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JAMAAT AL-MUSLIMEEN
announcement: Inshallah our
Fifth International Islamic
Symposium will be held in the third week of June,
2003.
JAM urges Muslims to join all peace marches but
not forget to spread the
message of Islam while doing so. Remember, the
Qur'an
and the
Hadith
are our
sources of guidance.
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WOL's "ON WITH LEON" Scores Coup: Blair's
"Intelligence" Stole from a
California student's Paper and Powell put it in
his United Nations' Speech:
War had already been Scheduled
[The ON WITH LEON show can be heard every
Sunday at 1 to 3 pm on WOL AM
radio, 1010 in Baltimore and 1450 in Washington.]
February 9, 2003: The "On With Leon" show
struck a serious blow at the
credibility of British "intelligence" which has
been purporting to show that
it has information on Saddam Hussain's "weapons
of mass destruction" (yawn!).
The British newspaper
"
Guardian
"
had
reported that Tony Blair's
purported "intelligence" report on Saddam's WMDs
had been plagiarized
VERBATIM from a paper written by Ibrahim
al-Marashi, an Iraqi university
student living for many years in California.
Wilmer Leon topped the "Guardian" by
actually inviting Ibrahim
al-Marashi to his "On With Leon" show. During the
program, Mr. Leon read out
to Mr. Al-Marashi the relevant quotes from the
"Guardian" and had Mr.
Al-Marashi specifically recognize the plagiarized
contents of Blair's
"intelligence" report as a copy of his research
paper.
Poor Colin Powell not only presented
Blair's plagiarized report in the
United Nations as "proof" of Saddam's WMDs but
even added a few twists of his
own, probably with the help of the
CIA.
Thus it
was not even honest
plagiarism, if there is such a thing.
Bush
and Blair undoubtedly decided on the
Iraq
adventure without any
evidence of any kind. As the world pressure
against war mounted, the two
started coming up with all kinds of stories about
WMDs.
Congratulations to Mr. Leon. Great work in
uncovering the plagiarism of
Blair and the "dishonest plagiarism" of Colin
Powell! Bush and Blair want war
because Iraq is militarily no match for them.
ISRAEL
is the beneficiary of
this madness.
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Activists hope to shield Iraq
By MARTHA QUILLIN, Staff Writer (Courtesy North
Carolina News Observer,
excerpted)
GREENSBORO -- North Carolina will supply its
share of the military force for
any war with Iraq, but if bombs fall on Baghdad,
some Tar Heels on the front
lines will be soldiers for peace.
Activists from around the world have vowed to
travel to Iraq in support of
civilians, with plans to stay in the country in
the face of a U.S.-led
assault. Some call themselves "human shields,"
who will take up positions at
such places as schools, orphanages and hospitals
in the hope of protecting
them. Others want only to demonstrate to the
Iraqi people -- and the rest of
the world -- that they do not support military
action that endangers the
innocent.
Badi Ali, president of the Islamic Center of the
Triad in Greensboro, is
organizing a March trip in which he hopes to take
perhaps a dozen people to
Baghdad, Iraq's capital. He says he has traveled
to Iraq many times during
the past 12 years, mostly with humanitarian
organizations delivering
over-the-counter medicine and basic supplies that
have run short as a result
of U.N. sanctions.
This time, he says, would be different because of
the danger of becoming an
unintended casualty of war. Married and the
father of two, he says he feels
compelled to go, and to stand literally between
U.S. bombs and Iraqi
children.
"How can we stand by and do nothing?" Ali, 40,
said this week, on the eve of
Id al-Adha, a sacred Muslim holiday. "By doing
nothing, we contribute to the
destruction of a country and its people."
Ali, born in the region that was
Palestine,
is a
naturalized
U.S.
citizen who
came to this country in 1983 to attend college
and says he has a great love
for America, which has given him things no Arab
country did: freedom to vote
and to speak his mind. In fact, he says, he feels
it's his duty as an
American to speak out when he feels his
government is doing something
immoral.
"We are doing this for America," he said. "We are
doing this to make America
better."
Ali might have trouble finalizing his travel
plans, according to another
group that has organized trips to Iraq. Voice in
the Wilderness, based in
Chicago, was formed in 1996 to agitate against
the sanctions on Iraq and says
it has sent more than 50 delegations to the
country carrying humanitarian
supplies, without permission from the U.S.
government, in direct defiance of
federal policy.
In recent months, in response to the threat of
war, the group has launched
Iraq Peace Teams, sending U.S. residents over to
provide eyewitness accounts
of military action.
