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Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief Jamada al-Awwal 21,1429/ May 27, 2008, #31

New Trend ahead of the curve:
May 22, 2008: The cases brought by the so-called "Child Protection Services" against the polygamist sect in Eldorado, Texas, turned out to be fake and have been dropped. The stories about child molestation were a tissue of lies. In the process, the Texas police and government snatched more than 400 children from their mothers and held them outside their homes for more than a month. The children have probably been traumatized for the rest of their lives by this experience of state terrorism. Many of the children have still not been returned to their mothers. DNA tests were carried out as if the entire community was a bunch of criminals. This is the Soviet Union all over again.

In a country where teenage pregnancy is widespread, millions of youths have sexually transmitted diseases [STDs], fornication, adultery and homosexuality are glorified, oppression reached its height when people following a non-conformist sect lost their children on claims of child molestation.

How much thought control is enforced by the mass culture can be judged from the fact that New Trend was the only publication which condemned the violation of the rights of the polygamist sect. No one has the right to take children away from mothers simply because someone claims they are being mistreated.

Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center are playing a dirty role not unlike that of the ADL.

International Islamic Conference for Peace and Awareness: First Four Endorsers: www.JAM4PEACE.org
August 16, 2008. Baltimore, Maryland.

1. Ramsey Clark, leader of the anti-war movement in America. New York City

2. Syed Munawar Hasan, Secretary General, Jamaate Islami Pakistan. A top Islamic leader and peace activist. Karachi, Pakistan

3. Dr. Mohamed Khazaly Jabbie, Conakry, Guinea, West Africa. [Imam of mosque near the Haram in the holy city of Makka for many years.] Ph.D in Islamic Jurisprudence from Ummul Qura University, Arabia.

4. Sis. Hadayai Majeed, 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe, Atlanta, Georgia.

To register and for more information, contact Br. Aziz at: www.JAM4PEACE.org
Seating is limited. There won't be any registration at the door.

Donations are needed urgently. This is a people's movement, not a money based group.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen [News] [Next 6 items]
PO. Box 10881
Baltimore, MD 21234

Best Shoora yet: Thanks to the Greensboro team

The actual meeting of the National Islamic Shoora of Jamaat al-Muslimeen was held on May 24, for 9 hours, but it began indirectly on May 23 with the khutba of the Ameer of Jamaat al-Muslimeen, Br. Kaukab Siddique, at the Islamic center in Greensboro known as the ICT. [ Scroll down for main points of revolutionary khutba.]

Thanks go to the host, Imam Badi Ali and his team, Br. Hamed and others, in solving the transportation issues of delegates arriving from across the country. Then on the day of the Shoora itself, Halal food was provided to the delegates and good arrangements were made for Salat [which was led by Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz].

The Shoora meeting was presided over by Br. Kaukab Siddique. The program ended with a brief but comprehensive du'a from the Qur'an by Dr. Shabazz.
A medallion with green and yellow ribbons [symbolic of Palestinian resistance] was given to Shoora participants: It shows a map of Palestine with the words in Arabic: "From beneath the misery and suffering emerges the new victorious generation." On the back it says in English: "Palestine! We will return."

Scroll down for the RESOLUTIONS passed by the Shoora central committee based on the day long discussion.

Recognition of the Extraordinary Achievements of Women Leaders: Sis. Ashira Na'im and Nadrat Siddique

The following awards were made given by Imam Badi Ali during the Shoora meeting:

Special Service Award for Community Work
To: Ashira Na'im
From: Jamaat al-Muslimeen International
For Outstanding community service for masjid, school and women's rights

Award to Honor an Outstanding Muslim Woman.
To: Nadrat Siddique
From: Muslims for a Better North Carolina
For: Her lifetime of struggle for the human rights of the downtrodden and the oppressed.

Outstanding Formal Presentations Video Taped for Countrywide Distribution

Sis. Karen English, Secretary General of Jamaat al-Muslimeen presented a paper on the Campaign to Boycott Businesses which Support Israel. She documented the support for Israel coming from Coca Cola, Starbucks, McDonalds, Nestle, Home Depot and others. She has prepared an exhaustive list of companies doing business with Israel. She also documented the passive attitude and zero opposition of CAIR, ISNA, MAS, MANA etc towards Israel, from their own web sites.

Imam Warith Deen Umar, one of the most distinguished Imams in America, the guest speaker for the occasion, introduced his brilliant new book, Jews for Salaam, and outlined his struggle against the Zionist establishment. His book breaks new ground on how to make peace with the Jews without recognition of Zionism. His powerful presentation enthused the shoora members and his books sold like hot cakes.

