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Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief Muharram 22, 1429, January 31, 2008 #7

Jamaat al-Muslimeen urges Muslims around the world to notice the suffering of Muslims in Canada. The Zionists are using Canada to oppress Muslims. Most shameful is the oppression of Pakistani-Canadian MOMIN KHAWAJA, held in a cell for FOUR YEARS without trial and now a SECRET TRIAL is being planned. See next issue.

From our media monitor
Our America:
Bush Ruined America: Only 19% of Americans see the U.S. going in the right direction. [Source MSNBC, Chris Mathews.]

War Activity Being Censored
U.S. TV media seem to be under strict orders not to show any of the death and destruction going on every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the suffering of U.S. troops does not get coverage. Instead gossip about crimes and sex is being used as the daily staple, as if there is no war going on.

Pak Guests to USA Face Discrimination: Yes to Imran, no to Edhi

Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan faced little or no difficulties coming to the U.S. recently. By contrast, Abdus Sattar Edhi was mistreated. He had come to renew his green card. To his surprise, he was detained and his passport confiscated. Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistani media condemned this behavior of the U.S. The Pakistani government intervened and today [Jan.31] Edhi's situation is expected to be normalized. Edhi says, owing to his beard and cap, they thought he was Taliban. He told them he is an activist for charitable work around the world.

Bush's Quest: How to end Embarrassment caused by top Islamic leader

Bush wants to "get" Osama before he leaves the presidency. He worries about Osama every day and "gets reports once a week" on the Islamic leader. [Bush interview with Fox TV, January 27, 2008.]

Not a conspiracy Theory: McCain "Handlers" [and those of Bush and Churchill]
January 28, 2008. Republican front runner McCain's election rally speech began with an introduction by Lieberman and concluded with comments by Lieberman. McCain is an affable, easy going family man with a 95-year old mother. He is opposed to torture, yet his speech was laced with comments which seemed to have come directly from Tel Aviv. He referred repeatedly to the threat of "Radical Islamic Extremism" as if the words had been handed to him on a piece of paper to focus on. Islamic radicalism, he claimed, poses a "transcendental challenge" and wants to "destroy everything we stand for." He reached hysterical levels in references to Iraq and vowed that "we will never surrender." He referred to terrorism cases which have not been proven yet such as the "doctors' case" in Glasgow, UK. He gave away his source talking about the danger of "suicide bombers" when he added "ask the Israelis."

Bush was similarly "selected." He was seen as a slow thinker, whose easy going mid-western manner could be expoited by his Jewish-Zionist handlers--Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith [and Lieberman]--to deceive the American public. Two years into the war, it was disclosed that Kissinger, too, was "advising" him.

[Editorial comment: Fifty years after World War II, documents about Winston Churchill were made available to the public. David Irving found, in great detail, that Churchill was mainly interested in smoking, drinking, watching late night movies, talking at length about his vacuous "ideas." He was certainly not the great leader war time propaganda made him out to be. His focus on war and mass murder of civilians in Germany came from his handlers. The "Prof." was a major influence. Looks like the Zionists look for slow thinking non-Jews who will serve their purposes of war and the development of Israel. Irving's documentation is detailed and irrefutable.]

Letter
Mistreatment of U.S. Peace Activist in Pakistan

I am writing in response to "DemocracyMOIB's" objections to the New Trend report on the arrest and deportation of Code Pink's Medea Benjamin by Pak authorities ( NT #95 , 12/15/2007 ). DemocracyMOIB bizarrely questions Benjamin's very presence in Pakistan, as well as the fact of her arrest. The question is: Is an authoritarian regime likely to advertise the arrest of an international peace activist?

While I strongly disagree with Benjamin's endorsement and seeming admiration of Ms. Bhutto, that the Code Pink leader visited and was subsequently arrested in and deported from Pakistan are indisputable facts.

The details of the arrest related by Benjamin are characteristic of the treatment dealt by Pak police to low-risk (particularly female) prisoners who are not Pakistani nationals. DemocracyMOIB can see the details of Medea's report from Pakistan here:

http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=3704

-Nadrat Siddique

Jamaat al-Muslimeen [News]
P.O. Box 10881
Baltimore, MD 21234

Rally on February 26 Against Rushdie: He Insulted the Prophet, pbuh, abused Ayesha, r.a., attacked the Qur'an

Following the success of the protest against Madeleine Albright, Jamaat al-Muslimeen urges the Muslims of Baltimore to come out in bigger numbers and protest the honors being bestowed by the Jewish-Zionist elites on Salman Rushdie, the corrupt author of The Satanic Verses.

