move the Guantánamo Bay detainees to the United States, warning that any proceedings held in Guantánamo will be viewed as illegitimate in a way that could further undermine the broader war effort. This latest proceedings do little to assuage those fears.

The president should listen to his defense secretary's advice. He should charge the detainees in federal court, where established rules and procedures will give the trials the legitimacy needed to restore the reputation of the United States as a leading proponent of the rule of law. Doing so would focus the world's attention on the alleged crimes of the detainees, rather than the flaws of the system.

Jennifer Daskal, advocacy director for the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch, was in Guantánamo Bay monitoring the Hicks military commission proceedings.

Source:International Herald Tribune

What about the two Malaysians still being held there for alleged terrorist activities?

You can be sure that Mohd Farik Amin and Mohammed Nazir Lep are being tortured just like the other fellow detainees at Camp X-ray.

The Malaysian government should demand that they be extradited back to Malaysia to be given a fair trial instead of just asking Washington to give them the same treatment that Hicks got at the kangaroo court.

After being subjected to the kind of torture that the US put their prisoners through, anyone is just about ready to sign any confession put to him.

Come on Pak Lah, we can hardly hear your voice above the screams of the prisoners having their limbs electrified!

Also see Set Our People Free

kilamxx

2007-03-21T23:19:00.000+08:00

GRAND MUFTI OF MALAYSIA

A Grand Mufti Of Malaysia?
We say why not?
An office somewhere along the lines of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
As a unifying head for the 14-odd muftis of Malaysia and a solution to the possible scenario of 14 differing fatwas or interpretations of a religious ruling.

The following article by Dr Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad Senior Fellow / Director Centre for Syariah, Law & Political Science, Institiut Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (IKIM) expands on the idea.

Growing need for Grand Mufti

THE lack of uniformity and standardisation of Islamic law in Malaysia, in addition to certain arguable legal restrictions, has led to an apparent disunity among Muslims, followed by misperception among non-Muslims, leaving both perplexed and confused.

This is partly reflected in the fact that Islamic law is only applicable to Muslims.

Currently, there are 14 muftis in charge of all matters concerning Islamic law but restricted in terms of jurisdiction to within their own states.

On many occasions, we are amazed by conflicting legal rulings (fataawa, singular fatwa) issued on matters like cigarette smoking, pageant contests, monthly income tithes, ASN, khalwat, and the like.

Some attribute the root of the problem to our Federal Constitution. If that were true, are the constitutional provisions carved in stone?

The Constitution, via the Ninth Schedule (Legislative List), List II (State List), grants exclusive jurisdiction to state governments to administer all matters pertaining to Islamic law, but only on Muslims and within their respective state boundaries.

The various state assemblies consolidated this authority by passing enactments leading to the creation and formation of, inter alia, the department of mufti and the syariah courts system.

Examples of certain state laws are the Selangor Administration of Islamic Law Enactment, 1989; and the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993.

It is by virtue of the same constitutional provision that a number of national bodies, namely, the National Islamic Consultative Committee (Jawatankuasa Fatwa Kebangsaan – JFK), the Syariah Judiciary Department Malaysia (Jabatan Kehakiman Syariah Malaysia – JKSM) and the Islamic Development Department Malaysia (Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia – Jakim), are unable to play their unifying roles more effectively.

In saying this, we do not deny their long list of notable achievements thus far.

In the case of JFK, its establishment was for the purpose of discussing and issuing fatwas to solve any major unsettled legal issue, and to standardise conflicting legal edicts, if any, at the national level.

However, in reality, these objectives oftentimes cannot materialise, as their resolutions carry no legal binding powers on any state.

Though members of the committee comprise all state muftis, the states enjoy absolute power in whether or not to accept or reject any conclusion reached by the committee.

If the Constitution is perceived as being a stumbling block towards reformation and improvement, why don’t we amend it?

After all, our Constitution had been amended several times to suit the changing needs and conditions of the population.

All these were done, ultimately, for the smooth running of the country and for the sake of the people at large.

Legally speaking, in bringing about the much-awaited standardisation of Islamic law in Malaysia, the Federal Constitution may be amended by putting Islamic law on the Federal List.

Then the whole business of standardising and upgrading the Islamic legal system will become the responsibility of the Federal Government.

This is an advantage in terms of devising mechanisms to make the two currently running different legal systems – Islamic and civil – an operational one in our pluralistic community.

Parliament may include new provisions to the Constitution creating new credible positions to put an end to all conflicting legal rulings and jurisdiction limitations.

One of these reputable positions, with executive powers, would be the “Grand Mufti.”

The idea of establishing the position of Grand Mufti in Malaysia is not new.

IKIM’s current Director-General, Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas, towards the end of 2006, once again put the proposal forth.

The issue, despite its sensitive nature, proves its relevance and, therefore, cannot be simply discounted based on pseudo arguments.

A “Mufti” refers to a Muslim expert competent in interpreting or expounding the Syariah and issuing legal rulings in all matters coming under the purview of the law. ‘Grand Mufti’ signifies the head of all muftis, i.e. the highest authority of Islamic law in a given Muslim nation.

Other alternatives may be considered, too, for instance, granting more executive powers to JFK, JKSM and Jakim.

In fact, for the very same purpose of uniformity of law, apart from further upgrading the status of Syariah courts, one may propose the position of a Syariah Attorney-General, on par in status with the present Attorney-General.

The above, I believe, are things that have been idealised for ages by and among the syariah legal fraternity or by those concerned with the status and relevance of Islam in this country.

Source: The Star

2007-03-15T00:01:00.000+08:00

Mufti Of Perlis Stirs Up Another Hornet's Nest.

Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, the Mufti of Perlis, seems to have stirred up another hornet's nest recently when the Perlis Fatwa Council which he chairs declared that non-Muslims converting to Islam must retain their father’s name or surname and need not have the bin or binti Abdullah.

As reported in The Star (Sunday March 11, 2007) , Dr. Asri said:-

The edict or fatwa is aimed to address the complaints by non-Muslims, who have stated that their right to retain the name of their father or surname when converting to Islam had been denied.

“When non-Muslims convert to Islam, their name is followed by `bin’ or ‘binti’ Abdullah," he said. "This should not be the case because they are actually being denied justice and their right besides affecting what had been upheld by Islam, that is nasab (descendants),"

Citing an example, he said if someone by the name of Sami son of Raju were to convert to Islam, he should retain his name as Sami bin Raju and not Sami bin Abdullah.

“Changing to ‘bin Abdullah’ is awkward and did not happen in the history of Islam. During the time of the Prophet, those converting to Islam did not change their father’s name or surname and other matters pertaining to their descendants."

Dr Asri said changing the original name and using the ‘bin’ or ‘binti’ Abdullah upon converting to Islam was merely a tradition and not compelled by Islam.

The edict has drawn mixed reactions from Malaysia's religious representatives.

In Sarawak, Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Office (Islamic Affairs) Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman said Non-Muslims converting to Islam should be given the freedom to retain their father's name or surname, or to opt for the `bin or binti Abdullah' (Bernama):-

The decision to retain or not should be the individual rights of each convert as Islam stressed more on the need to adhere to the religion as a way of life rather than in name only.

"It is their individual right. What is important in Islam is not just the name but also the daily obligations carried out according to Islamic teachings," he told Bernama here today.

Daud however said for Sarawak, the converts were encouraged to change to bin or binti Abdullah for identification purpose.

The Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association (Macma) Sarawak president Mortadha Lau Abdullah echoed the same sentiment saying that it was up to the individuals to decide.

"It's up to them which name they prefer or are comfortable with," he said, adding that in the case of Sarawak, converts usually would either use the name or surname in Islam followed by an alias that stated their original name before converting to Islam.

Among other reactions to the edict, The Star (Tuesday March 13, 2007) reported:-

In Ipoh, National Fatwa Committee chairman Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria said that the national body had reached a consensus in the early 1980s for non-Muslims converting to Islam to carry the bin or binti Abdullah.

By giving the example of Riduan Teh Abdullah and Maliki Ong Abdullah, he said that provisions had been made for converts to retain their Chinese family surnames.

Harussani, however, added that it was up to Perlis to decide otherwise, as religion was a state matter.

“The Perlis Fatwa Council is making its own interpretation and it is up to it to decide on the matter,” he said yesterday.

Harussani, who is the Perak mufti, said that Islam was 1,400 years old and the use of the suffixes bin or binti Abdullah was a “very small matter.”

He said that the National Fatwa Committee had decided to standardise it by taking the common name Abdullah – meaning servant of God.

Harussani noted that the convert's original name might have a different meaning.

“For example, if a Hindu were to convert to Islam, the person’s original name may be the name of a Hindu deity,” he said.

“So, it is not acceptable to retain the name of a deity if the individual converts to Islam,” he explained.

In Penang, the state Islamic Religious Council said it was comfortable with the current practice where converts adopt the name Abdullah.

Its president Shabudin Yahaya said this helped simplify matters for the state religious administration and “avoided confusion.”

“Once the convert bears a Muslim name, his or her non-Muslim family would know without doubt that the person has embraced a new religion,” he added.

Selangor deputy mufti Datuk Abdul Majid Omar said that adopting Muslim names was “a non-issue because the National Fatwa Council had decided way back in the early 1980s that converts may retain their original family names upon conversion.”

Abdul Majid also said that bin or binti Abdullah was generally meant for illegitimate children.

What ever the overall outcome of the discussions may turn out to be, it cannot be denied that ever since Dr. Mohd Asri took up office as the Mufti of Perlis in November 2006, he has not failed to regularly bring up relevent issues for the Muslim community to talk on. Which is a great thing really in the long run for the Malaysian Muslim of this country.

2007-03-05T01:27:00.000+08:00

All Praises To Allah

And proclaim unto mankind the pilgrimage.
They will come unto thee on foot and on every lean camel;
they will come from every deep ravine.

That they may witness things that are of benefit to them, and mention the name of Allah on appointed days over the beast of cattle that He hath bestowed upon them.
Then eat thereof and feed therewith the poor unfortunate.

Then let them make an end of their unkemptness and pay their vows and go around the ancient House.

That (is the command). And whoso magnifieth the sacred things of Allah, it will be well for him in the sight of his Lord.
The cattle are lawful unto you save that which hath been told you.
So shun the filth of idols, and shun lying speech.

Turning unto Allah (only), not ascribing partners unto Him; for whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, it is as if he had fallen from the sky and the birds had snatched him or the wind had blown him to a far-off place.

Al-Hajj 22 Verses 27 to 31

All Praises to Allah.

With His Blessings and Mercy I have dutifully performed the Haj and is safely back at home.

The journey that I have gone through had been both a spiritual and physical experience which no amount of words can aptly describe. I guess one has to undertake it oneself to understand the feeling that runs through the veins when I recall the moments standing before the Kaabah watching the pilgrims perform the tawaf (circumambulation) around it. Every soul there was making his presentation with the ever present hope that his offering will be met with the Lord’s approval.

From the donning of the ihram and niyyat till the farewell tawaf, every step was taken purely with the intention of pleasing the Lord of the Worlds.

The realization of one’s smallness and insignificance in the presence of the Almighty is balanced by the confidence that He listens to every little doa whispered deep within one’s heart.

Allah is the Greatest and to Him only all Praises.

To All Dear Friends and Readers who have prayed for my safe journey, thank you very much and may Allah’s rewards be upon you. I have prayed for Allah’s Blessings on all the Muslim brothers and sisters and to those who have yet to perform the Haj may Allah extend His invitation as soon as possible.

Ameen.

2006-12-19T01:10:00.000+08:00

THE HAJJ IN BRIEF

FIRST DAY: 8 Zul Hajj

1. During the night before Fajr of 8 Zul Hajj, put on ihram, make your niyyah (intention) and recite talbiyah 3 times and pray to Allah Almighty.

2. After Fajr, leave Makkah for Mina. However, people can go to Mina even before Fajr during the night.

3. Today in Mina, offer Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha prayers.

4. Stay overnight in Mina.

SECOND DAY: 9 Zul Hajj

1. After Fajr prayer in Mina, go to Arafat.

2. In Masjid-e-Namra, the imam leads Zuhr and Asr prayers, combined and shortened, at Zuhr time. At other places in Arafat, similarly combine these two salats or offer them at their proper times with jama’at.