Dr. AbdulAlim Shabazz , Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, with an Endowed Chair in his name at Grambling University in Louisiana, presented an unforgettable paper on the Education of the Oppressed. He documented the issue of "Race" and explained how the concept of race was originated and used to divide, exploit and destroy human beings. Dr. Shabazz is the philosopher of Jamaat al-Muslimeen and an intellectual giant of the Muslim world. He challenges the established wisdom about race and demolishes long held views on White Supremacy.

All three presentations will be made available countrywide and internationally by Jamaat's new but highly advanced technological team led by Br. Aziz.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen's Organizational Developments: Hispanic Activist Takes Oath of Islamic Allegiance

The Shoora discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the new Jamaat al-Muslimeen city organizations.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen Philadelphia led by Br. Aquil is progressing rapidly, gathering support and setting up an institution.
To join the Philadelphia Jamaat, write or call:

Jama'at al-Muslimeen in Philadelphia:
PO Box 5396
Philadelphia, PA 19142-0396
(267) 349-6065

Jamaat al-Muslimeen Brooklyn, led by Br. Abu Talib, is in its formative stages and needs financial and other help to be able to move forward.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen Baltimore, led by Sis. Ashira, is doing well and runs a masjid with two Imams. Juma salat is held regularly at 1.30.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen Brownsville, Texas, is being discussed and inshallah will be energized by the next item in this list.

Hispanic Activist Takes Islamic Oath of Allegiance:

During the Shoora meeting, the Jamaat's oath of allegiance was administered to Br. Sulayman Solano, a famous Islamic activist and Da'wa communicator, by Br. Kaukab. The importance of the rapidly increasing Latino/Latina population is no secret. We must support this burgeoning new power. Br. Solano's role is very important.

The oath indicated that Jamaat al-Muslimeen teaches allegiance to the highest principles of Islam and not to a leadership cult or towards feeding any individual ego. The oath includes acceptance of the following:

*The Qur'an and the authentic Hadith are the foundation of our decision making process.

Please copy and distribute
Jamaat al-Muslimeen's Resolutions: All Occupation Must End: No Dialogue with Israel: Peaceful Resistance to Zionist Control of USA

EDUCATION, UNDERSTANDING and ORGANIZATION Will Make Change Possible, inshallah

Based on the Jamaat's Shoora meeting, the central committee passed the following resolutions:

Basic Principle: ALL OCCUPATION must end, be it the occupation of Palestine by Israel, of Iraq by the U.S., of Afghanistan by NATO, of Kashmir by India, of Somalia by Ethiopia, of Chechnia by Russia.

1. The collective imprisonment of the people of Gaza is a crime against humanity. We urge that the clamp down be ended unconditionally.

2. Israel is an illegal and illegitimate entity. We call for global unity to defeat Israel. Groups engaged in trying to gain authority under Israeli occupation are violating the rights of the people. There cannot be ANY NEGOTIATIONS with Israel, either DIRECT or INDIRECT, because Israel is an occupier.

3. In Iraq, the use of the Qur'an for target practice by U.S. troops is a challenge to the entire Muslim world. This war against Islam is a violation of freedom of religion. We urge the Muslim world to stand up in defense of the Qur'an. The shooting of the Qur'an is a part of the overall hate campaign against Islam as seen in the cartoons from Denmark, the desecration of the Qur'an in Guantanamo Bay and the ongoing abuse of Islam in the U.S. media under various guises.

4. U.S. Muslims and all politically aware people should join the boycott of businesses which support Israel, such as Coca Cola, Starbucks, Nestle's and McDonald's. Owing to U.S. ECONOMIC subservience to Zionism, China is threatening to move ahead of the U.S. We need to improve America's economy by disengaging it from wasteful and non-productive activity.

5. The rising prices of essential goods all over the world, particularly in Africa, Haiti, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh are connected to the global exploitation of the poor and the downtrodden and are related to the tremendous expense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the constant flow of resources to Israel.

6. The repeated bombing of Pakistani villages by the U.S. is a violation of international law. Pakistan's Islamic potential is attracting this aggression.

7. U.S. Muslims, with the exception of a tiny minority, are one with the Muslim world. The idea that U.S. Muslims are supporters of the White House and the Pentagon must be rejected.

8. The Qur'an and the authentic Hadith are the only genuine and effective basis for the unity of America's Muslims. Our problems will not be solved by either the Democrats or the Republicans.

9. Racism, the exploitation of women and the corporate-Zionist control of the media are three basic problems in America which the Islamic movement must tackle.

10. We condemn police atrocities in New York, Washington, DC and other cities and we urge Muslims to stand with the victims of the police.