Date: Tuesday, February 26

Time: 7:30 - 8:30

Place: Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral Street, Baltimore

Remember, the Zionist-Jews hate Islam. The only way is to stand up to them. They have already sold the tickets for the Rushdie program.

Be disciplined and peaceful but unwavering. Stand up for the honor of the Prophet, peace be on him, for the sublime excellence of 'Ayesha, r.a., the leader of Islamic women, for the Qur'an which is our Guidance and Islam which is our way.

Think about it!
Ms. Madeleine Albright stands next to Hillary Clinton in election rallies these days

First Islamic Rally in Jewish-Zionist Stronghold: Madeleine Albright Surprised: 500,000 Iraqi Children Mourned

January 29, 2008: Baltimore, Maryland. Villa Julie College, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and WYPR radio (local NPR affiliate) unitedly supported Madeleine Albright's address. This was the expression of UNITED JEWISH POWER. It was going to be business as usual, with good money made, but there was a surprise which messed it up for Albright. A line of protestors appeared in front of the Meyerhoff, carrying placards condemning the role of Albright in the Iraqi holocaust. They distributed flyers to the visitors flocking to the hall to hear the woman who was Secretary of State under Clinton.

Using a megaphone, the demonstrators addressed the upper class elites rushing to hear Albright. As a result, the protest could not be ignored. It seemed as if an army of activists had appeared.

At the height of the rally, Br. Kaukab used the megaphone to address Albright's would-be-audience:
"Madeleine Albright was Secretary of State under President Clinton. She oversaw the decade of SANCTIONS on Iraq during which Iraq was denied some of the essentials of organized society. More than a million Iraqis died as a result of sanctions, including 500,00 children, according to UN statistics. They were affected by water pollution, lack of medical and health facilities and the dislocation of their lives. Albright not only approved of the sanctions but also the slow death of the Iraqi population. Like Eichmann, she presided over a holocaust. It's a shame that she is being honored at a center of cultural excellence. She should not be at the Meyerhoff which is the pride of Baltimore and of the Jewish community. Shame on Albright and on those who invited her."

The rally went on for an hour and 15 minutes. At the conclusion, the protestors came together to make du'a, and shouted TAKBEER, Allahu Akbar three times.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen would like to thank the hard core Islamic activists as well as the dedicated non-Muslims who made the protest a success. During the protest, fliers condemning the Albright appearance were broadly distributed to passersby. Here is its text:

"Why is a war crimes agent being honored at the Meyerhoff?
As U.S. Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright spearheaded the murderous sanctions regime, which killed half a million Iraqi children.

Sixty Minutes' Leslie Stahl asked her about the effect of the sanctions against Iraq: "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?"

Albright replied: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it."

On Tuesday, January 29, Madeleine Albright is a featured speaker at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. We would like her to know that ONE Iraqi child death--or the death of one child period--is not worth it, and that she is not welcome in Baltimore.
Background of Iraq Sanctions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_sanctions

Albright's position on Iraqi child deaths:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lK_QshS2EW8

War News: Heavy Fighting in Northern Pakistan: Islamists Strike in Darra Adam Khel.
Pakistan Army Made 70,000 People Homeless in the Swat Area.

On January 26, 2008 Islamic forces [known as Pakistani Taliban] captured Darra Adam Khel and controlled the Kohat tunnel. It was a serious blow for Musharraf's men as the Islamic strike cut off Pakistani troops in Waziristan. Pak army troops reacted with maximum force and by January 30 were back in control of the tunnel. Maulvi Umar [Taliban spokesman] said that the Islamists consider the tunnel a national asset and withdrew their forces to avoid damage to the tunnel. He said that Pak army would be tackled in guerrilla warfare rather than in frontal fighting: the change of tactics was owing to growing number of civilian losses being caused by the Pak troops, he said.

Forty Pakistani troops were captured and 8 killed before the Taliban withdrew. Pakistani helicopter strikes killed 25 Islamic fighters and injured 10 who were captured.