3. Wuquf-e-Arafat or standing until sunset.

4. At Maghrib time, without offering Maghrib prayer, leave for Muzdalifah.

5. Offer Maghrib and Isha prayers together in Muzdalifah at Isha time.

6. Stay overnight in Muzdalifah.

THIRD DAY: 10 Zul Hajj

1. In Muzdalifah, after Fajr prayer and Wuquf, proceed to Mina.

2. Throw 7 pebbles at Jamrat-ul-Aqabah.

3. Animal sacrifice.

4. Shave your head or cut some hair from it.

5. Go to Makkah for Tawaf-e-Ziarat.

6. Stay overnight in Mina.

FOURTH DAY: 11 Zul Hajj

1. At any time in the afternoon, throw 7 pebbles on each of the 3 pillars starting with the first pillar, then on the middle pillar, and lastly on the pillar of Aqabah.

2. If you could not do Tawaf-e-Ziarat yesterday, do it today.

3. Stay overnight in Mina.

FIFTH DAY: 12 Zul Hajj

1. At any time in the afternoon, throw 7 pebbles on each of the 3 pillars in he same order as was done on 11 Zul Hajj.

2. If you could not do Tawaf-e-Ziarat earlier, it is essential to do it today before Maghrib.

3. You can leave Mina on 12 Zul Hajj before the sun sets. If the sun sets before you are able to depart, remain in Mina for the third night and throw pebbbles again the next day.

Note:

In Mina, Arafat and Muzdlifa, all the prayers are shortened and offered at their proper times except noted above.
Whenever you finish Tawaf-e-Ziarat during the night, come back to Mina for stay.
There are 3 obligatory acts (Fard) without which Hajj is invalid:

* Ihram
* Wuquf-e-Arafat
* Tawaf-e-Ziarat

4. Before returning to your country after completing the rites of Hajj, perform the Farewell Tawaf (Tawaf al-Wida).

Source : www.ummah.net

Here I am at Your service, O Allah, here I am.

You have no partner, here I am.

You alone deserve all praise and gratitude.

To You belongs all favours, blessings and sovereignty and You have no partner.

To All Dear Friends and Readers who follow this blog.

I will be taking a hiatus of about a month to answer the Lord's invitation to me to perform the Hajj.

Please pray for the safe completion of my duties.

I will be praying for Allah's Blessing and Mercy on the Muslim Ummah.

Ameen.

2006-12-02T01:10:00.000+08:00

Mufti: Religious leaders can be challenged

By Fauwaz Abdul Aziz

Nov 27, 2006

It is the nature of the Quran to allow Muslims to question and challenge their religious leaders about the teachings and practices of Islam, said newly-minted Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin.

The Penang-born Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer was seconded to his new two-year post on Nov 1 to replace mufti Mat Jahya Hussin.

At 35, he is the youngest person in the country to hold the post. As mufti, Asri's role is to formulate and discuss fatwa and to advise the Perlis sultan and state government on all matters of Islamic law.

In an exclusive interview, the religious scholar said contrary to the tendency of many Muslims to react negatively to questions and criticism of their religion, Islam accords its detractors space to articulate their doubts and arguments.

He pointed out that the Quran not only engages by presenting arguments for its assertions and to support its veracity, but also accords the same space for its detractors.

"The Quran often says 'Bring forth your arguments if you are indeed truthful,' and 'summon your witnesses other than Allah if you are indeed truthful'," said Asri.

He contrasted this with the strong, often angry, responses of Muslims towards any questioning of their religion.

"They are always reacting and asking, 'What actions are we taking? This is deviant! This has gone astray!' and so on... Whatever view does not concur with theirs, they go amok instead of presenting arguments, reasons and evidence and answering intellectually, " said Asri.

The ability to respond appropriately and effectively to the challenges the ummah (Muslim community) is faced with, ideological or otherwise, is itself the biggest challenge, said Asri.

"The biggest problem is the state of the ummah's present sense of self," he said.

An idea, once introduced, may be only temporarily silenced by force, but it cannot be killed off except by an idea more powerful than the first, Asri said.

"That idea will live on in the minds and thoughts of people. If we want to do away with an idea or understanding, it is not by the use of force. It is by bringing in more powerful arguments," he added.

Reactionary conservatism

Asri illustrated this by reiterating his stance on apostasy, attributing current tensions to religious leaders who divert focus from the reasons that lead Muslims to apostasise.

Addressing such questions as the roots of apostasy, he explained, is the more relevant challenge Muslims and their religious leaders, rather than to issue calls for severe punishment for apostasy.

According to Asri, the younger generations are turning away from the reactionary conservatism of the religious establishment because the latter have ignored their intellectual needs.

"There are those in the Muslim community whose thoughts the conservative religious authorities have tried to freeze. (They may be) kept from thinking but are nevertheless thinking.

"(The conservatives) seek to stuff the mouths of the public and tell them, 'Don't speak of religion. Religion is our (exclusive) right', as what was done by the (Catholic) Church. 'Stop what you're doing and just listen', they would say.

"This cannot be accepted by the younger generations because they know they cannot be stopped from thinking."

While such conservative attitudes risk turning the young away from religion towards secularism as has happened in Europe, Malaysia has been witnessing the emergence of two movements that Asri believes will determine the direction of Islam.

"One is the Salafiyyah movement; the second, if things continue, is that of liberal Muslims," said Asri.

While the liberals criticise and go against even those things in religion that have been established by the Quran and Sunnah (recorded Prophetic traditions, or hadith), said Asri, the Salafi seek in their tajdid (revivalist movement) to make the Quran and Sunnah the terms of reference for Islamic discourse and to bring them up directly against the challenges of modern times.

"This tajdid movement that we are trying to bring about is an Islam that is genuine but that can, at the same time, confront the challenges that face us today, not the conservative form that confuses the modern generations, " he said.

"To me, being a Salafi is about going back to the fundamentals of Islam, going back to the foundations - the Quran and the Sunnah. That is what separates the Salafi from other reformists," he added.

"This Salafiyyah movement says we have the right to think, as the intellect has a function in religion, though the exercise of our thoughts should not go against the Quran and Sunnah."

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/60114

2006-11-27T01:51:00.000+08:00

How I Came to Love the Veil

By Yvonne Ridley

Date: 31st October 2006

POLITICIANS AND JOURNALISTS just love to write about the oppression of women in Islam ... without even talking to the females beneath the veil.

They simply have no idea how Muslim women are protected and respected within the Islamic framework which was built more than 1400 years ago.

Yet, by writing about cultural issues like child brides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages they wrongly believe they are coming from a point of knowledge.

And I am sick of Saudi Arabia being cited as an example of how women are subjigated in a country where they are banned from driving.

The issues above have simply nothing to do with Islam yet they still write and talk about them with an arrogant air of authority while wrongly blaming Islam. Please do not confuse cultural behavior with Islam.

I was asked to write about how Islam allows men to beat their wives. Sorry, not true. Yes, I'm sure critics of Islam will quote random Qur'anic verses or ahadith but all are usually taken out of context. If a man does raise a finger to his wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body ... this is another way of the Qur'an saying; "Don't beat your wife, stupid".

Now let's take a glance at some really interesting statistics, hmm. I can almost hear the words pot, kettle, black. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, four million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period.

On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands and boyfriends every day . . . that is nearly 5,500 women battered to death since 9/11.

Some might say that is a shocking indictment on such a civilized society, but before I sound too smug, I would say that violence against women is a global issue. Violent men do not come in any particular religious or cultural category. The reality is that one out of three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. Violence against women transcends religion, wealth, class, skin color and culture.

However, until Islam came on the scene women were treated as inferior beings. In fact we women still have a problem in the West where men think they are superior. This is reflected in our promotion and wages structure right across the spectrum from cleaners to career women who make it into the boardroom.

Western women are still treated as commodities, where sexual slavery is on the rise, disguised under marketing euphemisms, where womens’ bodies are traded throughout the advertising world. As mentioned before, this is a society where rape, sexual assault, and violence on women is commonplace, a society where the equality between men and women is an illusion, a society where a womens’ power or influence is usually only related to the size of her breasts.

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures and now I look at them as multi-skilled, multi-talented, resilient women whose brand of sisterhood makes Western feminism pale into insignificance. My views changed after the truly terrifying experience of being arrested by the Taleban for sneaking into Afghanistan in September 2001 wearing the bhurka.

During my 10-day captivity I struck a deal that if they let me go I would read the Quran and study Islam. Against all the odds, it worked and I was released. In return I kept my word but as a journalist covering the Middle East I realized I needed to expand my knowledge of a religion which was clearly a way of life.

And no. I'm not a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. To be a victim you have to bond with your captors. During my imprisonment I spat, swore, cursed and abused my jailers as well as refusing their food and going on hunger strike. I don't know who was happier when I was released - them or me!

Reading the Quran was, I thought, going to be a very simple academic exercise. I was stunned to discover that ut clearly stated women are equal in spirituality, education and worth. A woman’s gift for child birth and child-rearing is very much recognised as a quality and attribute. Muslim women say with pride they are homemakers and housewives.

Furthermore The Prophet (pbuh) said that the most important person in the home was The Mother, The Mother, The Mother. In fact he also said that heaven lies at the feet of the mother. How many women make it into the top 100 power lists for simply being a "great mother"?

With Islam choosing to remain at home and raise children takes on a new dignity and respect in my eyes, similar to those sisters among us who choose to go out to work and have careers and professions.

I then began looking at inheritance, tax, property and divorce laws. This is where Hollywood divorce lawyers probably get their inspiration from. For instance the woman gets to keep what she earns and owns while the man has to stump up half his worth.

Isn’t it funny the way the tabloid media gets very excited over the prospect of some pop or film stars pre-nuptial wedding agreement? Muslim women have had wedding contracts from day one. They can choose if they want to work or not and anything they earn is theirs to spend while the husband has to pay for all the household bills and the upkeep of his family.

Just about everything that feminists strived for in the 70s was already available to Muslim women 1400 years ago.

As I said, Islam dignifies and brings respect to motherhood and being a wife. If you want to stay at home, stay at home. It is a great honor to be a home maker and the first educater of your children

But equally, the Quran states if you want to work, then work. Be a career woman, learn a profession become a politician. Be what you want to be and excel in what you do as a Muslim because everything you do is in praise of Allah (swt).

There is an excessive, almost irritating concentration or focus on the issue of Muslim womens’ dress particularly by men (both Muslim and non-Muslim).

Yes, it is an obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly but, in addition, there are many other important issues which concern Muslim women today.

And yet everyone obsesses over the hijab. Look, it is part of my business suit. This tells you I am a Muslim and therefore I expect to be treated with respect.

Can you imagine if someone told a Wall Street executive or Washington banker to put on a t-shirt and jeans? He would tell you his business suit defines him during work hours, marks him out to be treated seriously.

And yet in Britain we have had the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw describing the nikab - the face veil revealing only the eyes - as an unwelcome barrier. When, oh when, will men learn to keep their mouths shut over a woman's wardrobe?

We also had Government Ministers Gordon Brown and John Reid express disparaging remarks about the nikab - both these men come from over the Scottish Borders where men wear skirts!!

Then we had a series of other parliamentarians enter the fray describing the nikab as a barrier for communication. What a load of nonsense. If this was the case can anyone explain to me why cell phones, landlines, emails, text messaging and fax machines are in daily use? Who listens to the radio? No one switches off the wireless because they can not see the face of the presenter.

The majority of sisters I know who choose to wear the nikab are actually white, Western reverts who no longer want the unwelcome attention of those few leering men who will try and confront females and launch into inappropriate behavior. Mind you, there are a couple of London sisters I know who say they wear the nikab at anti-war marches because they can't stand the smell of spliffs.

I am afraid Islamophobia has become the last refuge of the racist scoundrel. But the cowardly, chauvinistic attacks launched - largely by men - is unacceptable to Muslimahs as well as their secular, female sisters from the left.

I was a feminist for many years and now, as an Islamic feminist, I still promote womens' rights. The only difference is Muslim feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We all hate those ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing when the emergence of Miss Afghanistan in bikini was hailed as a giant leap for women's liberation in Afghanistan.

I've been back to Afghanistan many times and I can tell you there are no career women emerging from the rubble in Kabul. My Afghan sisters say they wish the West would drop its obsession with the bhurka. "Don't try turning me into a career woman, get my husband a job first. Show me how I can send my children to school without fear of them being kidnapped. Give me security and bread on the table," one sister told me.

Young feminist Muslimahs see the hijab and the nikab as political symbols as well as a religious requirement. Some say it is their way of showing the world they reject the excesses of Western lifestyles such as binge drinking, casual sex, drug-taking etc.

