New Trend Magazine

(News and Views)
(We do not necessarily agree with all the views)

NEWS:
{JUSTICE and PEACE FOR AFGHANISTAN now has a 4th Board member:
Dr. Kaukab Siddique, Imam Badi Ali, Imam Khalid Griggs, Shaikh Abdus Sattar.}
{We have access to Afghan refugees in Chitral, northeastern Pakistan, coming in from some of the unregulated pathways. Help is urgently needed.}

{60 Minutes. A prominent Muslim called us to express shock at the CBS interview, Sept. 30, on the 60 Minutes program with Siraj Wahhaj, Hamza Yusuf and 2 others. This brother donates generously to ISNA and was disgusted that these Muslims could sell out so shamelessly and link up so unabashedly with the Jews. Another Imam called to say: "Leave these men alone. They are opportunists and cowards. Allah is stripping them of their Islamic pretensions." Two quotable quotes in summary form: Hamza Yusuf said:
Muslims should clean the extremists out of their ranks. Suicide is forbidden in Islam. Siraj Wahhaj said: We should teach our children not to be terrorists. A third man: All this is owing to Wahhabi teachings.}

{About proposed trip of Jesse Jackson: A brother points out: Jesse and Muhammad Ali, the boxer, went to Iraq, and talked Saddam into releasing the 3000 Europeans he held on the promise that there won't be any bombing and King Fahd had put his word on this. We know what happened after that. This time Jesse wanted to do the same for Afghanistan but it didn't work.}
{What do real Muslim leaders sound like? See below after Pakistani President:
Open Letter from Imam Warithuddin Omar.}
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PAKISTANI PRESIDENT'S SPEECH (Analysis)

CNN's Christiane Amanpour interviewed Pakistani President Musaharraf (Sept.30). It was quite a funny interview with Ms. Amanpour pressing hard and Musharraf quite coy and trying hard to muddle through ( an odd couple). Poor Musharraf's attitude can be summed up in the words of a Pakistani comedian (in Urdu): bawlun taw musibat: na bawlun taw musibat (translation: If I say something, I am in trouble, and if I don't say anything, I am in trouble.)

The President tried to be as ambiguous as he could. Also, he tried to convey the impression that he doesn't know anything about American moves. All he knows, he said, is from what he watches on TV.

It was evident that Musharraf's game is to play secretly with the Americans, hope that it will not come out, and time will pass. It's also clear that the army is not entirely on his side. He was not in a position to condemn the Taliban or Osama outright. He has banned Harakat al-Mujahideen, but as he pointed out, it has no office in Pakistan, hence the ban really means nothing.

Musharraf's support base is thin. This came out in the "class analysis" he tried to carry out. He claimed that:
1. The "religious extremists" are only 15% of the population.
2. The middle class, the upper middle class and the upper class are with him.
3. That leaves the poor, the workers, and he said they are ignorant of what is going on and they were the audience of his "islamic speech" the other day to win them over.

Analysts say that the "Upper", Upper Middle and Middle classes are about 10 to 15% of the population, about equal in numbers to the 15% "religious extremists." That leaves about 70% of the masses whom Musharraf claims to be trying to win over. Unfortunately for him, the "religious extremists", through the network of mosques, have much greater access to the 70% than he can ever have. If we leave the 5% pro-Iran sect out, that still means 60% of the population open to Musharraf and the Islamic groups. Pakistan cannot be easily controlled through TV and radio: Hence the mullahs, if radical and activist enough, will win through.

Already the demonstrations by tens of thousands showed that the 15% "extremists" are winning over the 60% masses. Musharraf's rich elites are very poor in winning over the masses and in fact despise the masses.
Musharraf probably knows this and tried to keep the Americans happy by claiming that he is firmly in control (with the implication that send over your help, I deserve it.)
"Main Kia karta. Woh aurat tow mairay peechay pur gai" one Pakistani mimiced the poor general's attempts to please Ms. Amanpour. (Translation: What could I do! That woman was really after me!)
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(Dear readers: Take the time to read this carefully. It might bring that real faith into you which Islam demands. Remember: The Jews will never be happy with you, however much you might condemn the martyrdom operations.)

From IMAM WARITHUDDIN OMAR:
(Challenging the Toms who say if you don't like it here, go back where you came from.)

This is an open letter to my Muslim brother and friend who happens to be the first Muslim Chaplain in the U.S. Military. Before his assignment with the Army he was a Muslim Chaplain with the New York State Department of Correctional Services. He e-mailed me and suggested that we should support America as citizens and work from within to change what we don't like about America or take the transportation that brought us here and go back to our lands. Of course this did not apply to me and him but to immigrant Muslims, because we have nowhere to go back to. Below is my response to him and others:

Ya Captain Imam Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, As Salaamu alaikum
Thanks for your response to my comments. One Imam wrote back to me and suggested that I was "pushing jihad" as he termed it. I want it to be made very clear that I am in no way suggesting glee or open support for the type of action that took place on 9-11. I am, on the other hand, pointing the finger at the leaders of our American government that led us into these world-wide campaigns of injustice. It was and is the foreign policy of the existing and former American governments that has promoted and reinforced the imbalance and violation of the mizaan that Allah sent down. As far as rights are concerned, I don't see the immigrant Muslims as being less deserving of being here than the indigenous Muslims. They are our brothers.
America's Oppressed and the dominant class are not the same I don't see African Americans as being the same as white Americans. Masses of black people don't feel that those buildings were ours. Nor do many of the black citizens feel that the Pentagon is theirs. Like you, they can work there for the promotion of the government. They see those buildings as belonging to the white rulers here. Citizens don't determine which government outside of America to destabilize or which leader is to be killed. They now know the World Trade Center was built by and belongs to the Stein foundation, a major supporter of Israel, America's representative state in the Muslim lands. Most blacks know we are only allowed to visit, work in and frequent these places. I just sat in on the c-span live-cam viewing of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's seminar on Prison Reform and Mandatory Minimum Sentences. It was revealing to listen to African Americans getting back to the reality of the life here after the smoke settles from the 9-11 attacks. Black folks experience, as has been our experience after every American war, the return to an America based in injustice. Yes, there is a growing Black middle-class. At the same time there is growing number of young black men and women unjustly incarcerated and held in maximum security dungeons under excessive sentences.
CHURCH BOMBINGS and CINCINNATI
The caucus members reminded one another that it was only recently that the church bombings of black churches took place. Special security and police have made the churches somewhat more secure. The bombings were done by American citizens. The white policeman in Cincinnati was just found not guilty for his admitted shooting in the back and killing of a black teenager in that city. Now Arabs, Muslims and those who are thought to be like them are being targeted across the width and breadth of the country. The injustice goes on. It was brought out that there were more African-Americans in prison at the end of 2000 than the total number of slaves in 1829. The America that was founded on "freedom, justice, and liberty for all," was founded by people who owned, oppressed, raped, and murdered African slaves, our forefathers. This founding of injustice has pervaded every aspect of American life. We as Muslims here in America cannot be satisfied that we are of the privileged who have moved into the middle classes and, like the Jews, are only concerned about our people here. That mindset is not only dangerous but is offensive to Allah. If we think there is no relationship between sin and calamity then we don't rightly understand our deen. America is guilty of doing to others what others have just done to America. Yes, my family could have been in the buildings that day. I have taken my family there before to visit the observation deck. Two of my sons work in the area of the World Trade Center. Fortunately Allah spared their lives. I could have been on the plane. I travel the American skies often. Had I been on the plane I would have tried with my life to stop them from killing me and killing others. But Allah didn't deem for me to be there. He deemed and permitted me to be here. I am a Muslim Believer first and foremost. If a Muslim is wrong he deserves the recompense of his behavior. If a non-Muslim is wrong he has a double burden to pay. He is wrong for not believing Allah and he is wrong for his resulting behavior. The Taliban are extremist, however their circumstances are extreme and we don't fully know the whole story of how they fought the British and the Russian forces just to have their own land to themselves. Surely they are evolving and going through transition like every land that has pulled themselves up from devastation. America must not only change its foreign policy but also its domestic policy. The criminalization of our race has created huge numbers of inmates and former prisoners of America's prison to hate this government. Do you blame them? I don't. So don't blame me for what I don't like about this government and the history of our people here. American domestic policy calls for public assistance to be denied former inmates. Employment is being denied them. Many states have voted to establish disenfranchisement laws for ex-offenders. Former felons are not allowed to vote. They are forever socially and politically dead as citizens. Public housing laws call for the whole family to be thrown out of the projects if a family member is convicted of selling drugs. Education programs throughout the country have been eliminated from prisons and Penitentiaries. The policy is lock 'em up. throw away the key, and make 'em feel the pain of incarceration. I could go on.
NEED FOR OPEN FORUM
Let it suffice at this time to say that we should keep the lines of communication open. I am calling for open forums to discuss what is occurring and not go blindly supporting the new world order that will target Muslims as America has targeted Blacks, Hispanic, Native Americans and the poor. It was the rulers of evil America that called for the head of Geronimo, the Apache Chief who was fighting in his own land against the white European invaders. The then President put up a poster "Geronimo: Wanted Dead or Alive." No trial, no justice, no balance. They did the same thing to Pancho Villa, the Mexican freedom fighter who was fighting for his land as America was claiming the western part of the U. S. as their own. They wanted him "dead or alive."
MUSLIMS SHOULD LEAVE THE MILITARY
I hope and pray that the Muslims in the military will consider leaving the U.S. military before they are forced to fight against Muslims. Remember America will pay you but has a history of throwing you away after they use you up. Again America is dichotomous. It has tremendous Good. But it is countered by tremendous Evil. As time goes on, in sha'llah, you will see many things that will give us all the confirmation that Allah is in charge. These are trying times and many people will not speak out of fear. I know of the wrongs in this world perpetrated by Pagans, Jews, Christians, Muslims and others. I cannot stop the wrongs of the world with my hands or even my mouth, but I confess my guilt to much of what has occurred; I'm guilty because I used the weakest of faith, my heart. I prayed that Allah would deal with us and wake us up. Is the world awake now? I pray America will change for the better. I pray for world Justice, the Mizaan that Allah commands. I pray we understand. Please read Qur'an, 42:17, 55:7-9, 57:25. These passages deal with the strict observance of the balance of right and wrong, and of how we deal with one another. The balance is justice. When there is no balance of justice there can be no peace.
ASSAILANTS ARE DEAD and BEYOND PUNISHEMENT: HEALING IS THE ONLY WAY OUT
ps: It is now time for America to admit that it lost this battle. It's over. There is no one to go after. The ones responsible for the horror and terror of 9-11-01 are dead. They cannot be punished by the living. It is time now to heal. If there is to be a future of peace in America is must be after justice is established and maintained.
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2001-11-07 Wed 13:33ct