Laurie Hasbrook of Chicago, a volunteer with the
group, said Wednesday that a
delegation is scheduled to leave Monday, but with
access to the country
tightening, it's unclear whether others will be
able to get in.
Joy S. Johnson of Durham is scheduled to leave
with another Chicago-based
group, the Christian Peacemaker Team, for a
two-week trip Feb. 24. She has
taken this semester off from her Duke University
graduate studies in
immunology to get more involved in the push for a
peaceful resolution to the
Iraqi conflict.
Johnson, 24, said she has grown increasingly
frustrated with President Bush's
stance on Iraq, and believes that the only
country on the verge of using
weapons of mass destruction is her own. She began
thinking of going to Iraq,
to put a face on the conflict and to see
firsthand the effects of the
sanctions. Searches on the Internet led her to
Ali and then to the Peacemaker
group.
The group specifically avoids the term "human
shields" because of its
military connotation, preferring to describe its
role as one of support for
the Iraqi people.
Johnson and others say they have no illusions
about their ability to
influence Bush, who has been massing troops in
the Gulf region. However, they
say, they hope to get the notice of Europeans,
who might pressure their
governments not to support the United States.
"I don't think it makes any impression on the
Bush administration," Johnson
said. "But I think it makes an impression on the
rest of the world.
"I would hope that with some people from the West
standing there, our
government will realize that there is a lot of
opposition to this war and
that it's not going to be just Iraqis dying, but
people of European descent."
Johnson -- who was born in the Army town of
Fayetteville -- said she is not
afraid for her safety. Her mother, she said, is
worried but supportive.
"From what I understand, the Iraqis are very open
and hospitable toward
Americans who come there. It's not the Iraqi
people who will do anything to
harm me, but our own government."
Co-workers will feed her cats, Buffy and Peanut,
while Johnson is gone.
Friends are donating frequent-flier miles to help
pay for her flight. Like
others, Johnson's group will fly into Amman,
Jordan, and travel by bus or car
to Baghdad, where they will stay in a hotel. They
also plan to go to Basra,
in southeastern Iraq.
Travelers must have valid visas and must get
permission, usually through
their sponsoring organization, from the Iraqi
government, which will monitor
the group's travels inside the country.
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Why are U.S. Muslims Disappointed in their
Leadership?
Imam Badi Ali (Greensboro, North Carolina)
a foremost activist of the
Islamic movement in America has received a series
of questions from
Newsweek
magazine. The foremost question is as given
above. Br. Badi wants input from
the readers of New Trend on this issue. Here is a
response from
Dr. Kaukab Siddique,
the editor of New Trend. [Readers are
welcome to send in their
responses.]:
Any leadership which claims to be Islamic
must be based on what Allah
wants of us in the Qur'an and on the way the
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
interpreted the Qur'an in the Hadith. Muhammad
(pbuh) was the living Qur'an.
Any leadership which deviates from the Sunnah or
Way of the Prophet (pbuh)
cannot be called Islamic.
1. The current leaders are not basing anything
they say on the Qur'an and the
Sunnah. They are simply responding to what
President Bush and the American
power structure want. These leaders are boxed
into the Bush syndrome. Bush
said: Either you are for us or you are against
us. The Muslim leaders want to
live peacefully in America. Hence they chose to
be on the side of Bush. They
have shown that Islamic values are not important
for them other than as
"window dressing" for their public relationing
campaigns directed at
America's 5 to 7 million (estimated) Muslims.
2. The real leaders of the Muslims of America are
in prison.
Imam Jamil al-Amin
was framed in a murder case and sentenced
to life. Earlier
Shaikh Omar ‘Abdel Rahman,
a blind scholar with a Ph.D from Al-Azhar, was also
sentenced to life based on the testimony of an
Egyptian
government agent who
was paid $1,000,000 by the FBI to do the job.
3. After
9.11,
Islamic leadership in America has become hazardous and
dangerous. 9.11 did not pose any serious
difficulties for the current
leadership being discussed here, because these
leaders have always been
pro-government and have always walked in lock
step with whoever was in the
White House.
3a. The difficult situation is faced by true
leaders. For instance, recently
Imam Warithuddin ‘Umar of Albany, New York was
denounced by the
Wall Street Journal
and then attacked by Senator Schumer and
Governor Pataki of New York.
He was fired from his job by fax. There has been
no investigation.
3b. Potential real leaders face the same
difficulty: They could lose their
jobs or be arrested. Hence, a new form of
censorship is being imposed on real
Islamic leaders. If any such dare to speak out,
they can:
i. Lose all coverage in the
media.