Superiority in Islam is accomplished through piety, not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex.

Now you tell me what is more liberating. Being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your cosmetically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character, mind and intelligence?

Glossy magazines tell us as women that unless we are tall, slim and beautiful we will be unloved and unwanted. The pressure on teenage magazine readers to have a boyfriend is almost obscene.

Islam tells me that I have a right to an education and it is my duty to go out and seek knowledge whether I am single or married.

No where in the framework of Islam are we told as women that we must do washing, cleaning or cooking for men - but it is not just Muslim men who need to re-evaluate women in their home. Check out this 1992 exert from a Pat Robertson speech revealing his views on empowered women. And then you tell me who is civilized and who is not.

He said: "FEMINISM ENCOURAGES WOMEN TO LEAVE THEIR HUSBANDS, KILL THEIR CHILDREN, PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT, DESTROY CAPITALISM AND BECOME LESBIANS".

Here is an American man living in a pre-Islamic age who needs to modernize and civilize. People like him are wearing a veil and we need to tear that veil of bigotry away so people can see Islam for what it is.

Source :- Yvonneridley.org

2006-11-19T01:46:00.000+08:00

Why Are There Four US Carriers In The Persian Gulf ?


On Oct. 31, the two nuclear-powered carriers, the USS Eisenhower and USS Enterprise, arrived in Bahrain, accompanied by their carrier strike groups. On Nov 9th, the USS Iwo Jima, and the USS Boxer also arrived. The presence of these carriers, combined with Israel's talk of a Iranian strike, sort of makes a person wonder if Bush is up to something.

This is an odd predicament.

No one will stand for another invasion, with thousands of dead US servicemen. If America was to attack, it will be nuclear, but something needs to happen to enrage the US public to allow nukes. If Israel attacked Iran, and Iran nuked Tel Aviv, half the world would celebrate, and the other half would be holding back the chuckles.

The only workable scenario:-

If Bush plans on going into Iran, there must be a massive attack on the Fifth Fleet, or a nuke in an American city. The trouble is - Israel knows it too.

Source:-Rense.com

2006-11-14T00:29:00.000+08:00

What Does It Mean When US Vetos UN Resolution

By kilamxx

When US vetoes UN resolution condemning Israel on Gaza,
It means Israel can continue to:-

Flood the streets of Palestine with the blood...

of innocent civilians...

no matter whether they are women or children...

or unarmed boys...

..is this not GENOCIDE?

Pictures from:- Jew Watch.com

2006-11-03T02:39:00.000+08:00

Dr Mohd Asri Takes Up Office As Perlis Mufti

By Kilamxx

Tahniah.

Congratulations to Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin on being appointed as the Mufti of Perlis on 1^st November 2006.

After months of considering the offer from the Menteri Besar of Perlis, it is believed that Dr. Asri finally accepted the post after certain conditions that he set were met by the state head.

We realize the magnitude of the burden that Dr. Asri has taken on and the tremendous pressure that will be brought to bear on him from all sides.

Being a government appointment, Dr. Asri’s designation could be described as being fairly restrictive on his capacity to act independently.

Everyone must have noticed how most of the states’ Muftis, with the possible exception of Perak’s Datuk Harussani Zakaria, have been quite ineffectual in voicing out their opinion on matters effecting Muslims in Malaysia.

A substantial number of observers tend to believe the same fate will befall the new Mufti. However, having been following Dr. Asri’s development in the academic and missionary fields, we feel he will bring a fresh approach to the Mufti’s role in influencing religious jurisdiction and in carrying out the duties of explaining and propagating the religion of Allah.

We believe Dr. Asri possesses the knowledge and the ability to greatly improve on the image of the Mufti not only in Perlis but also in Malaysia overall, insyaAllah. We personally believe, if Dr. Asri can’t do it, then no one can.

We pray to Allah strengthen his reserves in carrying out his new task. Amin.

See :- Defend Islam's Position In The Malaysian Constitution

2006-10-29T17:21:00.000+08:00

SHEIKH TAJ DIN AL-HILALI DEFIES PRESSURE

By Kilamxx

All that Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali wanted to do when he addressed a Ramadan assembly of 500 worshippers last month, was to remind Muslim women to dress themselves modestly.

Instead, the 65 year old Imam of Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque received a barrage of attacks from the Australian media and politicians when The Australian newspaper published extracts from his sermon a few days ago, almost a month after the event.

Which was petty odd for a daily newspaper.

The furore surrounding the sheik's comments can be regarded as the latest chapter in Australia's demonisation of Islam and the Muslim community in an era of heightened hysteria generated as part of the 'war on terror'.

Many Muslims feel that this is just another excuse to inflame popular sentiment concerning the question of Islam and its role in Australian society.

Never mind that the senior Muslim cleric, regarded as the Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, was instrumental in securing the safety and eventual release of fellow Australian Douglas Wood from his Iraqi abductors in June 2005 at the request of the Australian government.

Al-Hilali is now painted as being ‘ignorant and naïve’ and unfit to be a Muslim leader and has been summarily told to resign.

Apparently revelation of the mufti's comments only came after he criticised the Australian Prime Minister John Howard last month in The Australian for saying a minority of migrant men mistreated their women.

Sheikh Hilali said such a minority was found in all faiths. "Those who don't respect their women are not true Muslims."

"There's a small percentage found among all religions, but we don't recognise ours as Muslims."

Muslim convert, former Christian Kathy Pugh, 50, perhaps represent the general view of the Muslims when she expressed support for everything the mufti had said.

"He wants everyone to be modest when they walk out the door. What is wrong with that?" she asked.

Most Australian Muslims have rallied behind Sheikh Al-Hilali.

The following is a transcript of Sheikh Al-Hilali's speech on Friday (27th October) at Lakemba Mosque in front of an audience of about 5000 Muslim worshippers:-

Source :News.com.au

We offer peace and blessings and we pray to the son of divine guidance and the messenger of the divine providence and to God's mercy onto humanity, our master Mohammed, and to his pure family and companions ...I can't find more truthful words, and more eloquent of recounts, except in the words of the most truthful speakers and wisest of judges (the Koran): "Vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their chests conceal is greater still.

"Indeed, we have made the communications clear to you, if you will understand.

"Lo, you are they who will love them while they do not love you, and you believe in the book (in) the whole of it.

"And when they meet you they say: We believe, and when they are alone, they bite the ends of their fingers in rage against you. Say (to the snakes, the scum, the defiled and the filthy): Die in your rage."

Crowd: Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!

Hilaly: Surely God knows what is in the chests.

On the fourth of the month of Ramadan, while we were in this blessed mosque, and after the nightly prayer, the sheik read from the Sura of al-Maida, and I was commenting on the verse, "The man thief and the woman thief, cut off the hands of both..."

God put forward man before woman in theft and woman before man in adultery. And then I started to present the seductive means, and how the man should control his urges.

I am guiding my daughters, my women. I call for chastity. And if this country is going to forbid us from protecting our honour, and preserve our dignity, I preserve my honour with money that I do not spend, may God not bless money after the honour is lost.

Australia is a multicultural society. Whoever wants to, let them take their clothes off. Whoever wants to go naked, let them go naked. Whoever wants to get drunk, let them get drunk. Whoever wants to smoke hashish, let them smoke hashish.

It's a free country; it's none of our business. But it is our right to tell our women the text of the verse 59 of the Sura of al-Nour (The Light) ... of the Sura of al-Ahzab (The Clans).

Verse 59 of the Sura of al-Ahzab: "Oh, Prophet! Say to your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers that they let down upon them their over-garments; this will be more proper, that they may be known, and thus they will not be given trouble." This is the word of God.

Some of our women who are Westernised say that the religious hijab does not accord respect. The religious hijab, they say, does not increase respect for the woman or protect her.

We order the wearing of the religious hijab that God has ordered us to wear. There is nothing to this ... when we condemn debauchery, shamelessness ...

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says that every six minutes in Australia there is an assault against a male minor or female minor. This is rape, and it is present in the Western societies. We are fighting this rape. We are fighting this.

We want to protect the honour of all the people. And we do not encourage our sons to rape. A Muslim man is ordered to refrain from looking. Rape, to us, is a crime worse than adultery. It borders on murder.

We have said it and declared it 100,000 times, that Islam is against rape. Islam does not instruct to rape. Islam prohibits rape. In Islam, the crime of rape borders on the crime of murder.

And still, those who are sick in the heart ... only when the cow is brought down on the ground, you see a lot of knives ...

Everybody is issuing a statement to look good in the eyes of the Government.

I say: By God, if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left hand ... the sun, the moon, Australia, America and the Western world, in order to give up the principle of the Islamic, moderate, Koranic calling, then I swear to God that I will remain all by myself until God makes me a martyr!

Crowd: Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!

Hilaly: It's not about cowardice. I order according to my Koran. And I adhere to the principles of my Koran. And I know that this is a democratic society, and it allows me to speak the word of truth. I don't care ...

It's not about that. We are building the Australian society. And when we order chastity, when we preserve our honour, when we preserve our daughters, it doesn't mean that we are fanatics and extremists ... and we describe the woman as so and so, as meat ... We were comparing.

When you leave a piece of meat in the yard without supervision, when you put a piece of meat on the footpath, the voracious wolves will snap at it. That is our comparison. We're not saying that every naked woman should be snapped at, no.

I will say it briefly and very clearly. As one would say, first of all: Let me clearly state for the record, for the history, that rape in our religion, in our Islamic law, Islamic sharia, is considered a crime whose punishment is execution. The punishment for rape is execution in Islam.

Its punishment is not only to whip the man. So, my dear beloved, we are a nation that God empowered with this religion. And if we seek empowerment in another religion, God will humiliate us.

I know this was concocted three weeks ago. They met. Someone took the tape. Someone translated it, and gave it to The Australian newspaper, and then on to the diplomats to the politicians.

And the aim is ... I say: My name is Taj, my job is a sheik, my tools are my turban, and I am a servant serving the religion of God. I pray to God ... and I will die attesting to the religion of God. I don't belong to any establishment or to any government. And whoever wants to terminate my wages, let them terminate it.

God bless you.

We have with us on this blessed day my friend Abdul Jalil Sajid, the mufti of London and the noted scholar. We thank him, and I am sorry that you came here at a difficult time to find this problem in Australia. But it is a storm in a cup. We say, "no worries, mate", in Australian.

We also have with us the noted Sheik Abdul Ghaffar al-Zoabi, God preserve him. We wanted to have him here since the last week of Ramadan, but the lack of time and my circumstances and his did not allow it.

We will hear the speech of Sheik Abdul Ghaffar today, and we tell them: Our banners will remain raised high, God willing. And our voices will remain heard. And may the world vanish if it doesn't listen to "there is no God but Allah'.

Crowd: Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!

Further Reading: Revised transcript of Ramadan sermon published by The Australian

2006-10-19T02:31:00.000+08:00

CAN MUSLIMS WISH HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO THEIR HINDU FRIENDS?

By kilamxx

Can Muslims wish Happy Deepavali or Merry Christmas to their Hindu or Christian friends?

Apparently yes.

According a New Straits Times report, Perak mufti Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria said it was not blasphemous to extend wishes to someone celebrating a festival.

"There is nothing wrong if we (Muslims) wish our non-Muslim friends, Happy Deepavali, Merry Christmas or Happy Chinese New Year.

"As long as we do not ‘greet’ their gods, there should not be any problem as it is not against the teachings of Islam.

"As Malaysians, we must be respectful of each other’s religions or festivals.

"If they wish us Happy Hari Raya, that is also not wrong.

"This will further enhance unity and relations among the multi-ethnic races in this country."

This view is also shared by Selangor mufti Datuk Mohd Tamyis Abdul Majid.

He said Muslims were in fact encouraged to greet their non-Muslim friends who were celebrating the festivals as this could enhance friendship and co-operation among the different races in Malaysia.

Not every Muslim is of the same opinion however.

Blogger Tarabulsi said it is forbidden to extend greetings for kufaar celebrations because being involved in any way would endanger a Muslim’s akidah. This article from Islaam.com by Jamaal al-Din Zarabozo seems to back this view.

However, it may be safe to say that the majority of Muslim scholars is of the opinion that it is allowable to offer greetings but anything beyond that may compromise a person’s perception of tawhid.

The following excerpt of the fatwa by the European Council for Fatwa and Research is a typical view.

