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Disclaimer: The views expressed are not necessarily shared by the
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Why are New Trend editors not arrested? Iqbal Khan has sent this
question from
Pakistani
immigrants in Toronto. Scroll down to end for answer.
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1. ISNA Convention forgot that Humanity is one: We are not U.S.
nationalists If we mourn 9.11 but ignore
Iraq,
Palestine,
Afghanistan
are we Muslims?
2. FBI is tool of Oppression. ISNA bosses worked with FBI to recruit
Muslims
3. "Wilding" Convictions of Black youths for rape in NY Proven Racist Lies
4. German Convert to
Islam
Looks at Muslim Hypocrisy and Jewish tactics
1. Dr. Abdul Alim Shabazz is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics,
a teacher of teachers, honored in the world of academe. He is an Elder
in the Islamic community, revered for his truthfulness and purity of
faith by Muslims across
America,
a man of Allah steeped in prayer and devotion. He has repeatedly
travelled to the holy cities of Makka and Madina to perform the duties
of Hajj and Umrah and to pay his respects to the best of men,
Muhammad Mustafa, peace be on him. He is an Africanist of repute and
has numerous contacts among the people of the Motherland of
Africa
where he is a welcome guest in the homes of the rich and the poor.
New Trend interviewed Dr. Shabazz following the shocking scenes
witnessed by our writers at the latest Convention of the Islamic
Society of North America (ISNA) which was held in Washington DC
from August 30 to September 2, 2002. Dr. Shabazz attended all four
days of the ISNA Convention. He is a conservative witness in the
sense that he has always wished ISNA well. After all it does good
by giving Muslims a way of getting together to discuss their concerns.
He has also been a very generous contributor to ISNA, ever since 1976,
donating from $1000 to $1,600 every year. After witnessing the depths
to which ISNA has fallen, Dr. Shabazz decided that he will not attend
any more ISNA conventions. Here are his comments to New Trend:
"An outstanding impression of the most recent ISNA Convention is its
excessive nationalism, American nationalism. It appeared as if the
hearts of the ISNA leaders were bleeding for the victims of 9.11.
The program began with a moment of silence for the victims of 9.11.
Of course our hearts bleed for the victims of 9.11, not because they
were Americans but because they were human beings. Each victim had a
family. Each stone which fell down from the towers carried with it
tragedy and suffering for numerous families. The firemen sacrificed
themselves. We as Muslims cannot bear to see even the suffering of an
animal, let alone that of of so many human beings. However, as Muslims
our humanity cannot be limited to American victims. Nationalism is
negation, not an affirmation of our faith. We are citizens of the
world and our humanity cries out for all victims, all human beings.
In ISNA there was no mourning for Afghanistan. Thousands of civilians
have been killed in the American bombing of Afghanistan. The terror
launched by B-52 bombers dealing death and destruction to a
defenseless nation must stir our humanity. PALESTINE is central to the
hearts of every Muslim. The
Israeli
crimes against Palestinian women, children and men are a daily
occurrence. Israeli armor is standing outside the homes of the
Palestinian people. Almost the entire population has been placed under
curfew in violation of internationally accepted norms of behavior. I
saw no concern in ISNA's convention about Palestine comparable to the
concern about being seen as American patriots. The SLOW DEATH OF
IRAQI PEOPLE is a crime unequalled in recent history. More than a
million Iraqi children have died as the result of 42 days of bombing
of Iraq by the U.S. and a ruthless embargo and sanctions over 11 years.
There was not even a symbolic expression of concern for Iraq. Local
American concerns too were ignored, the most blatant of which was the
evasion of any concern for the railroading of
Imam Jamil al-Amin.
