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--------------------------
(for the record)
MASJID Al-AQSA
WAS VIOLATED ON OCT.4
The Muslim World Watched in Horrified Silence
Al-Jazeera
website. 4 October 2002, 13.30 GMT. (Translated by Br. Eric
Mueller.)
“Israeli”
occupation forces have invaded the haram of
al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem after Jumaa prayers
today, Friday. The
Zionist
soldiers fired percussion
grenades and teargas canisters to break up
Palestinian
demonstrators.
A spokesman for the “Israeli” police claimed that the
incursion into the mosque grounds was a response to
Palestinian youths who were raining stones on
extremist
Jews
at the Wailing Wall (Wall of al-Buraq)
after Friday prayers. This, he said, is what drove
the police to invade the precincts of the mosque.
Israeli radio reported that about 50 soldiers invaded
al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif, the hottest point in the
struggle between Palestinians and “Israelis”. It
indicated that the soldiers later withdrew. Israeli
police said that no one was injured and no harm was
done to the contents of the Haram.
Eyewitnesses rejected the “Israeli” claims, however,
and said that the raid came after about 30 Palestinian
youths among those who had prayed threw stones at the
“Israeli” soldiers deployed at the gates to the Haram.
Palestinians who manage the Jerusalem mosque precinct
hurried to calm the situation and to separate the
Palestinian demonstrators from the Jewish worshippers,
lest the scope of the confrontation grow larger.
Patriotic and
Islamic
Forces and popular and religious
groups in Palestine had called in a statement for
demonstrations in all parts of Palestinian territory
after Friday prayers today in protest against the law
passed by the US Congress concerning Jerusalem.
Palestinian forces also issued a statement in which
they called on the Arabs and Muslims to totally
boycott
American
goods and interests and urged the
Arab and Islamic countries to recall their ambassadors
from Washington “if this aggressive resolution is
carried out.”
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Unknown Facts about Saddam Hussain and Iraq
by Buut Shika (idol breaker)
October 10. The U.S. Congress voted to support President
Bush
in his
plans to wage war against Iraq. Bush has declared that there will be no
negotiations with President Saddam Hussain. Many people want to know
why Bush is determined to strike Iraq and they come up with a variety of
answers, such
as: Its's the oil. Saddam has weapons of WMD. Bush has a personal
grudge.
Look at Saddam Hussain's record:
1. Not one American has died as a result of his actions since 1991
(That's 12 years.)
2. His troops are so pathetically weak in weaponry that in all these 12
years they have not succeeded in shooting down even one American manned
aircraft.
[The exceptions were a couple of drones.] U.S. planes attack Iraqi air
defenses even if a radar is turned on to spot the intruders.
3. American and British planes patrol Iraqi "no fly" zones every day in
clear
violation of Iraq's sovereignty and even without pretense of a UN
resolution
(which after all is merely an instrument of European power diplomacy).
Look at the charges against Saddam Hussain:
1. He gassed the Kurds. [These are basically Iranian reports which have
never
been independently verified..] [Current charges of the gassing of the
Kurds
are based on an article by a Jewish writer in the
New Yorker Magazine
earlier
this year which was acclaimed by V.President Cheyney. The article also
originated the idea of the Al-Qaida-Saddam connection.]
1a. When the alleged gassing took place [in Halabja], the U.S. was
supporting
Saddam Hussain and made no fuss about the gassing. Now we repeatedly
hear this charge that he "gassed his own people."
2. In his recent speech, President Bush accused President Hussain of
"rapes."
There is no basis, let alone any evidence, for these allegations.
3. A man named Khidr Hamza, supposedly defected from Saddam's WMD team,
has been trotted out innumerable times on U.S. TV screens talking of
Saddam's WMD
program. He defected from Iraq in 1994 and has been thoroughly exposed
by Scott Ritter and others as a fake with no insight into Iraqi programs.
4. The most absurd charge is that Saddam is a danger to the U.S. Saddam
has never threatened the U.S. and does not have the military power to do
any harm
to the U.S. even to the extent of shooting down an attacking American
plane.
DEMONIZATION
1. U.S.
media
repeatedly and without evidence claim that Saddam has
killed thousands of Kurds and Shi'ites. The media fail to point out that
Saddam has
killed his enemies only when they rose up in armed revolt against him at
Iranian and American instigation. There are tens of thousands of Shias
and Kurds in Saddam's armed forces. [Any ruler would be suspicious and
ruthless
when his power is threatened by powerful and insidious enemies. The U.S.
could not even tolerate Waco, Ruby Ridge and the MOVE House in
Philadelphia.]
2. The media say that Saddam killed even his own relatives. Again they
fail to
point out that these were his two sons-in-law who had been 'turned'
[into agents] by the
CIA
and were being used to provide 'evidence' for the
continuation of the embargo and sanctions on Iraq.
3. Saddam has an army of spies. Is that a surprise considering that Iran
and the U.S. have an army of spies trying to subvert Iraq? News have come
out every now and then that the CIA allegedly printed so much fake Iraqi
money that the Iraqi money lost almost all its value.
4. Saddam has these luxurious palaces (where funnily enough the U.S.
claims
he is hiding his WMD) where he feasts while the people starve. The fact
is that most of these palaces were built by the last king of Iraq. These
are part of the Iraqi heritage and history. During U.S's 42 day bombing of
Iraq, many of these palaces were damaged. During the sanctions era, the
Iraqis have
had only one real industry and that is construction. [It requires no
imports.]
So Saddam went ahead and used Iraqi construction abilities to provide jobs.
As a result ALL OF IRAQ'S HIGHWAYS and BRIDGES [which had been bombed]
were rebuilt. Part of the reconstruction effort has been the repair and
remodeling of many of the palaces.