An attack on a military convoy on the Peshawar-Kohat convoy lead to heavy fighting and created panic in Peshawar. Observers say that the mujahideen are attacking heavily armed military forces with reckless courage based on the martyrdom concept. They seek revenge for the slaughter of young Islamic women carried out by Musharraf's commandos in Islamabad last year.

In South Waziristan, a heavily armed military column advancing into the mountains ran into several ambushes and hit and run attacks by the Islamic resistance. More than 600 elite troops of the Baluch Regiment are leading the advance. Three troops were killed and one wounded by rifle fire in one incident.

On January 30 a U.S. "drone" directed a missile at a home in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan killing 12 civilians, mostly women and children. Western news agencies, fed by Pakistani intelligence, say that those killed were Pakistani Taliban. However, witnesses on the ground say that those killed were women and children and a drone was spotted before the strike. [Pakistani posts in North Waziristan again came under fire.]

U.S. and NATO forces are reportedly massing in Afghanistan right across from the Pakistani border where the missile strike took place.

[According to Qazi Hussain Ahmad, top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, 70,000 people have been made homeless owing to the army operation in Swat. He urged quick relief work as the people are in refugee camps without a roof in extreme cold weather.]

KARACHI: January 29: A battle erupted in Shah Latif Town when heavily armed police swooped down on the hideout of a small [banned] Islamic group known as Jundullah. Two police officers were killed and 2 wounded in the fighting. When the defenders tried to escape, they were chased by the police and three were killed and 2 wounded. One of those wounded and captured is known as Qassim Toori who allegedly carried out an audacious attack on an army corp commander in charge of Karachi's garrison. Six troops and 4 police were killed in that incident a couple of years back.

January 30: Islamabad: Mystery surrounds the death of an American embassy man, Keith Ryan. First the government said he had committed suicide, but refusal to divulge autopsy results created doubts. He was part of America's Homeland Security.

War News: Iraq Steadily Getting Worse: U.S. Losses Rising Again

January 20: A teenage martyrdom operator killed a leading Sunni collaborator of the U.S. Hadi Hussain al-Issam and three other collaborator leaders in Anbar province.

January 24: According to the NY Times, in ONE MONTH 100 Sunnis, including 6 leaders, working with the U.S. have been killed by the Islamic fighting group known as Al-Qaida in Iraq. The fighters, mostly Iraqis themselves, seem bent on wiping out collaborators helping the U.S. in exchange for money and guns.

January 23: In a raid in a Shi'ite area of Central Baghdad, Islamic fighters killed 8 Shi'ite troops working for the U.S.

In Mosul, a huge explosion killed 34 [including 3 Shia soldiers,] and wounded 132.

January 24: A martyrdom operator in Mosul hit the Shi'ite Director General of police, General Hassan, and his two top aides, killing all three on the spot. The U.S. has brought a large Shi'ite military force into Mosul to terrorize the people supporting the resistance.

In Baqubah, a U.S. air attack killed 10 people said to be pro-al-Qaida.

Incidents of attacks on U.S. troops are being censored by the U.S. but the Pentagon admits that the U.S. death toll in Iraq for January rose above that in December. [In one incident in Mosul 5 U.S. troops were killed.]

During the Ashura days, there was heavy inter-Shia fighting in Kerbala and Nasiriyah with Shi'a security forces trying to crush a Shi'a sub-sect which believes that the return of the Mahdi is imminent. More than 60 people were killed.

NATO Genocide in Afghanistan: Targets Civilians Demonized as "Taliban"
Study Looks at Recently Reported NATO Air Attacks

Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that in the name of the "war of terror," NATO forces in Afghanistan are committing genocide by systematically hunting down and destroying the Taliban, a puritanical Islamic group, contrary to the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

By special permission of the author to New Trend

Sloganeers, propagandists and politicians often use the word "genocide" in ways that the law does not permit. But rarely is the crime of genocide invoked when Western militaries murder Muslim groups. This essay argues that the internationally recognized crime of genocide applies to the intentional killings that NATO troops commit on a weekly basis in the poor villages and mute mountains of Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban, a puritanical Islamic group. NATO combat troops bombard and kill people in Taliban enclaves and meeting places. They also murder defenseless Afghan civilians. The dehumanized label of "Taliban" is used to cloak the nameless victims of NATO operations. Some political opposition to this practice is building in NATO countries, such as Canada, where calls are heard to withdraw troops from Afghanistan or divert them to non-combat tasks.