Other than avoidance of issues, ISNA also expressions of unIslamic
behavior. One of the most sickening presentations was made by
Hamza Yousuf. It was like a Muslim wrapped in the American flag. He
simply did not concern him with the causes of 9.11, as if it simply
happened for no reason. The organizers CLAPPED for Hamza Yusuf and
STOOD UP FOR HIM as if they were welcoming a celebrity in a fashion
unacceptable in Islam. Americans have shown a different character in the
past: Muhammad Ali refused to fight for America and is today honored
for his dissidence. Elijah Muhammad too prison over patriotism. The
behavior of a woman named Ingrid Mattson created a depressing atmosphere
in the convention. She was up on the podium very frequently, speaking in
a whining and moaning manner. I have been told that she is the
Vice President of the organization. Many of the people who are active
in this Convention seem to have ignored the Islamic teaching of their
children. Their children were running around totally uncontrolled in the
hotel areas, making noise, disturbing people and behaving like riff raff.
In conclusion, ISNA's Convention was on the wrong track. Even its theme
of "Peace and Justice" was wrong. Peace can never come first. Justice
must come first. As our popular movements declare: "NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE."
Peace first and then justice is the slogan of the terrorist Sharon. We
as Muslims must remember that we are part of an Ummah, the Ummah of
Muhammad (peace be on him). We cannot isolate ourselves from the world.
We must not behave as if oppression does not exist or as if terrorism
emerges for no reason out of nowhere."
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2. Sis. Motisola M. Abdallah, Secretary General of Jamaat al-Muslimeen
and activist in the cause of Imam Jamil al-Amin, has written this open
letter to the ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) bosses about their
cooperation with the FBI: Are you the Islamic or the Insane Society of
North America? Allowing the FBI to recruit at your convention has just
put you at the top of the list of fools. I've attended a couple of your
conventions in the past years and really enjoyed the social atmosphere
and bonding with fellow Muslims and that is where you should have stayed.
Venturing out into the political waters as protectors of the people of
the Book against your own community has proven shameful, disgraceful and
un-Islamic. I challenge any of you to provide me with clear evidence
from the Qur'an and Sunnah to the contrary. America marks its one-year
anniversary lesson on learning it is not God; its foreign policy is
oppressive, its security forces are un-reliable. Along with this
anniversary lesson, an increasing number of politicians, writers,
scholars, students, and organizations are questioning President
Bush
and the FBI's motives for this war. Even the
Zionist-controlled
demonic
media
has been forced to broadcast an ever so slight shift in the waning
support for this government. And then there is ISNA bringing up its
rear to help the FBI. ISNA, research and remember the history of the
slave holocaust. One way this country was allowed to continue this
evil practice was due to the help of the overseer. The overseer,
a slave, assisted the government and slave owners in keeping and
capturing other slaves. When the slave master no longer needed the
overseer, he killed him. The FBI led a war against New Africans
(African-Americans) in this country from 1930 to the present day. These
actions by the FBI were on the suspicion that Blacks were terrorists and
a threat to homeland security. Research the FBI's history for yourself.
Our own Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a true Islamic scholar, warrior and
activist is in prison in Georgia on trumped up murder charges. If ISNA
cared about him and spent time following his case, then and now, you
would know that his case reeks with FBI contrivances. Was there a booth
for him at your convention? Many of you forgot, since coming to this
country, about your own family and homeland history of oppression and
murder by the government. This government and the FBI is the
personification of evil. Now the new targets are Muslims and Islam around
the world. To detain people without legal representation is
unconstitutional, to torture or so-called interrogate people is
inconceivable for those having any human concept; to drop bombs on
innocent countries at will is barbaric and evil. This war has brought
America no rewards for its actions and never will. However, it has
brought hunger, displacement, mental anguish and murder to millions of
our fellow brothers and sisters around the world. Read what the
Qur'an says about forbidding evil. Do you have any sense? ISNA these
actions you have taken of aiding and soliciting our people to enjoin
evil can only gain you rewards in this life. If you think you are
protecting American Muslims by cooperating with the enemy in this
twisted manner, I don't want your kind of protection. I suggest you
get out of the political field. Stay with your annual social club
gatherings. However, if you were really sincere and true to yourself
with trying to help Muslims, you would close the door to your
organization for good.