There can be no doubt as to the importance and the sensitivity of this issue, specially to Muslims residing in the West. The Council has received numerous questions and queries from those who live in these countries and interact with the non-Muslims. Indeed, between the Muslims and the non-Muslims are strong and integral links stipulated and deemed necessary by the means and manner of life itself, such as neighborly relations, friendship at work or study. In fact, a Muslim may actually feel indebted toward a non-Muslim in particular circumstances, such as toward a hardworking and selfless supervisor or lecturer, a sincere and skillful doctor, and others. A famous Arab said that one is enslaved by others’ favors.

Thus, what is the position of the Muslim to such people who are non-Muslims, who do not actually hold any animosity towards Muslims, do not fight them due to their religion, and did not actively seek to expel Muslims from their homes and lands?

The Holy Qur'an stipulates regulations as to how relationships between Muslim and non-Muslim are to be governed and carried out in Surat Al-Mumtahinah, which was essentially revealed to address the pagan polytheists. Allah Almighty says: (Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion and did not drive you out of your homes. Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity. It is only as regards those who fought against you on account of religion, and have driven you out of your homes, and helped to drive you out, that Allah forbids you to befriend them. And whosoever will befriend them, then such are the wrong-doers.) (Al-Mumtahinah 60: 8-9)

Thus the verse stipulates that there is a clear difference between those who fight Muslims and treat them as enemies, and those who interact and deal with Muslims in peace. We are commanded to treat the latter well and in a just and beautiful manner, not merely give them what is duly theirs by right and to take from them what is duly ours. Indeed, the command is to treat them beyond that and to deal with them in beautiful and ideal ways.

As for the other group — to whom the verse clearly forbids any allegiance or support offered in their favor — they are those who chose to become enemies of Islam and Muslims and worked actively to expel them from their homes and lands for no reason other than that they proclaim that Allah Almighty is their Lord, as did the Quraysh and the infidels of Makkah to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions.

Al-Bukhari and Muslim both reported on the authority of Asma’ bint Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with her), that she came to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "O Messenger of Allah! My mother, who is a mushrik (a polytheist), has come to visit me and she desires to be close to me and to give me gifts. Shall I greet her and treat her well?” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stated: “Greet your mother and treat her well.”

This, while the woman was a mushrik, and the Qur’an clearly states that the People of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) are far closer to Islam and Muslims than mushriks. Indeed, the Qur’an gives allowance to eat from the food of the People of the Scripture and to marry them. Allah Almighty says: (...The food of the People of the Scripture is lawful to you and your is lawful to them, lawful to you in marriage are chaste women from the believers and haste women from those who were given the scripture before your time…) (Al-Ma’idah 5: 5)

Also, if marriage is permissible with them, then it goes without saying that marriage implicitly and necessarily decrees love and closeness. Allah Almighty states: (And amongst His signs is this, that He created for you wives from among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and He has put between you affection and mercy…) (Ar-Rum 30: 21) Indeed, how can a man despise his wife, who is ultimately his partner in life, his spouse, the mother of his children? Almighty Allah says: (...they are body cover for you and you are the same for them…) (Al-Baqarah 2: 187)

Moreover, an important consequence and result of marriage is the coming together of two families to form blood bonds and relationships, a natural human form of relating to one another. Allah says: (And it is He Who has created man from water, and has appointed for him kindred by blood, and kindred by marriage…) (Al-Furqan 25: 54)

Also, there are the feelings and affections of maternity, and the clearly stipulated and emphasized rights of a mother upon her children in Islam. One asks in this context: is it an acceptable act according to these stipulations that one does not greet or congratulate his or her non-Muslim mother on a day of festivity that she celebrates? What about relatives from the mother’s side, such as grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins? All those have rights upon a Muslim clearly stated in the Holy Qur'an, where Allah states: (But kindred by blood are nearer to one another regarding to inheritance in the decree ordained by Allah…) (Al-Anfal 8: 76), and also: (Verily, Allah enjoins justice and perfect mannerisms and giving to kith and kin…) (An-Nahl 16: 91)

Thus, if maternity and blood relation rights are obligatory upon a Muslim, in a way that exemplifies the beautiful manners of Islam and Muslims, it is also obligatory upon a Muslim to pay the due rights that work towards showing Muslims as people of beautiful character. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) advised Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) saying: “Be aware of Allah wherever you are, and follow up a sin that you have committed with a good deed, so that sin may be erased, and treat people with beautiful manners.” (Reported by Ahmad, At-Tirmidhi, Ad-Darmi, and Al-Hakim) As is evident, the emphasis is upon “…and treat people with beautiful manners” not “…treat Muslims”.

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also strongly advised us to deal with non-Muslims in a mild and gentle manner, not using stern and terrorizing methods. It was reported that when a group of Jews approached the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and greeted him with twisted pronunciation, and thus uttered “Assam`alaykum, O Muhammad!” (meaning “death and destruction come upon you”) instead of “as-salamu `alaykum”, `A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) heard them and responded by saying, ‘assamu `alaykum also and the curse and wrath of Allah!” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) rebuked `A'ishah for what she had said. She told him, “Did you not hear what they said?” He said, “I did, and I responded by saying, ‘And upon you,’” (i.e., that death will come upon you as it will come upon me.) He went on to say, “O `A'ishah! Allah loves gentleness in all matters.” (Reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

Indeed the permissibility of congratulating non-Muslims on their festive days becomes more of an obligation if they offer their greetings on Islamic festive occasions, as we are commanded to return good treatment with similar treatment, and to return the greeting with a better one or at least with the same greeting. Allah Almighty says: “When you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, or at least return it equally…” (An-Nisa' 4: 86)

A Muslim must never be less charitable or pleasant or indeed of lesser manners than any other, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stated in the hadith: “The most perfect believers in terms of their iman are those who possess the most beautiful manners.” (Reported by Ahmad, At-Tirmidhi, Ad-Darmi, and Abu Dawud), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) also stated: “Verily I have been but sent to perfect the most noble of manners.” (Reported by Ahmad, Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad and Al-Bazzar in Kashful Astar)

The significance of this increases dramatically if we are interested in inviting them to Islam and making them like Muslims, which is an obligation upon us all, as this cannot be achieved by treating them roughly, sternly and violently, but rather by beautiful manners and sublime ethics. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) dealt with the polytheists of Quraysh in the most beautiful of ways and manners throughout his life in Makkah despite their animosity, persecution, oppression and extreme insult of him (peace and blessings be upon him) and his companions. This was epitomized by the fact that due to the incredible trust they had in him, they deposited their wealth and possessions with him, in fear that they may be lost or stolen. When the Prophet fled Makkah to Madinah, he left behind `Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), whom he commanded to return the deposits and trusts that were with him (peace and blessings be upon him).

Thus, there is nothing to prevent a Muslim or an Islamic center from congratulating non-Muslims, either verbally or by sending a card that contains no symbols or icons of religious implications that may contradict Islamic faith and principles, such as a cross, for the concept of the crucifixion is totally outlawed and denied by Islam. Allah states in the Holy Qur'an: (...but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the resemblance of Jesus was put over another man…) (An-Nisa' 4: 156)

Indeed, one finds in the customary words of congratulations nothing that carries any explicit or implicit recognition of any aspects of their faith or belief, nor any condoning thereof.

There is also no objection to accepting gifts and presents from them, and to return their gifts in kind, on condition that these gifts are not unlawful in themselves, such as being alcohol or pork. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) accepted the gift of the King of Egypt and several others (See: At-Tahawi's Sharh Mushkil Al-Athar).

We also wish to mention that some jurists, such as Ibn Taymiyah and his student the great scholar Ibn-ul-Qayyim, adopted stringent measures and restricted the permissibility of this issue and the participation of Muslims in the celebrations of non-Muslims. We adopt this same stance, advising Muslims not to celebrate the festivities of non-Muslims, whether mushriks or People of the Scripture, as we find some ignorant Muslims celebrating Christmas as they would normally celebrate `Eid Al-Fitr and Al-Adha, and maybe even more so. This is unlawful, as we Muslims have our unique festivities. But we see no objection to congratulating others on their festivities if there is some relationship or fellowship link that deems positive social interaction and beautiful exchange a must according to our sublime and noble Islamic Shari`ah.

As for patriotic or national celebrations and festivities, such as Independence Day, Union Day, Mother’s Day, Childhood Day and the such, there is no objection whatsoever to a Muslim congratulating others in those regards, and indeed to participate therein as a citizen of those lands, while observing Islamic manners and controls in all matters.

Source :- www.islamonline.net

2006-10-11T01:19:00.000+08:00

White Terror Plot that doesn't make the headlines - despite chemical explosives and a rocket launcher

by Charlie Kimber 7^th October 2006

A policeman outside the
house in Trent Road, Nelson,
where a man was arrested

Here's a police seizure of weapons that wasn’t splashed all over the front pages.

This week a British National Party election candidate has been accused of possessing the largest amount of chemical explosives of its type ever found in the country. That’s right, the largest ever - imagine if he’d been an Asian man. Home secretary John Reid would have held a special press conference and it would have led every news bulletin.

The home of another man charged with similar offences contained a rocket launcher and a nuclear biological suit as well as BNP literature and chemicals!

Robert Cottage of Talbot Street, Colne, and David Bolus Jackson of Trent Road, Nelson, made separate appearances in court charged with being in possession of an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose.

Cottage was arrested at his home on Thursday of last week, while retired dentist Jackson was arrested in the Lancaster area on Friday.

The 22 chemical components recovered by police are believed to be the largest haul ever found at a house in this country. Cottage stood as a BNP candidate in the Pendle council elections in May.

Christiana Buchanan, who appeared for the prosecution in Jackson's case, alleged the pair had "some kind of masterplan".

Socialist Worker

Typically, news of the above arrest only appeared in a few regional newspapers in Britain.

Imagine if it had been a Muslim man that was arrested. The whole of Britain would have gone berserk together with the resulting worldwide after wave.

Remember the liquid terror episode last August? The airport restrictions set in place were based on suspicions raised by intelligence sources. Nothing concrete, not a single piece of evidence was presented.

Now this was something bigger.

“..the largest amount of chemical explosives of its type ever found in the country”.

“..a rocket launcher and a nuclear biological suit” found.

By the same standards, Blair should have stopped all modes of transportation in and out of the country with an exception being made perhaps for the horse and buggy.

kilamxx

Recent White Terror Arrests (Which Didn't Quite Make The Headlines)

William Krar - May 2003

Robert Goldstein - August 2002

2006-10-08T01:08:00.000+08:00

The New Malay Dilemma

Excerpts from a speech given by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohammed at the Harvard Club of Malaysia dinner on 29 July 2002

The Malays are among the few people whose race is legally defined. Thus, the Malaysian Constitution states that a Malay is one who habitually speaks Malay, professes the religion of Islam and practises Malay customs. There is nothing said about the definitive culture of the Malays.

It follows that changes in culture do not make a Malay person a non-Malay.

Culture is made up largely of the value systems accepted, even if not actually practised by a people or a race. Observations have shown that the culture of a people determines whether they are successful or they fail..... .... Europeans, Asians, Africans and American Indians can all be successful and can all fail. It is, therefore, not the race or ethnicity which determines success. It is the culture.

When I wrote The Malay Dilemma in the late 60s, I had assumed that all the Malays lacked the opportunities to develop and become successful. They lacked opportunities for educating themselves, opportunities to earn enough to go into business, opportunities to train in the required vocation, opportunities to obtain the necessary funding, licences and premises. If these opportunities could be made available to them, then they would succeed. ......

.... But today, the attitude has changed. Getting scholarships and places in the universities at home and abroad is considered a matter of right and is not valued any more. Indeed, those who get these educational opportunities for some unknown reason seem to dislike the very people who created these opportunities. Worse still, they don't seem to appreciate the opportunities that they get. They become more interested in other things, politics in particular, to the detriment of their studies. In business, the vast majority regarded the opportunities given them as something to be exploited for the quickest return. ...... They learn nothing about business and become even less capable at doing business and earning an income from their activities. They become mere sleeping partners and at times not even that. Having sold, they no longer have anything to do with the business. They would go to the government for more licences, permits, shares, etc. ....

.... Why has this thing happened? The answer lies in the culture of the Malays. They are laid-back and prone to take the easy way out. And the easy way out is to sell off whatever they get and ask for more. This is their culture. Working hard, taking risks and being patient is not a part of their culture. It should be remembered that in the past the Malays were not prepared to take up the jobs created by the colonial powers in their effort to exploit the country.

Because the Malays were not prepared to work in rubber estates and the mines, the Indians and Chinese were brought in. At one time, the migrants outnumbered the Malays. Had they continued to outnumber the Malays, independent Malaya would be like independent Singapore.