Dehumanization
In almost all NATO nations, the Taliban have been completely dehumanized — a historically-tested signal that perpetrators of the crime of genocide carry unmitigated intentions to eradicate the dehumanized group. Politicians, the armed forces, the media, and even the general public associate in the West the Taliban with irrational fanatics, intolerant fundamentalists, brutal assassins, beheaders of women, bearded extremists, and terrorists. This luminescent negativity paves the way for aggression, military operations, and genocide. Promoting the predatory doctrine of collective self-defense, killing the Taliban is celebrated as a legal virtue. To leave the Taliban in control of Afghanistan, says NATO, is to leave a haven for terrorism.
A similar dehumanization took place in the 16th and 17th centuries when NATO precursors occupied the Americas to purloin land and resources. The killings of native inhabitants were extensive and heartless. Thomas Jefferson, the noble author of the Declaration of Independence, labeled Indians as "merciless savages." President Andrew Jackson pontificated: "What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms." Promoting the predatory doctrine of discovery, the United States Supreme Court later ratified the pilgrims' crimes, holding that "discovery gave an exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title (to land). ([T]he Indians were fierce savages...To leave them in possession of their country was to leave the country a wilderness."
The predators have not changed their stripes a bit. They come, they demonize, they obliterate. They do all this in the name of superior civilization.

The Facts
The NATO website lists its killings in Afghanistan. These killings are also reported in the world media, often with a shameless tone of gratitude as if NATO forces are engaged in wiping out cannibals. In 2007 alone, NATO helicopters and precision guided munitions bombed and killed over six thousand "Taliban." Read the following recent attacks, which the NATO itself reports, and smell the scent of genocide:
On January 19, 2008, NATO launched a preemptive strike relying on "credible intelligence" that the Taliban were planning to mass on a NATO base. The attack killed two dozen "insurgents" in the Watapoor District of Kunar Province, though the exact number of casualties could not be confirmed because of the rough mountainous region. The world media reported that numerous civilians were killed and 25 bodies were buried in just one mass grave.

On January 12, 2008, NATO forces conducted what it calls a "precise strike" on a compound in Kapsia Province targeting Taliban leaders. NATO claimed that the civilians were cleared from the compound before the attack. The claim is absurd because any removal of civilians from the compound would have alerted the battle-hardened Taliban that an enemy attack was imminent.

On September 20, 2007, NATO forces launched "Operation Palk Wahel" to kill and remove the Taliban from an area in the Upper Gereshk Valley. Numerous civilians were killed. The evidence of the genocide was so obvious that NATO admitted that it "was unaware of civilians in the vicinity of the target and unfortunately it appears that a number of non-combatants were caught in the attack and killed."

The Law
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (entered into force, 1951) is binding on all states including the 26 member states of NATO. The Genocide Convention is jus cogens, the law from which no derogation is allowed. It provides no exceptions for any nation or any organization of nations, such as the United Nations or NATO, to commit genocide. Nor does the Convention allow any exceptions to genocide "whether committed in time of peace or in time of war." Even traditional self-defense - let alone preemptive self-defense, a deceptive name for aggression - cannot be invoked to justify or excuse the crime of genocide.
In murdering the Taliban, NATO armed forces systematically practice on a continual basis the crime of genocide that consists of three constituent elements - act, intent to destroy, and religious group. The crime, as defined in the Convention, is analyzed below:
Act. The Convention lists five acts, each of which qualifies as genocide. NATO forces in Afghanistan are committing three of the five acts. They are killing members of the Taliban. They are causing serious bodily harm to members of the Taliban. They are deliberately inflicting on the Taliban conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part. Any of these three acts committed one time constitutes the crime of genocide. NATO combat troops have been committing, and continue to commit, these acts through multiple means and weapons.