----------------------------------------------------
NADRAT SIDDIQUE is a university student . She has worked at the
grassroots for the rights of the victims of the U.S. power structure
all the way from Leonard Peltier to
Shaikh Omar 'Abdel Rahman.
She is active in the struggle against the pervasive racism of America.
3. On Monday, September 9, I heard a report on New York's WBAI radio that
once again reminded me of the racism of New York's "just-us" system.
Thirteen years ago, a jogger was brutally raped and beaten while running
through New York's Central Park. A group of young men--all of them were
Black and Latino--who were present in the park at the time, were rounded
up and charged in the incident. The case caught my attention and affected
my sensibilities, since I felt some commonality with the victim: I am a
woman and runner. But I also felt commonality with the accused: I am a
person of color, well aware of the military-industrial complex, which
builds prisons and bombs for my people, while shutting down schools,
libraries, and projects for self-determination, from the MOVE house to
Jamil El-Amin's community. In several months of pre-trial publicity,
the accused men were demonized by New York's local media as a "wolf pack"
which surrounded the jogger, and brutally beat and raped her. The same
media used the words "urban terrorists" for the young men and and
depicted them as animals, preying on a poor defenseless (white) woman.
The men were eventually tried, convicted, and warehoused for the duration
of their youth. The convictions were based primarily on confessions
obtained from the defendants, all of whom later recanted and said that
they'd been coerced into admissions of guilt. Soon after,
multimillionaire industrialist Donald Trump placed a full page ad in the
New York Times calling for the re-instatement of the death penalty in
the state of New York. Lynchings are facilitated by their legalization.
According to the WBAI report, a convicted rapist already serving time
for another rape/murder has now come forward and confessed to committing
the crime singlehandedly. DNA analysis of semen samples taken from the
jogger's sock, and from her vagina, positively identify him as the rapist,
and exonerates ALL of the young men who were convicted in the case.
The manner of the beating/rape of the Central Park jogger also correlate
exactly to the modus operandi of the man making the confession.
Additionally, the confessed rapist always worked alone, never with
others in targetting his victims. Amazingly, DNA tests, although they
were clearly available at the time of the original trial, were not
performed at the time. The media and local politicians from both major
political parties worked in tandem in the absence of any hard evidence,
stirring up public sentiment at the spector of a pack of dangerous
black men hunting down and brutalizing a defenseless white woman. The
injustice of so many innocent black men languishing in America's
prisons reminded me of another infamous raidroading which took place
in the very same legal jurisdiction. It was New York's racist "justice"
system which locked up the blind Islamic scholar and hafiz
(reciter of Qur'an) Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman--robbing him not only of his
freedom, but his right to free speech, his health, and his humanity,
all in the absence of any hard evidence. Dr. Abdel Rahman, who spoke out
against the dictatorship in his native
Egypt,
like the young men in the Central Park jogger case was similarly tried by
media, and convicted by a kangaroo court in a climate of anti-Arab
hysteria. As in the case of the Central Park jogger, the media and the
politicians dishonestly and relentlessly exploited public emotions and
fears, labeled, libeled, lied, and smeared him to his conviction.
On September 9, after years of unjust incarceration, the real victims
of the Central Park jogger case were finally exonerated. But we must
fight for the freedom of Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman, and countless other
political prisoners and prisoners of conscience held within the American
Gulag. NONE OF US ARE FREE--TILL ALL OF US ARE FREE! (With special thanks
to WBAI's "Democracy Now".)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Nadrat Siddique email:
siddiqun@wam.umd.edu
If you blow out the candles in my eyes, If you freeze all the kisses
on my lips, If you fill my native air with lisping curses, Or silence
my anguish, Forge my coin, Uproot the smile from my children's faces.
If you raise a thousand walls, And nail my eyes to humiliation,
Enemy of man, I shall not compromise And to the end I shall fight.