But the Malays have apparently learnt nothing from the near loss of their country in the past. Today, they are still unwilling to work and foreign workers are again flooding the country. And because they are not equipping themselves with the necessary education and skills, they have continued to depend on others. Their political dominance will protect them for a time. But that dominance is fading very fast as they quarrel among themselves and break up into small ineffective groups. Their numerical superiority means less today than at the time of Independence. ....

.... The Malays, together with the other Bumiputeras, make up 60 per cent of the country's population. But in terms of their political clout, it is now much less than 60 per cent. They are now more dependent on non-Malay support, both the government party and the opposition. Economically, of course, they have less than half the 30-per-cent share that has been allocated to them. If we discount the non-Malay contribution to the nation's economy, Malaysia would be not much better than some of the African developing countries.

To succeed, the Malays must change their culture. They must look towards work as a reward in itself. They must regard what they achieve through work as the true reward. There should be some financial reward but this must not outweigh the satisfaction obtained from the result of their work. ....

.... Changing culture is far more difficult than changing the policies of government. It is easy enough to propose affirmative action but it is not easy to implement it. The recipients must have the right attitude if the results are going to be obtained. .... Unfortunately, their view is that their crutches are symbols of their superior status in the country. The sad thing is that they are not even using the crutches properly. As a result, they gain nothing or very little from the availability of these aids. ....

.... So what is the new Malay dilemma? Their old dilemma was whether they should distort the picture a little in order to help themselves. The new dilemma is whether they should or should not do away with the crutches that they have got used to, which in fact they have become proud of. There is a minority of Malays who are confident enough to think of doing away with the crutches, albeit gradually. But they are a very small minority. Their numbers are not going to increase any time soon. They are generally regarded as traitors to the Malay race. ....

.... There will be a host of protests over this generalisation about Malay attitudes. We read almost every day about blind Malay people and other handicapped Malays graduating with university degrees or driving cars or doing all kinds of work. This does not prove that the generalisation that I make is wrong. These are exceptions. They only prove that if the right attitude or culture is adopted, even the handicapped can succeed.

The dilemma faced by those few who want to build a strong, resilient and independent Malay race without crutches is that they are most likely to end up becoming unpopular and losing the ability to influence the changes in the culture and the value system which are necessary. It seems that they should not try and yet they know that without the cultural changes, the Malays are going to fail.

2006-10-02T00:51:00.000+08:00

Queen grants Muslim prayer room

The Queen has given permission for a room in Windsor Castle to be used as an area for Muslims to pray.

The move came after 19-year-old Nagina Chaudhry who works at the visitors' shop in Berkshire, asked for somewhere to pray during Ramadan.

A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said an office had been set aside for Miss Chaudhry to use as a lunchtime prayer chamber.

A similar facility for Muslims already exists at Buckingham Palace.

Source: BBC News

2006-09-25T00:22:00.000+08:00

RAMADAN IN HISTORY

Adapted from an article by

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick

"O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those who came before you that you may keep your duty to your Lord (having taqwa)."

Quran 2:185.

Many Muslims today have a misconception about fasting and the activities of a fasting person. They go into a state of semi-hibernation, spending most of their daylight hours in bad. If they fear Allah, they wake up for prayer, but then return to sleep immediately. This unnatural sleep makes them become lazy, dull-witted and often cranky.

Ramadan is actually a time of increased activity wherein the believer, now lightened of the burdens of constant eating and drinking, should be more willing to strive and struggle for Allah. The Prophet, sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam, passed through approximately nine Ramadans after the Hijrah. They were filled with decisive events and left us a shining example of sacrifice and submission to Allah.

In the first year after the Hijrah, the Prophet (SAW), sent Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib with thirty Muslim riders to Saif al Bahr to investigate three hundred riders from Quraish who had camped suspiciously in that area. The Muslims were about to engage the disbelievers, but they were separated by Majdy ibn Umar al-Juhany. The Hypocrites of Madinah, hoping to oppose the unity of the Muslims, built their own masjid (called Masjid ad-Dirar). The Prophet (SAW) ordered this masjid to be destroyed in Ramadan.

On the seventeenth of Ramadan, 3 A.H., Almighty Allah separated truth from falsehood at the Great Battle of Badr. The Prophet (SAW), and 313 of his companions set out to intercept a caravan of their own goods that had been left in Makkah. It was led by Abu Sufyan himself, and estimated at 50,000 dinars. They were met, instead, by a well-equipped army of the nobility of Quraish, intend on putting out the light of Islam. Despite being outnumbered three to one and appearing weak and unseasoned, the Muslims defended their faith with a burning desire to protect the Prophet and meet their Lord through martyrdom. Allah gave them a decisive victory on this day of Ramadan, that would never be forgotten.

In 6 A.H., Zaid ibn Haritha was sent to Wadi al-Qura at the head of a detachment to confront Fatimah bint Rabiah, the queen of that area. Fatimah had previously attacked a caravan led by Zaid and had succeeded in plundering its wealth. She was known to be the most protected woman in Arabia, as she hung fifty swords of her close relatives in her home. Fatimah was equally renowned for showing open hostility to Islam. She was killed in a battle against these Muslims in the month of Ramadan.

By Ramadan of 8 A.H., the treaty of Hudaibiyya had been broken and the Muslim armies had engaged the Byzantines in the North. Muhammad (SAW) felt the need to strike a fatal blow to disbelief in the Arabian Peninsula and conquer the city of Mecca. Allah has declared His Sanctuary a place of peace, security and religious sanctity. Now the time had come to purify the Ka`bah of nakedness and abomination. The Prophet (SAW) set out with an army having more armed men than al-Madinah had ever seen before. People were swelling the army's ranks as it moved toward Makkah. The determination of the believers, guided by the Will of Allah, became so awesome that the city of Makkah was conquered without a battle, on 20 Ramadan. This was one of the most important dates in Islamic history for after it, Islam was firmly entrenched in the Arabian Peninsula. During the same month and year, after smashing the idols of Makkah, detachments were sent to the other major centers of polytheism and al-Lat, Manat and Suwa, some of the greatest idols of Arabia, were destroyed.

Such was the month of Ramadan in the time of the Prophet (SAW). It was a time of purification, enjoining the good, forbidding the evil, and striving hard with one's life and wealth. After the death of the Prophet (SAW), Muslims carried on this tradition and Allah used the true believers to affect the course of history. Ramadan continued to be a time of great trials and crucial events.

Ninety-two years after the Hijrah, Islam had spread across North Africa, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria. Spain was under the tyrannical rule of King Roderic of the Visigoths. Roderic had forced his six millions serfs and persecuted Jews to seek the aid of the Muslims of North Africa in order to be delivered. Musa ibn Husair, the Umayyad governor of North Africa, responded by sending his courageous general Tariq ibn Ziyad at the head of 12,000 Berber and Arab troops. In Ramadan of that year, they were confronted with a combined Visigoth army of 90,000 Christians led by Roderic himself, who was seated on a throne of ivory, silver, and precious gems and drawn by white mules. They burst forth with great enthusiasm and Allah manifested a clear victory over the forces of disbelief. Not only was Roderic killed and his forces completely annihilated, but also Tariq and Musa succeeded in liberating the whole of Spain, Sicily and parts of France. This was the beginning of the Golden Age of Al-Andalus where Muslims ruled for over 700 years.

In the year 582 A.H., Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi, after battling with the Crusaders for years, finally drove them out of Syria and the whole of their occupied lands in the month of Ramadan. The Muslim world was then destined to meet one of its most frightening challenges.

In the seventh century A.H. the Mongols were sweeping across Asia destroying everything that lay in their path. Genghis Khan called himself "the scourge of God sent to punish humanity for their sins". In 617 A.H., Samarkand, Ray and Hamdan were put to the sword causing more than 700,000 people to be killed or made captive. In 656 A.H., Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, continued this destruction. Even Baghdad, the leading city of the Muslim world, was sacked. Some estimates say that as many as 1,800,000 Muslims were killed in this awesome carnage. The Christians were asked to eat pork and drink wine openly while the surviving Muslims were forced to participate in drinking bouts. Wine was sprinkled in the masjids and no Azan (call to prayer) was allowed. In the wake of such a horrible disaster and with the threat of the whole Muslim world and then Europe being subjected to the same fate, Allah raised up from the Mamluks of Egypt, Saifuddin Qutz, who united the Muslim army and met the Mongols at Ain Jalut on 25th of Ramadan, 458 A.H. Although they were under great pressure, the Muslims with the help of Allah, cunning strategy and unflinching bravery crushed the Mongol army and reversed this tidal wave of horror. The whole of the civilized world sighed in relief and stood in awe at the remarkable achievement of these noble sons of Islam.

This was the spirit of Ramadan that enabled our righteous forefathers to face seemingly impossible challenges. It was a time of intense activity, spending the day in the saddle and the night in prayer while calling upon Allah for His mercy and forgiveness.

Today, the Muslim world is faced with military aggression, widespread corruption and tempting materialism. Surely we are in need of believers who can walk in the footsteps of our beloved Prophet (SAW), the illustrious Sahabah, Tariq ibn Ziyad, Qutuz, Salahuddin and the countless heroes of Islam. Surely we are in need of believers who are unafraid of the threats of the disbelievers, yet kind and humble to the believing people; Muslims whose fast is complete and not just a source of hunger and thirst.

May Allah raise up a generation of Muslims who can carry Islam to all corners of the globe in a manner that befits our age, and may He give us the strength and the success to lay the proper foundations for them. May Allah make us of those who carry out our Islam during Ramadan and after it, and may He not make us of those who say what they do not do. Surely Allah and His Angels invoke blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad. O you who believe, send blessings and peace to him forever.

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick is the first American graduate of the Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia. He has M.A. and a Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto, Canada. He has traveled extensively in the the Caribbean and Central America and throughout the Muslim World. He is the author of several scholarly articles, and lectured and researched in over 29 countries.

2006-09-17T01:44:00.000+08:00

HIGH 5 GETS LOW MARKS FOR HYGIENE

by RAHMAN DAROS
Malay Mail 08/09/2006

A BAKERY was raided yesterday for being dirty, employing illegal workers and using cooking oil without a ‘halal’ certification.

The raid at Stanson Bakery Sdn Bhd, which produces the High Five bread, at the Nilai Industrial Area, revealed that the floor was dirty.

Some workers were also found working without gloves or aprons, while the factory was badly-lit and poorly-ventilated.

The factory’s management volunteered to close down for two weeks after it was chided by the Health Ministry team which also issued a warning to the operator for operating under unhygienic conditions under Section 11 of the Food Act 1983.

Apart from that, seven foreign workers were detained as they could not produce employment documents while samples of the oil used in the bread mould were also taken.

The oil, carrying the brand ‘Dubur’, is from Israel.

The 2.30pm blitz was carried out by more than 30 personnel from the Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM), Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, Health Ministry, Islamic Development Department, Negri Sembilan Immigration Department, State Religious Affairs Department, Nilai Municipal Council and the police.

Silver Bird Group Bhd group managing director Datuk Jackson Tan Han Kook said the hygiene problem raised by the raiding team was subjective.

“It’s a minor issue. There were broken tiles at the factory and the management had not fixed it as it was an old factory. This is normal,” he told The Malay Mail last night.

Silver Bird is the parent company of Stanson Bakery.

The sad fact about the above news article was that The Malay Mail was about the only Malaysian newspaper that mentioned the bread brand High 5 and Stanson Bakery Sdn Bhd as being the culprit. Most of the other Malaysian papers (including the Malay language ones) were too timid to name the brand or the company, referring to it only as "a well known bread" or "a nationwide bread company".

This is a great disservice not only to the Malaysian public, but also to the other bread companies who take precious care in ensuring that their products comply to halal standards. The normal reaction among the public when not told which brand is "dirty" is to avoid all brands altogether until they receive more information. As a result, in this case all the "clean" brands also sufferred a drop in sales initially until the public gradually got to know which was the "dirty" brand.

Come on, Malaysian newspapers! About time you call a spade a spade. Or are you still too lacking in the balls department.

As for Stanson Bakery, it's about time the authorities take greater punitive action on companies which betray the trust that have been given to them in granting halal status on their products and operations. After all, they make a lot of money from the halal certification, so the punishment should also be big financially. Otherwise, it is going to make a mockery of the Halal system in the country. Don't make everyone laugh when the leaders talk about making Malaysia the "Halal Hub" of the world.