Intent to Destroy. The crime of genocide is a crime of intent. It must be shown that NATO combat troops and the high command ordering these troops carry the requisite intent to destroy the Taliban. Mere negligent killings do not qualify as genocide. The statements of NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and those of NATO spokesmen leave no doubt that the NATO conducts military operations to "hunt and destroy" the Taliban. Preemptive strikes to kill the Taliban are sufficient proof that NATO troops and commanding generals have specific intent to destroy as many Taliban members as they can find. The weekly murderous planning and intelligence gathering to locate and eliminate the Taliban leaders and members further demonstrate that the killings in Afghanistan are not negligent, accidental, or by mistake. For all legal purposes, NATO's incessant and deliberate killings of the Taliban are powered with the specific intent to destroy a religious group.

Religious Group. The Genocide Convention is far from universal in that it does not protect all groups from genocide. Its protection covers only four groups: national, ethnic, racial and religious. (Political groups are not protected). The Convention does not require the complete eradication of a protected group as a necessary condition for the crime of genocide. Even part destruction of a protected group constitutes the crime. It is no secret that the Taliban are a religious group. (They may also qualify as a national (Afghan) or ethnic (Pushtun) group). The Taliban advocate and practice a puritanical version of Islam. The Convention does not demand that the protected group advocate and practice a form of religion acceptable to the West or the world. The questionable beliefs and practices of a religious group are no reasons to destroy the group. That the Taliban are armed or support terrorism or oppress women are unlawful excuses to commit genocide. (All reasons that Hitler had to murder Jews would be simply irrelevant under the Convention).

The Holding
It may, therefore, be safely concluded that NATO combat troops and NATO commanders are engaged in murdering the Taliban, a protected group under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to physically and mentally destroy the group in whole or in part. This is the crime of genocide.

Ali Khan is a professor at Washburn University School of Law in Kansas

Book Review: A Mapilla Muslim Anti-Colonial Manifesto
Reviewed by Yoginder Sikand

How Islam came to India: Arabic Classic Teaches Jihad against European Colonizers, Compassion for People of India
[This book was selected for review in New Trend last year. This review comes to us via the outstanding Bahujan yahoogroups by permission of the reviewer.]

Name of the Book: Tuhfat al-Mujahidin (translated from Arabic by S. Muhammad Husayn Nainar)
Author: Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum
Year: 2006
Pages: 139
Publisher: Islamic book Trust, Kuala Lumpur
(www.ibtbooks.com) & Other Books, Calicut
(otherbooks@post.com)
Other Books,
P.B.No.620, 13/776,
I Floor, New Way Building, Railway Link Road, Calicut-673002, Kerala, India.
Ph: +91 495 2306808 Price not mentioned

The Tuhfat al-Mujahidin or 'The Tribute to the Strugglers' is one of the earliest extant historical treatises about the southern Indian state of Kerala. Its author, the sixteenth century's Shaikh Zainuddin Makhdum, hailed from the renowned Makhdum family from the town of Ponnani in Malabar, in northern Kerala. This family traced its descent to migrants from Yemen, who played a leading role in the spread of Islam in southern India. Following in the footsteps of many of his forefathers, Shaikh Zainduddin rose to become a leading Islamic scholar. He spent ten years studying in Mecca, where he also joined the Qadri order of Sufism. On his return to his native Malabar, he spent almost four decades teaching at the central mosque in Ponnani, then a major centre for Islamic studies in southern India. He also served as the envoy of the Zamorins, the Hindu rulers of Calicut, to Egypt and Turkey.