As far as the
U.S. media is concerned,
they are non-persons.
ii. They can lose their jobs.
iii. They can be arrested.
iv. They could even be attacked and killed (as in
the cases of
Malcolm X
and Dr. King).
4. Take the issue of Osama Bin Laden's attacks on
the U.S. Here any real
leaders have to ask: Why does he want to attack
the U.S.? Is his attack
linked to the U.S.'s attacks on the Muslim world,
be they in Palestine, Iraq,
Sudan
or
Afghanistan
(or through allies in Kashmir and
Chechnia),
or is Osama
simply someone crazy bent on attacking America
because he hates our
democracy, our love life and our dating and
"shacking up" system?
Can the issue of Osama's attacks be discussed in
America without the
discussant being black listed (or simply
de-listed, if we want to avoid
racist language) in the major media?
5. Another complication in the debate regarding
Osama is that he is being
discussed openly in the Muslim world, with
massive support in just about
every Muslim country, including Kuwait. Thus
American Muslims have to learn
to "shut up" when they are questioned about
Osama. They cannot discuss things
the way it is done around the world.
Again this is a total reversal of the situation:
War has made the freest
country in the world, a land of censorship and
self-censorship while the
countries of the east, supposedly lacking freedom
of expression, are free to
discuss these issues.
I am for peace and self-determination for
all nations. Peace cannot
come by way of American dominance of the Muslim
world. The way to peace is
through the military and economic withdrawal of
the U.S. from the middle east
and an end to U.S. military and economic aid to
Israel. If the U.S. keeps
attacking Muslim countries, Osama or someone else
will sooner or later attack
the U.S. It's a natural process of cause and
effect.
We should be against ALL murder and mayhem,
be it of Palestinians,
Iraqis, Sudanese, Somalis, Kashmiris, Chechens,
Indian Muslims, Sikhs or
Americans. Everyone has families, children, loved
ones, pets, jobs, plans for
the future. Killing any human being is wrong;
however, if we start selecting
by race and nationality, putting some over
others, then all of humanity is
diminished.
We should be for the rights of ALL women,
not simply be outraged by the
Taliban's rule of burqas for women. WE SHOULD AT
LEAST BE OUTRAGED BY THE
RAPE OF THOUSANDS OF MUSLIM WOMEN BY THE INDIAN
ARMY IN KASHMIR and the
systematic rape and desmemberment of hundreds of
Muslim women by the Hindus
of Gujarat, India. Our claims of outrage at the
Burqa in Afghanistan ring
hollow if we are silent about India's use of rape
as a weapon to subjugate
the defenseless Muslim population.
SELF-DETERMINATION is the key. If the Afghans,
ravaged by decades of war,
want to be ruled by the austere and stern
Taliban, that is their choice. If
the Americans want to be ruled by Bush, have a
50% divorce rate, drink,
womanize, watch TV and party, that is their
choice. Osama should not try to
take away Bush from the Americans.
Finally, any Muslim leadership in America
would have to contend with
the fact that the 5 to 7 million Muslims here are
fragmented by nationality,
ethnicity, class and gender discrimination. For
any leader to claim that he
("she" is still unthinkable) is the leader
because 5,000 people send him
membership fees or because he can rent a big
hotel for a convention where an
"Islamic" banquet or hijab party is held, is
nothing more than self-deception.
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Eidul Adhaa Salat Attendance at one Atlanta Masjid
by Sis. Motisola M. Abdallah
Eidul-Adhaa Salat attendance was about 1/3 or
more lower than in previous
years at Al-Farooq Masjid of Atlanta. Preceeding
the Khutbah where I attended
we were given an update on the progress of the
new $4million Masjid being
constructed on that site.
During the
Khutbah
there was no mention of the
suffering of other Muslims
in countries like Iraq, Yemen,
Syria,
Afghanistan, Sudan or Palestine. The
vast majority of the Muslims that attend this
Masjid are from these regions
and just about all have families there. After
the Khutbah the Imam urged us
to pick up a copy of the new Atlanta Yellow
Muslim Pages.
As I walked out to the shoe area, I recalled how
in previous years at
Eids
it took me 15 to 20 minutes to locate my shoes and
traffic use to be grid
locked in front of the Masjid for up to an hour.
Today it took me 20 seconds
to find my shoes and traffic flowed very
smoothly. There were no new
procedures in place for placing our shoes nor any
new traffic procedures in
place for coming and leaving the Masjid. This
was just a sad reality as to
the attendance by Muslims still 18 months later
after 911.
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2003-02-15 Sat 08:17ct