--Samir Al-Qassem
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4. Br. Eric Mueller presented very ably at the 9.11 conference
organized by David Irving in Cincinnati. He is the critic of the
Arabic document which the FBI claims was written by Muhammad Atta.
Br. Meuller, who has studied in Madina, convincingly argued that the
FBI document was probably a fabrication concocted by Israel. Here is
his comment on what he has seen of "major Muslim groups" in this country.
I have been exploring your website "New Trend" and I want to tell you
how very, very pleased I am to see it. Let me tell you a little about
myself and explain why. I was born of German parentage in the
United States back in the 1950s and came back to Islam (for we are all
born in fitrah) when I was a 16-year old secondary school student. That
has been more than 30 years ago, and, as they say, much water has
flowed under the bridge since then. Thirty years ago I became involved
with the Muslim Students Association
(MSA).
At that time I think most members were indeed students from overseas,
single and full of youthful idealism and zeal. Support for the
Palestinian struggle was taken for granted, as was an opposition,
almost a paranoia, of anything that smacked of Zionism. The US
leadership's foreign adventures were, to say the least, most unpopular.
I remember when at one MSA meeting we evicted some representative of the
Shah's regime who had apparently invited himself in to speak, and who
urged us to be "proud" of oppressive, pro-imperialist regimes. Nor
were Muslims only concerned with the fate of Islamic countries. I have
fond memories of a little mosque on the south side of Chicago where they
would check out newsreel films from the public library about the then
on-going US aggression against Viet Nam. The brothers and sisters of the
jamaah there would watch the film and make amusing jokes about the
swaggering American generals and their minions who were using masive
brute force in a futile effort to crush the will of the Vietnamese
national liberation forces. At that time I was definitely not alone
among the Muslims in my determination not to be drafted to go and fight
for the subjugation of the countries of Indochina by the rulers of the
United States, who did not in their aggression act on behalf of the
American people but out of a desire to feather their own already
substantial private nests. The first US presidential election in which I
was eligible to vote was the race between the "ultra liberal"
George McGovern and the incumbent war president Richard Nixon. Although
I was inclined to support McGovern's anti-war stance, I ended up not
voting at all, because shortly before the election McGovern voiced
support for sending troops to Israel should the Jewish state request
such aid. Although that prospect was so remote as to be completely
theoretical, I could not in good conscience vote for a man who said
he was willing to halt one immoral, aggressive war in order to get
involved in another. Decades passed. I went to various universities
(including for a year the Islamic University in al-Madina, Saudi Arabia).
Later I went off to east Asia where I worked for many years as a writer
and editor with a trade publishing company. A few years ago I returned
to the US. Now using the new medium of the internet, I sought out those
Islamic associations that had informed and enlivened my youth. I was to
be severely shocked. I found various organizations on the internet
purporting to represent the Muslims of the United States. Some were
urging all Muslims to go out and register to vote. Now, I have no
objection whatever to that, but these websites maintained that it "didn't
matter" whether the Muslims voted for Democrats or Republicans or anyone
else, merely that they get involved in the political system. To me
this made no sense whatsoever. If there is a reason for getting involved
in American politics, surely it is to change the current reality which,
as I see it, is far from ideal on many levels. In that case, it very
definitely matters how we use our votes, and unfortunately all too often
the Democratic and Republican candidates are adamantly opposed to the
basic interests and values that I had hoped the Muslims would continue
to cherish. Therefore the last thing we should urge brothers and sisters
to do is to get involved so as to become like driftwood, tossed about
by the waves of the American political establishment as they churn back
and forth -- frequently devastating the lives of our fellow Believers
in other countries. Indeed how was I to feel when I read of Muslims
"proudly serving" in the American military as it decimated the fraternal
Iraqi people with its high-tech weaponry? I had joined many other
Muslims in refusing to fight what we saw was a brutal war to subjugate
the Vietnamese -- most of whom are not linked to us by religion or
nationality, though they shared our common humanity. Yet today I find
"Islamic" groups and individuals urging us to send our sons (and
daughters, too, I suppose!) off to wars that are tearing apart the
villages, homes, and very bodies of our fellow Muslims! Nor does the
absurdity end there. Shortly after signing up for e-mail information
from one Islamic site, I received a notice about a group of "Muslim Jews,"
i.e., people who had been Jews but were said to have embraced Islam, who
were interested in doing da'wah to other Jews to bring them into Islam.