The Tuhfat is one of Shaikh Zainuddin's several works, and is the best known among them. A chronicle of the stiff resistance put up by the Muslims of Malabar against the Portuguese colonialists from 1498, when Vasco Da Gama arrived in Calicut, to 1583, it describes in considerable detail events, many of which that the author had himself witnessed and lived through. It was intended, as Shaikh Zainduddin says, as a means to exhort the Malabar Muslims to launch a struggle or jihad against the Portuguese invaders. The book thus extols the virtues of jihad against oppressors, and, at the same time, also provides fascinating details about the history of Islam in Malabar, the relations between Muslims and Hindus in the region and the customs and practices of both.
Islam's first contact with India is said to have taken place in Malabar, and Shaikh Zainuddin offers a popularly-held account of this. He writes of how the Hindu ruler of Malabar, impressed with a group of Muslim pilgrims on their way to Ceylon, converted to Islam and accompanied them back to Arabia. There, shortly before he died, he instructed them to return to Malabar. They did as they were told, and the king's governors welcomed them, allowing them to settle along the coast and establish mosques. Gradually, he writes, the Muslim community began expanding through the missionary efforts of Sufis and traders.
Relations between Muslims and the Hindus of Malabar, Shaikh Zainudin observes, were traditionally cordial. The rulers of Malabar, all Hindus, treated the Muslims with respect, one reason being that the Muslims played a vital role in the region's economy because of their control of the trading routes linking Malabar to other lands by sea. Hindu rulers even paid salaries of the muezzins and qazis and allowed the Muslims to be governed in personal matters by their own laws. Hindus who converted to Islam were not harassed, and, even if they were of 'low' caste origin, were warmly welcomed into the Muslim community. This was probably one reason for the rapid spread of Islam in the region.
Shaikh Zainuddin's observations about the Hindus of Malabar are remarkable for their sense of balance and sympathy. Of the Hindu rulers, he says, 'There are some who are powerful and some comparatively weak. But the strong, as a matter of fact, will not attack or occupy the territory of the weak'. (This, Shaikh Zainuddin suggests, might be a result of the conversion of one of their kings, referred to earlier, to Islam 'and of his supplications to this effect to God'). He also adds, '[The] people of Malabar are never treacherous in their wars'. At the same time, he notes with disapproval the deeply-rooted caste prejudices among the Malabari Hindus. So strict is the law of caste, he writes, that any violation of it results in excommunication, forcing the violator to convert to Islam or Christianity or become a yogi or mendicant or to be enslaved by the king. Even such a minor matter as a 'high' caste Hindu woman being hit by a stone thrown by a 'low' caste man causes her to lose caste. 'How many such detestable customs!", Shaikh Zainuddin remarks after recounting some of them. 'Due to their ignorance and stupidity, they strictly follow these customs, believing that it is their moral responsibility to uphold them', he adds.
'It was while they were living in these social conditions that the religion of Islam reached them by the grace of Allah', he goes on, '[a]nd this was the main reason for their being easily attracted to Islam'.
Of all the Hindu rulers of Malabar, the most powerful, and also the most friendly towards the Muslims, were the Zamorins of Calicut, who claimed descent from the king who is said to have converted to Islam and died in Arabia. The Tuhfat describes how the Zamorins turned down bribes offered by the Portuguese to expel the Muslims, and of how they, along with Nair Hindu and Muslim forces, engaged in numerous battles with the Portuguese, who are said to have singled out the Muslims for attack and persecution. Shaikh Zainuddin is at pains to note the contrast between the response of the Hindu Zamorins to the plight of the Malabar Muslims with that of several Muslim Sultans in other parts of India, who were approached for help in expelling the Portuguese. 'The Muslim-friendly Zamorin', he writes, 'has been spending his wealth from the beginning' for the protection of the Malabari Muslims from the depredations of the Portuguese. On the other hand, he rues, 'The Muslim Sultans and Amirs—may Allah heighten the glory of the helpful among them—did not take any interest in the Muslims of Malabar'.
The Portuguese conquests, resulting in their wresting the monopoly over the Malabar spice trade from the Muslims, caused a rapid decline in Muslim fortunes, reducing the community to abject poverty. Shaikh Zainduddin describes the reign of terror unleashed on the Malabari Muslims, by the Portuguese, who were fired with a hatred of Islam and Muslims—indiscriminate killings of Muslims, rapes of Muslim women, forcible conversions of Muslims to Christianity, enslaving of hundreds of Muslims, destroying mosques and building churches in their place and setting alight Muslim shops and homes.
In appealing to the Malabari Muslims to launch jihad against the Portuguese, Shaikh Zainuddin makes clear that this struggle is purely a defensive one, directed at only the Portuguese interlopers and not the local Hindus or the Hindu Zamorins, for whom he expresses considerable respect. Nor is it, he suggests, a call to establish Muslim political supremacy and control.
Jihad, then, for Shaikh Zaiuddin, was a morally just struggle to restore peace in Malabar and expel foreign occupiers, to return to a period when Muslims and Hindus in the region lived together in harmony.
This treatise is an indispensable source of Malabari history and would be invaluable to those interested in the history of Islam in South Asia. Much that Shaikh Zainuddin says with regard to the legitimacy of struggle against foreign occupation and oppression finds powerful echoes today.

2008-02-02 Sat 00:30:57 cst
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