Kilamxx

For more pictures at High 5 click below:-
Muslimconsumers.org.my

2006-09-14T00:33:00.000+08:00

Set Our People Free

By Kilamxx

In view of the revelation by the United States administration of the transfer of two Malaysians from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this blog makes the following statement.

The people of Malaysia demand the immediate release of Malaysians, Mohamad Nazir bin Lep (aka Lillie) and Mohamad Farik Amin (aka Zubair), who are being illegally held by the government of the United States of America in Guantanamo Naval Base or else they be tried in a court of law for whatever charges that had been leveled against them without delay.

The people of Malaysia also demand that the United States of America stop the use of all forms of torture on all prisoners under its jurisdiction, including barbaric interrogation techniques of hypothermia, stress positions and "waterboarding," a practice of simulated drowning.

For examples of torture and humiliation of prisoners by USA personnel see

The Abu Ghraib Files

2006-09-07T01:01:00.000+08:00

THE ISRAELI SOLDIER - Nothing Special About Him

Humbling of the supertroops shatters Israeli army morale

By Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

HUNDREDS of feet below ground in the command bunker of the Israeli air force in Tel Aviv, a crowd of officers gathered to monitor the first day of the war against Hezbollah. It was July 12 and air force jets were about to attack Hezbollah’s military nerve centre in southern Beirut.

Among the officers smoking tensely as they waited for news, was Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, 58, a daring fighter pilot in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war who had become chief of staff a year earlier and now faced the biggest test of his career.

Over the Mediterranean, west of Beirut, the elite F-15I squadron made its final preparations to strike with precision guided weapons against Hezbollah’s Iranian-made long-range Zelzal rockets, aimed at Tel Aviv.

Just before midnight, the order “Fire!” — given by the squadron leader — could be heard in the Tel Aviv bunker. Within moments the first Hezbollah missile and launcher were blown up. Thirty-nine tense minutes later the squadron leader’s voice was heard again: “Fifty-four launchers have been destroyed. Returning to base.”

Halutz smiled with relief and called Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, who was enjoying a cigar as he waited by a secure red phone at his residence in Jerusalem.

“All the long-range rockets have been destroyed,” Halutz announced proudly. After a short pause, he added four words that have since haunted him: “We’ve won the war.”

Even as Halutz was declaring victory, 12 Israeli soldiers from the Maglan reconnaissance unit were already running into an ambush just over the border inside Lebanon near the village of Maroun a-Ras.

“We didn’t know what hit us,” said one of the soldiers, who asked to be named only as Gad. “In seconds we had two dead.”

With several others wounded and retreating under heavy fire the Maglans, one of the finest units in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), were astonished by the firepower and perseverance of Hezbollah.

“Evidently they had never heard that an Arab soldier is supposed to run away after a short engagement with the Israelis,” said Gad.

“We expected a tent and three Kalashnikovs — that was the intelligence we were given. Instead, we found a hydraulic steel door leading to a well-equipped network of tunnels.”

As daylight broke the Maglans found themselves under fire from all sides by Hezbollah forces who knew every inch of the terrain and exploited their knowledge to the full.

The commander of the IDF’s northern sector, Lieutenant-General Udi Adam, could barely believe that some of his best soldiers had been so swiftly trapped; neither could the chief of staff.

“What’s wrong with the Maglans?” Halutz demanded to know. “They are surrounded,” Adam replied quietly. “I must send in more forces.”

As the reinforcements of the Egoz brigade prepared to enter Maroun a-Ras and rescue their comrades, however, several were mown down in a second ambush. Hours of battle ensued before the Maglan and Egoz platoons were able to drag their dead and wounded back to Israel.

Hezbollah also suffered heavy casualties but its fighters slipped back into their tunnels to await the next round of fighting. It was immediately obvious to everyone in Tel Aviv that this was going to be a tougher fight than Halutz had bargained for.

As the war unfolded his optimism was brought crashing down to earth — and with it the invincible reputation of the Israeli armed forces.

In five weeks, their critics charge, they displayed tactical incompetence and strategic short-sightedness. Their much-vaunted intelligence was found wanting.

Their political leadership was shown to vacillate. Their commanders proved fractious. In many cases the training of their men was poor and their equipment inadequate. Despite many individual acts of bravery, some of the men of the IDF were pushed to the point of mutiny.

Last week, in an contrite letter to his soldiers, Halutz admitted to “mistakes which will all be corrected”. It is far from clear whether Halutz will remain in position to correct them.

As calls mounted this weekend — not least from the families of many of the 117 fallen Israeli soldiers — for the resignation of those deemed responsible for the failures, Olmert was expected to set up an inquiry into the conduct of the war. A poll showed that 63% of Israelis believed Olmert should quit, while 74% called for Amir Peretz, the defence minister, to go, and 54% wanted Halutz out.

“Olmert faces a serious risk of a no-confidence vote in the Knesset,” said Hanan Kristal, a leading political commentator. “A State Commission will give him four to six months of critical breathing time.”

Meanwhile the Israeli public are struggling to accept that the country’s security might now depend on whether a French-led United Nations peacekeeping force proves able to disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In addition to 7,000 troops already promised by EU states, the UN has received offers from several Muslim countries, some of which do not even recognise Israel. The force is unlikely to reach full strength for at least two months.

Much attention is being paid, however, to the deployment of these forces and especially to Israel’s apparent over-reliance on air power under the command of the Halutz.

Critics of Halutz, a former air force commander, believe he should have sent in overwhelming forces on the ground to drive Hezbollah back from border areas where they remained active right up to the end of the 34-day conflict.

“The air force can only assist ground forces; it can never win a war — any war,” said one veteran Israeli officer last week.

Another critical factor under consideration was that Hezbollah seemed so much better prepared. They launched nearly 200 rockets a day at Israel. They used advanced anti-tank missiles with lethal professionalism and stunned their opponents with their coolness under pressure and their willingness to “martyr” themselves in battle.

Apparently using techniques learnt from their paymasters in Iran, they were even able to crack the codes and follow the fast-changing frequencies of Israeli radio communications, intercepting reports of the casualties they had inflicted again and again. This enabled them to dominate the media war by announcing Israeli fatalities first.

“They monitored our secure radio communications in the most professional way,” one Israeli officer admitted. “When we lose a man, the fighting unit immediately gives the location and the number back to headquarters. What Hezbollah did was to monitor our radio and immediately send it to their Al-Manar TV, which broadcast it almost live, long before the official Israeli radio.”

Hezbollah appears to have divided a three mile-wide strip along the Israeli-Lebanese border into numerous “killing boxes”. Each box was protected in classic guerrilla fashion with booby-traps, land mines, and even CCTV cameras to watch every step of the advancing Israeli army.

“Our brass stupidly fell into the Hezbollah traps,” said Raphael, an infantry battalion reserve major. “The generals wanted us to attack as many villages as possible for no obvious reason. This was exactly what Hezbollah wanted us to do — they wanted to bog us down in as many small battles as possible and bleed us this way.”

The casualties from Russian-made anti-tank missiles have caused particular concern. An Israeli-invented radar defence shield codenamed Flying Jacket and costing £200,000 was installed on only four tanks. None of them was struck by anti-tank missiles.

But Hezbollah hit 46 tanks that lacked the shield. “£200,000 per tank is not beyond Israel’s means,” noted one military source acidly.

While the regular army was reasonably well equipped, the reservists were not. “We arrived at our depots only to find that our combat gear had been opened and equipment given to regular soldiers,” revealed Moshe, a fighter in the Alexandroni brigade. “The equipment was, of course, never returned.”

The Alexandroni fought in the west, near the Mediterranean, and did well initially. But logistics were appalling. “We had no fresh water as it was too dangerous to ship it to us,” Moshe added. “I’m ashamed to admit we had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah, and break into local shops for food.”

The Israeli leadership became determined to destroy the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil because of its powerful symbolism to the enemy.

This was the place where Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s general secretary, had given his keynote speech after Israel withdrew in 2000, ending 18 years of occupation. Nasrallah said in Bint Jbail that Israel would be destroyed. Now Israeli leaders wanted to show him how badly mistaken he had been.

“Conquer Bint Jbail,” Halutz told Adam, the northern sector commander. Adam is said to have replied: “Hold on, Halutz. Do you know what that means? Do you realise that the casbah [old quarter] of Bint Jbail alone contains more than 5,000 houses? And you want me to send in one battalion?”

Adam nevertheless did as he was told and sent the 51st battalion of the Golani brigade to fight a heroic but hopeless, battle.

As the Israeli soldiers approached the town from the east they fell straight into yet another ambush. Hand grenades killed battalion commanders. Then a rescue operation was mounted, which took all night.

Hezbollah fighters were also hit but retreated and waited for Israeli reinforcements to arrive. Brig Gen Gal Hirsch, the commander of the 91 Galilee division, announced: “We control Bint-Jbail.” The next day more Israeli soldiers died as they, too, were ensnared in Hezbollah’s trap.

The Israeli media began to attack the army. “Idiotic military manoeuvres,” was how one commentator on TV1, the state-owned station, summed it up.

Tension now set in among the top brass. Halutz dispatched his deputy, Maj Gen Moshe Kaplinsky, as his special representative to the north, placing him above Adam.

Adam threatened to resign if Kaplinski issued orders to his units. Kaplinski nevertheless did so. Adam did not resign but is expected to go public soon with his story of the war.

Relatively inexperienced reservists were called up. Oded, 27, a reservist from Jerusalem in a combat infantry brigade, was among those summoned to active duty. “In the past six years I’ve only had a week’s training,” he revealed.

“Soon after we arrived, we received an order to seize a nearby Shi’ite village. We knew that we were not properly trained for the mission. We told our commanders we could control the village with firepower and there was no need to take it and be killed for nothing.

“Luckily we were able to convince our commander,” he concluded with a faint smile.

Oded blamed the Palestinian intifada for his unit’s insufficient training. “For the last six years we were engaged in stupid policing missions in the West Bank,” he said. “Checkpoints, hunting stone-throwing Palestinian children, that kind of stuff. The result was that we were not ready to confront real fighters like Hezbollah.”

On the day the chaos in Bint Jbail reached its peak, Amir Peretz, the new and inexperienced defence minister, flew to the northern border to meet reservists about to go into action.

Aviv Wasserman, a reserve major with the 300 brigade who is about to study for a doctorate at the London School of Economics, asked Peretz not to throw them into “unnecessary adventures”.

Lieutenant Adam Kima, of the combat engineering battalion, was in even more rebellious mood after being asked to take his men and clear the road leading to Bint Jbeil from the west. Studying the plan, Kima rejected the idea — 10 Israeli soldiers had already died there “We were foolishly told it was all right — there are no Hezbollah forces ahead of us,” said Corporal Nimrod Diskin, one of Kima’s soldiers. “We didn’t have the equipment to clear this road. We were not ready for the mission.”

When the brigade commander realised that Kima and his soldiers would not carry out their orders, he called the military police. The men were sentenced to 14 days in jail, although they were released a few days later. The soldiers, most of them fathers of small children, believe Kima saved their lives.

“I noticed behaviour I’d never heard of in the Israeli army,” Kima said last week on Israeli television. “In my training I got used to the idea that the commander shouts ‘Advance!’ and is the first to face the enemy. Here my battalion commander was in the back of the group and the brigade commander didn’t even cross the border into Lebanon.”

As the fighting dragged on, some veteran officers lost patience with what they saw as the inexperience of the chief of staff and defence minister. “What are you doing in Lebanon, for God’s sake?’ the former defence minister, General Shaul Mofaz, asked Olmert. “Why did you go into Bint Jbeil? It was a trap set by Hezbollah.”

Mofaz proposed an old-fashioned IDF assault plan to launch a blitzkrieg against Hezbollah, reach the strategically important Litani river in 48 hours and then demolish Hezbollah in six days. Olmert liked the idea but Peretz did not appreciate his predecessor’s intervention and rejected it.

Olmert appeared to lose confidence and began to issue conflicting orders. “Our mission changed twice, three times, every day,” complained one soldier.

Many Israelis have been left furious that the legendary deterrent power of their army has been shattered. Even though Hezbollah has lost a quarter of its fighters, its military base in Beirut and its bunkers in the south, Israelis feel less secure.

They hear President Bashar al-Assad of Syria warning that he may retake the Golan Heights by force and the Iranians threatening that if the Americans attack them, Tel Aviv will be hit by ballistic missiles in retaliation.