Outreach to Arab-Americans
Self-Criticism is Essential for Victory of Islam. Cooperation with Oppressors is Forbidden
[Dr. Siddique's Khutba in Greensboro, NC]

On May 23, 2008 at the invitation of Imam Badi Ali, in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Juma' Khutba was given by Dr. Kaukab Siddique. About 500 people were in attendance, mostly Arab- Americans and Sudanese with a sprinkling of Indians and Pakistanis. Here are the main points of the khutba

Texts: "O my people! This life of the present is nothing but temporary enjoyment. It is the Hereafter that is the Home that will last. One that works evil will be repaid the same way, and one that works a righteous deed, be one male or female, and is a believer, will enter the Gareden of Bliss: Therein will they have abundance without measure." [The Qur'an 40:39-40]
"... No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, nor is a non-Arab superior to an Arab - A white is not superior to a black nor a black superior to a white, except in Allah-conscious behavior..." Prophet Muhamad, pbuh, Hadith in Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

* We live in a society which lacks haya [sexual modesty]. Exploitation of women has become the norm here. As Muslims we must honor women and reject the objectification of women by the media as if they are bodies and vehicles of male gratification.

Muslim self-criticism is essential for us to survive the negative influences of American society. Unless we fight back with the teachings of the glorious Qur'an and the sublime Hadith, we too will be affected by the latent racism, sexism and materialism of this society.

Afghanistan
200 Civilians Murdered by NATO in first 4 months of 2008
Statement by Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
Kabul, May 15

[In his report, Prof. Alston, after visiting various areas of Afghanistan, commented on the ongoing killing of Afghan civilians by NATO forces [called "international forces" in the report]. He also has a segment blaming the Taliban but it is unreliable because he did not meet the Taliban and listened only to their enemies. The comments on NATO are very much to the point because he got the facts from them about their activities. NATO has angrily rebuked Alston and the U.S. media simply CENSORED his report although he tried to excuse NATO by saying that the killings are NOT "intentional." How he knows that is not clear. --Editor, New Trend]

[Excerpted.]

"The international forces in Afghanistan should take seriously the principles of accountability and transparency, the importance of which they so frequently proclaim in other contexts. They should have no particular reluctance to adhere to these principles. I have seen no evidence that the international forces present in Afghanistan commit widespread intentional killings in violation of human rights or humanitarian law.
But the international military forces have reportedly killed as many as 200 civilians, often in joint operations with Afghan security forces, in the first four months of this year. The majority of these were the result of air strikes or close air support. In many cases, these attacks appear to have been lawful, though tragic. The killings by the international forces that most frequently raise issues under international human rights and humanitarian law are those that occur during surprise night-time raids and those that occur when soldiers fire at vehicles or passers-by that they (wrongly) suspect of being attackers. But the response of the international forces combines great seriousness of intent and adherence to the applicable law with a surprisingly opaque and unsatisfactory outcome.
In a few instances, this opacity may be intentional. For example, there have been a number of raids for which no state or military command appears ready to acknowledge responsibility. I inquired into one such raid while I was in Kandahar. In January 2008, two brothers were killed in a raid in Kandahar City which was led by international personnel. The victims are widely acknowledged, even by well-informed Government officials, to have had no connection to the Taliban, and the circumstances of their deaths are suspicious. However, not only was I unable to get any international military commander to provide their version of what took place, but I was unable to get any international military commander to even admit that their soldiers were involved. I also looked at raids in both Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces that involved international forces accompanied by Afghan forces. The identity of the international forces has yet to be fully clarified. While I received credible information that the Afghan forces were, in the case of Nangarhar, the Shaheen Unit working with armed international personnel and, in the case of Kandahar, Afghans working with international forces out of the Ghecko military base, I never received a definitive answer as to how they fit into anyone's chain of command. Based on my discussions, there is no reason to doubt that at least some of these units are led by personnel belonging to international intelligence services. The Minister of Defense, the head of NDS and ANA commanders confirmed that they do not fall under their command. I will explore this issue in greater depth in my report, but let me say for now that it is absolutely unacceptable for heavily-armed internationals accompanied by heavily-armed Afghan forces to be wandering around conducting dangerous raids that too often result in killings without anyone taking responsibility for them. Most failures of accountability and transparency are more prosaic, but these ordinary failures are also troubling. In speaking with relatives or witnesses, I would ask which of the international forces carried out the killing. Even those who had tried to follow up their cases at PRTs and other military bases often did not know the answer to this question. Getting clarification from the international forces is like entering a maze. I experienced this maze myself. One ISAF commander explained that while he could confirm whether a particular operation was conducted by conventional ISAF troops and then clarify which national contingent they belonged to, he would have to pass the case up the chain of command to clarify whether it had been conducted by ISAF special forces, and that I would have to ask the commander in charge of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) to determine whether and which coalition forces were responsible.
The situation is even worse when it comes to the accountability of individual soldiers. As is well known, the responsibility for prosecuting crimes committed by members of the international forces in Afghanistan belongs to their sending country. If an Australian commits an unlawful killing, responsibility for investigating and prosecuting that incident lies with the Australian Government; if a Norwegian commits an unlawful killing, responsibility for investigation and prosecution lies with the Norwegian Government. What is less well known is that no one in Afghanistan tracks the outcome of investigations and prosecutions. I met a witness in Jalalabad who lost family members in the well-known 4 March 2007 incident in which soldiers responded to a suicide attack on their convoy by shooting at a number of people over the next 20 kilometers of road. He was surprisingly open-minded about the responsible soldiers being tried by their sending country, but he was angry that he had not been provided with any information as to whether the soldiers involved had come before a court martial, whether they had been convicted or acquitted, and whether there were ongoing proceedings. Then I visited the regional commander, and he didn't know either. He explained that his unit had arrived in Afghanistan and that accountability for incidents involving the previous unit was its responsibility and that it had taken all the relevant files when it left the country. To his credit, he recognized that this was a problem. Another regional commander with whom I spoke suggested that it was not such a problem whether the status of investigations and prosecutions could be tracked because compensation was the main concern. As he correctly noted, the bottom line is that those wishing to know the final outcomes of any prosecutions should read the local newspapers in all of the troop-sending countries. This is a wholly unsatisfactory situation.
The international forces operating in Afghanistan have a responsibility to make sure that there is a coherent, unified system of accountability which Afghans and others can follow. However messy this system may be on the inside, composed as it must be of multiple mandates and of disparate national military justice systems, it is essential that those pieces add up to a coherent whole. Affected individuals should be able to go to a military base operating under any mandate, and receive prompt straightforward answers to questions such as: who were the international forces who raided my house last night? Or, I believe my brother was unlawfully killed by a soldier from the international forces; has he been put before a court martial?