Repeatedly the article used the expression "Muslim Jews" or "Jewish
Muslims." I thought the confusion there was pretty obvious, but just to
make sure that the matter was clear to everybody, I wrote a friendly
letter to the source of that article (which I must tell you claimed to
be the MSA) to say that when a person of whatever background embraces
Islam and says the shahadatayn, he or she is a Muslim, not some
hyphenated Presbyterian-Muslim or Baptist-Muslim, or Catholic-Muslim or
Atheist-Muslim or Jewish-Muslim. I said that it was of course
commendable that these Muslims of Jewish origin sought to draw Jews
into Islam (though I saw no reason to focus solely on Jews), but that
it should be clear that they were now Muslims and not some strange
hybrid called a "Muslim Jew." I expected my letter would be warmly
received. Alas, I was wrong. I quickly received a very angry and
outraged reply (from that supposed writer in the MSA). He asked me out
of the blue whether I wanted to kill all the Jews in ovens! I couldn't
imagine how my call for accepting converts from Jewish backgrounds as
full brothers and sisters in Islam could be construed as advocating
their mass murder! I had said nothing of the kind, of course. Yet this is
what I was confronted with, simply because I insisted, on the basis of
the practice of the early Muslims as far as I was familar with it, that
there was no such thing as a "Jewish Muslim." All these experiences in the
last few years have been very disheartening, I must say. I wondered how
it was that those zealous Muslims I had known thirty years ago had
vanished into the mists of the past -- indeed the not-so-remote past,
actually. Fortunately, all is not lost, for I have now become acquainted
with your site, brother. I would very much like to subscribe and to join
the
Jamaat al-Muslimeen
so that perhaps we can return to a situation where we are not expected
to leave our values and convictions at the gate when we get off the
plane in America.
----------------------------------------------------
IMMIGRANT PAKISTANIS in Toronto have asked Br. Iqbal Khan,
Why NEW TREND editors are not arrested for publishing so much
criticism of the U.S. government. For Pakistanis this might be
difficult to understand.. Let me give them an example. Pakistan is based,
theoretically, on Islam. If Pakistan were to start arresting people
for praying and fasting, the country would fall apart. So the
Pakistani government does not oppose praying and fasting. It simply
makes sure that those who pray and fast should NOT GET UNITED,
ORGANIZED and in leadership positions. Similarly, USA is based on
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, FREEDOM of ASSEMBLY and ASSOCIATION. The U.S.
would fall apart if these basic rights were removed. So what the people
in power do is to make dissenting voices ineffective. For instance,
the major media are controlled by the Jews. If you write for
New Trend, you will NOT be published in the New York Times or any
other mass circulation American paper. Even a Jewish dissident like
Noam Chomsky
is kept out of the major media.
Ramsey Clark
is almost unheard of on the TV screens, although he was once attorney
general. If the U.S. regime does not like someone's views, it tries to
find some legal problem with him. Ahmed Abdel Sattar is in prison because
he talked with some people on the phone whom the U.S. considers
"terrorist." Nasser Ahmed was kept in prison for nearly 4 years because
the government found something wrong with his papers from 8 years back.
The real purpose was to shut his mouth. So freedom of speech is there but
there has to be a big struggle to make it real. Even a great historian
like David Irving is denied air time because the Jews do not like his
research. There is no need to arrest people when they can be made
ineffective. Dear Pakistanis, do not be afraid to speak. If you are
scared, send your donation to New Trend and we'll spread the word on
your behalf. ----Editor
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2002-09-12 Thu 08:00ct