On the final day of the war, Halutz was sitting in his favourite seat at the air force bunker in Tel Aviv, waiting for the results of a massive airborne operation. Then the news came through that a Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter had been shot down by a Hezbollah rocket. He is said to have felt defeated, both personally and professionally.

Halutz and his political masters may now be living on borrowed time. Israeli’s military elite, such as its fighter squadrons and commando units, may still be among the best in the world but the mediocrity of much of the army has been exposed for all in the Middle East to see.

Israelis can forget and forgive many things, but not the perceived defeat of an army that commanded worldwide respect but suddenly no longer strikes so much fear into its enemies.

Source: Timesonline.co.uk

2006-09-03T17:28:00.000+08:00

ABU BAKAR BASHIR - RADICAL YES, TERRORIST NO

Interview with Ustaz Abu Bakar Bashir

By Farish A. Noor

Ustaz Abu Bakar Bashir, founder and head of the Pesantren al-Mukmin of Ngruki, Surakarta, is perhaps the most well-known Muslim scholar in Southeast Asia today. Following the bombing in Bali in 2002, he was accused of being involved in the attack and subsequently brought to trial and sent to prison. After his release last month, he has once again appeared on the political scene of Indonesia and ASEAN as a major figure in the contemporary development of popular Islam. Despite the accusations that were leveled against him, many Indonesians we met expressed support for the man and skepticism over the trial, arguing instead that the Indonesian government was forced to act against Bashir due to pressure from Western governments including the United States and Australia. Malaysian academic Farish A. Noor recently visited the Pesantren al-Mukmin in Solo and met with Ustaz Bashir himself. The following is an excerpt of the interview (done in Bahasa Indonesia) with Bashir where he talks about the current state of ASEAN, the political conflict in the Arab world, American influence in Southeast Asia and the struggle of Muslims in Indonesia.

Profile:- Abu Bakar Bashir

FN. We have just returned from a demonstration where you and the students of Ngruki were present along with members of the Majlis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), Front Pembela Islam (FPI), Front Pemuda Islam Solo (FPIS), Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) and others. When you spoke to the crowd you focused mainly on the current conflict in Lebanon and the aggression of the Israelis. You also criticised the weakness of the Muslim leaders of the world. Why has it come to this? Recently there was the OIC meeting in Kuala Lumpur and the statement they came up with was lame and non-conclusive; why are Muslim governments so scared to speak up and call for united action?

ABB: This is to be expected from them (Muslim leaders). What else can they do? What else can they say? There is not a single Muslim leader today who has the courage and commitment to defend Islam and Muslims, they are all in awe of the United States and other Western powers, and are indebted to them. This is what we call ‘Wahn’; "penyakit cinta dunia, takut mati". Our Prophet warned that this would be the case in the future, that the Muslim ummat would be great in numbers, but weak in spirit - until they are trampled upon again and again.

The Arab leaders and other Muslim leaders in Asia all suffer from this disease called ‘wahn’, this weakness brought about by wealth and privilege, and thus they have become soft. That is why they cannot stand up to the kafirs and they cannot be firm in their statements and policies. Their love for the world and all things wordly (duniawi) means that they only think of themselves. Arab leaders worry more about making money from the profits they get from oil and gas that they turn the other way when Lebanon is being destroyed right next to them. Their neighbours are being murdered, but they only make calculations for their own benefit.

This is why I have always said that it would be better if Muslims were poor. Oil wealth has been a curse on us, made us weak and docile. Look at the Afghans, during the time of the Soviet invasion. They were among the poorest Muslims in the world, yet they were sustained by their faith in God, and God alone.

Muslims must believe that all power, success and victory comes from God alone.("Hanya Allah Maha Esa yang menentukannya".)

If God wills it, they will win - no matter what the odds may be. The Prophet defeated the enemies of Islam even when he and his followers were small in number. Why? Because they had the ultimate power, God, on their side. This is the real superpower. The Afghans did not have sophisticated weapons like the Soviets did, but with their faith they defeated a superpower. That is when the kafirs feared us Muslims, when we had discipline and faith, when we were strong in our hearts and not weak in our stomachs.

This jihad spirit (semangat berjihad) is not in the OIC now. Show me an OIC leader who can talk about jihad. Not even the leaders of Malaysia or Indonesia have this, so how can we do anything? Your leader Badawi is weak (Badawi itu luwes, lemah orangnya.)

The only Muslim leader who has some spirit left is your former leader Mahathir Mohamad, who called for a boycott of US and other Western currencies. He was right, when he said that Muslim countries should abandon the US Dollar and trade with their own currencies instead. Why should we use the Dollar even when we trade among ourselves? Even though Mahathir did not openly call for jihad, at least he said something. This was the least we could have done. ("Sekurang-kurangnya kita bisa lakukan begitu, memboikotkan matawang Amerika itu".)

But the leaders of the OIC could not even accept Mahathir's proposal, yet they talk about respect and honour. What honour have we got left, when nobody is listening to us?

FN: Some would argue that this weakness stems from the fear of being seen as being 'too radical'. I have problems with this concept, for I believe that being a radical is not necessarily a bad thing. After all Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyata, Ghandhi, Nehru, were all radicals in their time; and they did not compromise in their opposition to colonialism, imperialism, racism and apartheid. So why cant we be radicals now?

ABB: You are right, but the weakness does not come from the millions of Muslims in the world. They do not mind being radical, they have no fear to speak out and to protest and to jihad. But the weakness comes from these Westernised co-opted Muslim leaders who just want to look good in the eyes of the West and Western media. They are scared that the BBC or CNN may call them radicals, so they remain soft instead.

The problem lies there, with the Muslim leaders, not the Muslim masses. The Muslim leaders swallow the advice of the Western powers and bodies like the IMF and World Bank, even when it is bad for their countries and they know this. They are the real hypocrites (munafikin) and traitors to Islam and Muslims. Yet as you say we should not accept the idea that being a radical is a bad thing. Any movement for change will be radical. Our Prophet was a radical too- he fought against the injustices of his community and challenged the feudal order of his society, so they called him a radical. So what? We should be proud of that! ("Kita harus bangga dengan 'radikal' itu!".)

We should be proud that our Prophet came into the world with the message of Islam to change it for the better, and not for the worse, or to keep things as they are. What use is revelation or religion if it doesnt change anything?

Today the Western powers and media want to domesticate us like sheep, to keep us tame and domesticated. But why are animals domesticated? So that they can be slaughtered in the end! (Binatang itu dijinak-jinaki supaya disembelihkan nanti!)

That is why they use the label 'radical' in the way they do, to keep us scared and to keep us under control. This is true for our leaders, who have all been domesticated and trained to speak the way their Western bosses want them to.

FN: So where do we get our role models then?

ABB: The only model to follow is pure Islam ("Islam yang murni"). Because Islam in its original form was tough and hard ("tegas dan keras"), not weak and pliable. Islam is fixed, stable, ordered and disciplined, and so are Muslims.

If we return to the real practice of true Islam we would be much stronger and that is when the kafirs will fear us. That is why we need to uphold the Shariah and return to real Islam. But the West is trying to weaken Islam from outside and inside. They attack our people and invade our countries from outside, and they weaken us from within with ideas like secularism, liberalism and democracy. This is all designed to contaminate our pure Islam.

Why do we Muslims have to learn from them? Islam is perfect, there is nothing to be added or changed. We have shown that Islam can rule the world perfectly for fourteen centuries, and during this time of Muslim power we did not borrow ideas like democracy from others, so why do we need to learn democracy from them now? As long as Muslims were confident (in the past) they could not be defeated, but now we are just puppets ("boneka semuanya").

This is why we are calling for the upholding of the Shariah here in Indonesia. We demand an Islamic state, and not some form of Islamisation of society. We want the state to be Islamic, with Islamic leaders who have the courage and will to implement the Shariah in total. There is no other way. ("Nggak ada jalanan yang lain".)

Kuliatul Mualimin al-Islamiyyah (KMI)

Pesantren al-Mukmin Ngruki

Surakarta

11-12 August 2006

For full transcript of interview click here

2006-08-28T23:35:00.000+08:00

The Zionist Invaders Lost More Than They Claimed

By kilamxx

The Zionist Occupation Forces which invaded Lebanon recently lost more than the 116 soldiers that they claimed to have been killed. The actual number runs into several hundreds and maybe more than a thousand Israeli soldiers dead. This estimate is based on accounts by visitors to Southern Lebanon who have seen evidence of the large number of Israeli soldiers killed.

I tend to believe the higher estimate more than the official figure given by the Zionist Forces.

For a start, if one were to refer to the mainstream media, the number of Israeli tanks destroyed by Hizbullah anti-tank missiles was either 20 or 30, depending on which “official source” you refer to.

The reality is you will find more than a hundred Israeli tank wreckages in Southern Lebanon at this moment if you ever get the chance to visit that part of the country. A few Malaysians that I know of, who have just arrived back from Lebanon, are willing to testify to that. And I hope nobody tries to tell us that these are just obsolete tanks bound for the scrap yard dumped there in Lebanon by the Israelis (sheesh!).

Now, if one were to take a conservative estimate of one crew member out of the total of 4 in each Merkava tank gets killed when an anti-tank missile pierces an Israeli tank, then there are already at least a hundred tank crewmen dead. A more realistic estimate would be 3 dead for each tank hit, as described by this report.

Now don’t tell me if armor plated tanks can be easily destroyed by the anti-tank missiles, those Zionist infantrymen could have gone about their business without much interference by the Hizbullah fighters. With the tactics that were employed many more hundreds of the invaders must have been killed.

There is no denying that the Israeli Occupation Forces were badly beaten by the Hizbullah fighters’ fierce fighting spirit.

Israeli soldiers have been shaken by the fighters' skill and commitment, describing them as an army, not a rabble. "Even I have been surprised at the tenacity of these groups fighting in the villages," Timur Goksel, who served with UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon from 1979 to 2003, said. "They have fought far beyond my expectations and they haven't even committed all their fully experienced troops yet."

Israeli officers regard Hezbollah fighters, many trained in Iran, as highly motivated but not careless of their lives in the manner of Palestinian militants often intent on glory through death. Mr Goksel said: "Hezbollah is not afraid of the Israelis. After 18 years fighting Israeli troops, they see them as vulnerable human beings who make mistakes and are afraid like anyone else."

Why else would the Zionists agree to a ceasefire without first accomplishing its stated objective of pushing Hizbullah up to the Litani River?

This present “ceasefire” should be viewed as just a lull in the continuing war that the Zionists are waging against their neighbors. No doubt they will keep on repeating their mistakes. They will continue to invade their neighbors (or at least get some other country to fight for them as the case in Iraq). And of course they will be beaten in battles.... just like they were beaten in Lebanon.

2006-08-21T23:21:00.000+08:00

Defend Islam's Position In The Malaysian Constitution

The following is a translation of the statement made by Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin as it appeared on al-qayyim.net.

Translated from Bahasa Malaysia by kilamxx

The main jihad (struggle) in the country at this moment is to defend the position of Islam in the Federal Constitution.

This is the responsibility of each and every Muslim.

The ruling in defending it is similar to defending a Muslim territory from an invasion by kuffars (disbelievers).

If necessary the whole resources of the Ummah should be deployed.

Therefore, all effort towards this end which are according to Shariah and through peaceful means should be supported.

It is compulsory upon every Muslim to put down his signature, to support the Muslim fight against the Murtads (apostates), the pro-kuffars, and the kuffars behind them.

Every Muslim should strive to join any effort to defend Islam.

Political and ideological differences should be set aside for the moment.

The brunt of this responsibility will be on the shoulders of the Muslim law practitioners.

Their knowledge in the matter pushes them to the forefront of the Muslim defence.

Whereas every lawyer or otherwise, who professes to be a Muslim, but who works toward the downfall of Islam in this country, becomes a murtad (apostate) from Islam by that action.

Dr. Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin

Dr. Mohd. Asri Zainul Abidin is a lecturer in Islamic Studies
School Of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

2006-08-15T00:29:00.000+08:00

Liquid Terrorism - We've Been Had

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is still on vacation in the Caribbean. That says a lot about the seriousness of the so-called 'terror plot' to blow up US-bound airliners announced by the British government on Thursday. The whole thing is getting to look more and more like another attempt by Blair to divert attention away from his troubled mismanagement of the country. The following article points towards the same conclusion.

Terrorists planned to mix liquids so why are they all being poured into airport bins?

Steve Watson / Infowars.net | August 11 2006

The latest terror plot facade is nothing more than an exercise to assess how subservient the general population has become and a primer to making permanent the panicked and ridiculous freedom crushing security measures we are seeing being rushed into implementation at the moment.