Our America
Barack Obama's Shameful and Blatant Support for Zionism and Israel: Admits that American Jews Saved him from the Rev. Wright Problem
[Jeffrey Goldberg's interview with Obama appeared in the May 12 issue of The Atlantic magazine. Obama revealed his deep, "spiritual," support for Israel and all that it stands for. He admits that relations between Jews and African Americans have frayed but he is personally devoted to Zionism. NT does not have permission to publish the entire interview but here are excerpts allowed under the law for non-profit reasons.]

"Obama: I think the idea of Israel and the reality of Israel is one that I find important to me personally. Because it speaks to my history of being uprooted, it speaks to the African-American story of exodus, it describes the history of overcoming great odds and a courage and a commitment to carving out a democracy and prosperity in the midst of hardscrabble land. One of the things I loved about Israel when I went there is that the land itself is a metaphor for rebirth, for what's been accomplished. What I also love about Israel is the fact that people argue about these issues, and that they're asking themselves moral questions.
Sometimes I'm attacked in the press for maybe being too deliberative. My staff teases me sometimes about anguishing over moral questions. I think I learned that partly from Jewish thought, that your actions have consequences and that they matter and that we have moral imperatives. The point is, if you look at my writings and my history, my commitment to Israel and the Jewish people is more than skin-deep and it's more than political expediency. When it comes to the gut issue, I have such ardent defenders among my Jewish friends in Chicago. I don't think people have noticed how fiercely they defend me, and how central they are to my success, because they've interacted with me long enough to know that I've got it in my gut. During the Wright episode, they didn't flinch for a minute, because they know me and trust me, and they've seen me operate in difficult political situations.
The other irony in this whole process is that in my early political life in Chicago, one of the raps against me in the black community is that I was too close to the Jews. When I ran against Bobby Rush [for Congress], the perception was that I was Hyde Park, I'm University of Chicago, I've got all these Jewish friends. When I started organizing, the two fellow organizers in Chicago were Jews, and I was attacked for associating with them. So I've been in the foxhole with my Jewish friends, so when I find on the national level my commitment being questioned, it's curious.
Goldberg: Why do you think Ahmed Yousef of Hamas said what he said about you?
BO: My position on Hamas is indistinguishable from the position of Hillary Clinton or John McCain. I said they are a terrorist organization and I've repeatedly condemned them. I've repeatedly said, and I mean what I say: since they are a terrorist organization, we should not be dealing with them until they recognize Israel, renounce terrorism, and abide by previous agreements.
Goldberg: Were you flummoxed by it?
BO: I wasn't flummoxed. I think what is going on there is the same reason why there are some suspicions of me in the Jewish community. Look, we don't do nuance well in politics and especially don't do it well on Middle East policy. We look at things as black and white, and not gray. It's conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, "This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein, and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he's not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush," and that's something they're hopeful about. I think that's a perfectly legitimate perception as long as they're not confused about my unyielding support for Israel's security.

2008-05-27 Tue 19:37:54 cdt
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