WHAT THE MEDIA LEAVE OUT:
1. Saddam is immensely popular among his people. [He is more popular
than the
dictators America supports such as
Egypt's
Mubarak,
or the Algerian generals or King Abdullah of Jordan.]
2. Before the bombing and the sanctions, Saddam used the country's oil
wealth
to create an industrial infrastructure, an educational grid across the
country, and health facilities for all.
3. Women have more rights in Iraq than anywhere else in the Arab world.
4. There were several thousand Americans/Europeans working in Iraq before
hostilities broke out. They were all allowed to leave the country.
5. The oil-for-food program is carefully orchestrated to humiliate Iraq
and oil sales are used to pay the very powers which are bullying Iraq.
ISRAEL: THE REAL PLAYER IN THIS WHOLE GAME:
After Qaddafi stopped playing the hero, the only real leader left in
the Middle East who can stand up to Israel is Saddam Hussain. Hence the
entire Israeli-Jewish establishment from university professors to media
men to politicians is beating the drums of war. According to Israeli news
reports (Oct. 8), Israeli leaders are expressing so much joy over the
impending American attack on Iraq that Sharon had to tell them to tone
it down.
Saddam is the biggest benefactor of the Palestinian people and
Palestinians know this. The Palestinians supported him one hundred per cent
during the first Gulf war. [These supporters included thousands of
Palestinians living in Kuwait who were consequently deported.]
On Oct. 7, Israel announced that it has raided a Palestinian town and
arrested a Palestinian representative of Saddam Hussain who was
distributing
funds to the families of martyrs. [Help for the families of martyrs is
one of the most meritorious acts in Islam according to the
Hadith
of the Prophet
Muhammad, pbuh). Saddam has donated $30 million to the families of these
revered sons and daughters who sacrificed themselves to hit the Jewish
occupiers of Palestine. (A street in Baghdad is named after Sis. Wafa,
the Palestinian martyr who sacrificed herself.)
During the first Gulf war, Saddam hit Israel with missiles. It was
merely a symbolic gesture and more Jews died in this attack from heart
failure than from actual missile hits. However, it was a gesture which
the Arab world and the Muslim world will never forget. Saddam became the
new
Saladin who could hit the Jewish tyranny which hurts and humiliates and
murders the Palestinian people almost every day. The Jews too never
forget or
forgive (although they want Palestinians to forget that Israel is the
land usurped from its rightful owners).
If Saddam is removed, as the Israelis see it, the Middle East will
become the happy hunting grounds of the Jews. The Saudi, Egyptian and
Jordanian rulers already have "CIA-regulated" relations with the
Israelis.
With a puppet "democratic" Karzai-type state in Iraq, the Israelis will
rule the region for America.
SADDAM and ISLAM
It is true that Saddam Hussain came out of Ba'athist ideology. He
oppressed Muslims during the formative years of his regime. His war
with Iran
further solidified his anti-Islam image. However, people change and
in many ways, Saddam too has changed.
We have been used to looking at Saddam from Iran's point of view which
was the correct Islamic viewpoint while Iran was defending itself.
However,
when Iran went over to the offensive, it made the mistake of entering
Iraqi
territory. Then Iran went further and switched its message. Instead of
calling for an uprising of Islam or of the oppressed, as it used to
from 1979
to 1983, it started calling on the Iraqi Shias to rise up. However, this
aroused Iraqi nationalism and the Iranian tide was stemmed at Basra.
The
Iraqi shias refused to listen to Iran. [Ayatollah Khui, leader of Iraq's
Shias, refused to call for rebellion against Saddam.]
If the Iranians had broken through at Basra, today there would have been
a sectarian empire comprising Iran, Iraq,
Syria,
parts of
Lebanon,
Bahrain
and parts of Saudi Arabia. The sectarians actually wanted to take over
the Hijaz.
Many people do not know that once the Iranians entered Iraqi territory,
Saddam started invoking Islamic symbolism. In fact his battle against
Iran was called Al-Qadesia in memory of the famous Islamic battle which
overthrew the Persian empire in the days of ‘Umar (r.a.).
The Shias suffered at Saddam's hand again when they were instigated by
Bush I to rise up. However since then Saddam has tried hard to placate
them.
The entire Kerbala and Najaf infrastructure has been beautifully
redone. For
the last 5 years, there have been special trips for Shias from Baghdad
to the
Shia holy places which have been enjoyed by thousands of Shia visitors
from overseas.
ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS
Saddam does not permit organized Islamic movements within Iraq because
of his fear that they will try to overthrow him. However, ever since he
put
the words ALLAHU AKBAR on the Iraqi flag, he has softened his attitude.
Khutbas in Iraqi mosques are for jihad and the khateebs can say what they
want as long as they do not preach against Saddam.
Islamic movements which have been oppressed in other Arab countries find
a safe haven in Iraq, among them the Ikhwan who rose up against the Syrian
Alawite regime in 1982. There is an Islamic university in Baghdad which
offers free education to Muslims from various countries even now.
[Numerous Pakistani and Indian Muslims study in Baghdad's universities.]
In recent years Saddam has ordered his Ba'athist party officials to
study Islam. He himself goes to the mausoleum of Shaikh Abdul Qadir
Jilani
and the tomb of Imam Abu Hanifa and has helped to decorate and beautify
them.
As part of the reconstruction projects initiated by Saddam after the
42-day bombing, numerous, beautiful new mosques have been constructed
in Iraq, and the BIGGEST MOSQUE IN THE WORLD is being constructed in
Baghdad.
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2002-10-11 Fri 12:35ct