Whilst the government is saying there is no going back on these measures and that they will become permanent, the media is bleating about rushing in biometric retina scanners and Orwellian behaviour sensing technology. This is the only way they can do these things without backlash and protest, just have a major terror alert and rush them through.

How is it that people can still deny that our governments are forwarding a big brother control agenda? ID cards, Biometric databases, retina scanners, face scanning cameras, behaviour sensing machines. The list goes on. It has been proven over and over that these measures will not help prevent terrorism, the government itself has even admitted this, so why do they relentlessly push them?

The latest mind bending terror stupidity has every passenger at airports pouring their potentially explosive liquids into bins inside the airports.

How stupid can things get? How far does it have to go before people start asking simple questions about what they are being made to do in the name of security?

If these liquids are potentially explosive what the hell is the good in pouring them all into large bins inside overcrowded airports and mixing them all together?

The Asheville Citizen Times interviewed a mother who was forced to pour away her baby's milk:

"I have mixed feelings about all this," Leoni said as she waited to board a flight for Miami at Asheville Regional Airport. "On the one side, I’m fine with the safety measures and the effects, but on the other hand, I had to pour out my baby’s milk this morning. They said I couldn't take it on board."

And here she is pouring the potentially deadly milk into a vat of other potentially explosive dangerous liquids.

The official counterterrorism statement told us that the plan involved mixing a sports drink with a gel-like substance to concoct explosives that could be ignited with an MP3 player or cell phone. The sports drink could be combined with a peroxide-based paste to form a potent explosive cocktail, counterterrorism officials said.

If you believe the dodgy science that suggests that these liquids can be ignited by calling up your mom or whacking on a bit of Led Zeppelin on your MP3 player then they better clear the airports pretty smartish because those bins full liquids could go up any second. unless they are just bins full of baby milk and Dr Pepper that is.

The Scientific American states:

Furthermore, some chemicals can be mixed to create a toxic gas capable of killing people in an enclosed space such as an airplane.

Great, marvelous, lets get mixing them in bins then!

The XOPL blogger here is bang on the money and I couldn't put it any better:

Sir, I'm going to have to take this bottle of water away from you since it might be a liquid explosive, and I'm going to have to mix it with all of these other bottles of possibly liquid explosive, and I'm going to have to dump them all in this trash can... together. Nevermind that the plot specifically mentions mixing chemicals and/or nitroglycerin... which explodes if handled too roughly.

The only conclusion you can reach here is that airport security are not looking for terrorists because if they truly believed terrorists were attempting to board planes with liquids they wouldn't be mishandling the liquids in this way.

2006-08-14T00:05:00.000+08:00

Boycott Zionist Israel

The money we spend in some outlets is being used to prop up the apartheid Israeli regime that is terrorizing the Lebanese and Palestinians, killing civilians including women and children and destroying residential neighborhoods and infrastructure in blatant contravention of international and moral laws.

We call upon all just people of the world to boycott apartheid Israel and all its supporters.

A boycott at its simplest level could be a refusal to buy Israeli goods. We can endeavor not to buy everyday items such as food and clothing, which are marked made in Israel.

Another level of boycott is identifying organizations and companies that export from Israel, trade with Israel, invest in Israel, or facilitate and encourage any of these things. The companies listed below fall in one of the above categories.

We highly recommend besides stopping using these outlets you write to the Manager of the nearest outlet to you informing them of your actions and requesting they stop supporting apartheid Israel.

Most respectable Muslim scholars from throughout the world and human rights groups have supported the call for the boycott of companies that support apartheid Israel.(Click here)

BOYCOTT ISRAEL COMPANY LIST

(Click on the company names for details)

Source:-

http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.html

2006-07-30T08:35:00.000+08:00

The Jews Were The Original Inhabitants Of Palestine? - That's A Myth

Quite often we come across articles in the media or the net which seem to take it for granted that the Jews were the original inhabitants of the area that we now know as Palestine and Israel. This bit of misinformation seems to have been widely accepted without much questioning by the general public. Hopefully the following article will put everyone back on the right track.

Those interested in Palestine should study Canaanite history, not Jewish mythology

Canadian Arab News,

May 4, 2006

Our story begins about 5,000 years ago on a hill 55 miles inland from the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. The Jebusites, a tribe of the Canaanites, have chosen it to be the site of new place of worship in honour of Shalem, the Canaanite God of Dusk.

The original name of this place of worship survives because it was inscribed on stone tablets found in Elba, Syria, c. 3000 BCE; on Egyptian statues, c. 2,500 BCE; and on shards of ceramic Egyptian Execration Texts dating to the XII Dynasty, c. 1900 BCE.

It reads: “Urushalem,” a Canaanite word comprising the prefix “Uru” (“founded by”) and “Shalem.”* We know this place today as Jerusalem—“Founded by Shalem,” a Canaanite God.

About 1,200 years later, according to legend, a man named Abraham left the Sumerian city of Ur, in what is now Occupied Iraq, and immigrated to Canaan.

A further 600-odd years later c.1184 BCE, a people called the Hebrews invaded Canaan, which the Greeks called Phoenicia. Even by Biblical accounts, which must be taken with several grains of salt, these Hebrews acted like marauding savages, as in this account of the sack of Jericho:

“They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.… And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.”†

Hebrew domination of Canaan began with the reign of three kings: Saul, r. 1112–1072 BCE; David, r. 1072–1032 BCE; and Solomon, r. 1032–992 BCE. This account is almost certainly folkloric, since the odds of three kings each ruling for exactly 40 years is statistically implausible, and 40 is a recurring apocryphal number.

David is credited with uniting the 12 tribes of Israel and establishing Urushalem as the political and religious capital of a United Israel after he brought the Ark of the Covenant with him from Hebron, David’s capital for seven years.

United Israel deteriorated toward the end of Solomon’s reign, and under his son Rehoboam it split into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judea. The Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 BCE, and the Babylonians conquered Judea in 597 BCE. Thus endeth the reign of the Hebrews.

This thumbnail sojourn into ancient history is meant to show three simple truths:

• Jerusalem was founded by Canaanites.

• Jerusalem as the “City of David” lasted all of 73 years, or 1.46 percent of the city’s entire history. If the 5,000 years of Jerusalem’s history were defined as one 24-hour day, the Hebrews would have had it for 21 minutes and 1.44 seconds.

• Even if we include the divided kingdom period, continuous proto-Jewish control over Jerusalem lasted only 516 years, a far cry from the 1,277 years it was under Muslim rule (637–1914 CE).

Sources:

* See, for example, Karen Armstrong, Jerusalem, One City, Three Faiths (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996) pp. 6-7.

† Joshua 6:21, 24. KJV.

2006-07-23T01:46:00.000+08:00

The People Protest

But The Leaders Are Silent

2006-07-22T02:42:00.000+08:00

A Prayer For The Defenders

By Kilamxx

The terrorist regime of Tel Aviv continues on its mindless destruction of human lives and infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon.

The three-week old carnage in Gaza by the Israelis has already resulted in the death of dozens of Palestinians and the incineration of hospitals, homes and other essential buildings.

The blatant invasion of the sovereign state of Lebanon enters its tenth day with the world watching impotently as Zionist warplanes, tanks and missiles smash Beirut and southern Lebanon into dusty ruins with the death of hundreds of Lebanese civilians seemingly just a distracting sideshow to a slick Hollywood action movie.

The drowned out protests voiced out by a few leaders against the Zionist aggression has only highlighted the overall apathy and cowardice of the leaders of Muslim countries in the face of the Israeli state terrorism and the Bush-headed bully boy posturing of the US.

The deafening silence of the neighboring Arab nations and the utter helplessness of the OIC leave a feeling of both shame and anger in the hearts of individual Muslims the world over.

Yet above the drone of forlorn despair can be heard the occasional scream of Katyusha rockets crashing down on Israeli soil.

Alhamdulillah for these rockets fired untargeted from mobile launchers by Hizbullah fighters located miles away behind the borders.

Causing some casualties and the occasional death among the Zionist occupiers, these rockets are no match for the up to date missiles and bombs deployed by the invading Zionist army in terms of degree of destruction, but they are the sparks of defiance representing the fighting spirit of the Muslim defenders. The psychological effects of the rockets far exceed their destructive capabilities.

We pray to Allah for the steadfastness of the Muslim fighters defending Lebanon.

We pray to Allah for the unwavering bravery of the Palestinian fighters defending Gaza and the West Bank.

The enemy bullets and shells might shatter your bodies but they will never shatter your will to defend your religion and your land.

You will never lose because for you the result will only be victory or shahid.

Amin.

Never think of those who are slain in the cause of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive, and well provided for by their Lord.

They are pleased with what Allah has given them with His grace, and they are also happy to think that there is nothing to fear or to grieve for those believers whom they have left behind and who have not yet joined them in their bliss.

They feel happy to have received Allah’s grace and bounty and have come to know that most surely, Allah does not waste the reward of the believers.

[ Quran 3 : 169 – 171]

2006-07-18T00:16:00.000+08:00

Minister Wants More Nightlife

By Kilamxx

It was reported in the media last week that the Malaysian Tourism Ministry wants longer opening hours for shopping complexes, entertainment outlets and restaurants, believing that this will bring in more tourists.
Its minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said the ministry had proposed that the operating hours for entertainment outlets in the country be extended from 2 am until 5 am to attract more foreigners.
The minister also proposed that the taxes on wine and beer be reduced as the price of liquor in the country is too high compared with that of neighbouring countries.
This news was welcomed by a number of people that our correspondent met on the streets. The following are some of their comments:-

Mat Aris, Unemployed : It's great, brader. More places open, easier to get barang.

Dillip 'Der Man' Kumar, Deliveryman : Oh man, I can quit my day job and do this full time now. Pst, wanna buy some Adams(Ecstacy) ?

Jack 'Gulper' Stanley, Plumber :That's what I like about his great country of yours - cheap booze.

Peter S. Jones, CEO Karl's Bug Breweries: Bringing down the tax on liquor is a healthy sign for this country's economy. We hope to place our products on every table in every home. Cheers.

Richard Ho, Co-proprietor 'Dead Beat' Nightclub: Wonderful, wonderful news. Great for employment. We'll be recruiting more bouncers tomorrow from the backstreets.

The crowd at 'The Sook' Disco: Three cheers for Tengku Adnan! We're gonna party till dawn!

2006-07-09T01:46:00.000+08:00

Woe To Every Slanderer And Backbiter

By kilamxx

Woe to every slanderer and backbiter,
Who amasses wealth and keeps on counting it,
He thinks that his wealth will insure his status forever.
By no means! He shall be thrown into the Consuming One.

Quran 104 : 1 - 4

It appears that the Jasin Member of Parliament Datuk Mohd Said Yusof is being given a real hard time not only in trying to make money but also in spending his fortune on the things he wants.

Last month he complained in Parliament that the Customs department wouldn’t “close one eye” on a consignment of sawn timber that was over the legal specification that he, as the agent, was bringing into the country. Imagine how much money he lost on that.

Last week he again made a complaint in Parliament. Still against the Customs department, but this time about the choice of seized cars that were offered to him to buy at a special price.

As reported in the New Straits Times last week, Mohd Said alleged that senior Customs officers were involved in questionable practices involving the sale of seized luxury cars.

He was offered a Mercedes Benz Masterpiece but apparently he had his eyes on another model.

“I went to see the latest Mercedes model, the CLK, and not the Masterpiece. He wanted to give me the Masterpiece but my wife already drives one so why should I get another?” Mohd Said lamented.

The poor Datuk. The guy just wanted to shop for the car of his choice. Now he’s being given such a lousy deal. Probably a worse deal than the one dealt out to the electors in Jasin.

The who? You know, the pakciks and makciks who voted for the Datuk in the last election to represent them in Parliament, remember? To speak up on issues affecting their livelihood, their employment problems, their social problems?

Yes, yes, the Datuk will get onto them just as soon as he has finished with his own problems. That he can guarantee.

AOL Time Warner	Apax Partners & Co Ltd
Coca-Cola	Danone
Delta Galil	Disney
Estée Lauder	IBM
Johnson & Johnson	Kimberly-Clark
Lewis Trust Group Ltd	L'Oreal
Marks & Spencer	Nestle
News Corporation	Nokia
Revlon	Sara Lee
Selfridges	The Limited Inc
Home Depot	Intel
Starbucks	Timberland
McDonald's	Arsenal FC