Jamaat al-Muslimeen International Press Release (www.newtrendmag.org)
Islamic World Still Does not See America as Enemy
Muslims are not Fighting Christians or Jews but Oppressors
Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq are Muslim Lands
Dr. Kaukab Siddique Gets Standing Ovation at Peace Conference
Peace with Justice Center of Pomona Valley (near Los Angeles,
California) is active in the peace movement. Christian groups,
pacifists,
Green Party supporters, left wingers and others have extended the hand
of
friendship to Muslims and have been critical of president Bush's "War
Against
Terrorism."
These efforts for peace with justice stood out successfully at the
annual
gathering of the Peace with Justice Center in La Verne, California on
March
2, 2002. The tickets for the event were sold out. The success of this
peace
movement is owing to the efforts of the Executive Committee led by Imam
Ali
(Chairperson), Sean Guillroy, (Vice Chairperson), Marilyn Schirk
(secretary)
and Mary Smeltzer (treasurer).The Board of Directors also deserves
congratulations on the success of the Peace congregation. The members
of the
Board are John Quiring, Charmain Johnson, Mary Smeltzer, Marjorie
Mikels,
Nora Quinn and Elroy Huebner.
An exotic dinner for the occasion was provided by a local Afghan
restaurant.
Dr. Kaukab Siddique, from Lincoln University, was the keynote
speaker.
The theme was "IS PEACE A CHALLENGE TO U.S. FOREIGN POLICY?" Dr.
Siddique
spoke for an hour and then took questions for another 45 minutes. His
speech
was punctuated with repeated applause and at the conclusion he received
a
standing ovation with a smattering of takbirs from a few Muslims in the
gathering.
{Earlier on March 1, Dr. Siddique gave the Juma' khutba at Irvine,
south
of Los Angeles, and that evening spoke on the situation in Pakistan to
a
Muslim gathering in Corona, south east of Los Angeles}
Dr. Siddique made the following points to the Peace gathering:
1. For peace with justice, military force is not the answer.
2. If the U.S. has evidence against Osama which can stand up in court,
it
should take the evidence to an impartial World Court.
3. Instead the U.S. is pursuing an open-ended war against Islam which
is
unwinnable.
4. The Bush coalition against "terrorism" is a collection of rogues,
cutthroats, torturers and dictators, among them the Stalinist in
Uzbekistan,
the dictator-clique in Tajikistan, the military coup leader in
Pakistan, the
torturer in Egypt, the hereditary king in Jordan and the feudal family
in
Saudi Arabia.
5. THE MUSLIM WORLD DOES NOT HATE AMERICA OR AMERICANS: In fact the
Muslims
are having a problem seeing America as the enemy. Bush is generating
the new
image of America as an enslaving and arrogant power. Islam has hardly
started
fighting back.
6. ISLAM DOES NOT ALLOW RELIGIOUS WARS. No Islamic group, however
radical, is
teaching Muslims to kill Christians, Jews or Hindus just because they
follow
those religions.
7. Jihad means armed struggle for self-defense and against oppressors.
8. MUSLIMS ARE NOT TRYING TO TAKE ANYONE'S LAND. All the conflict is on
Muslim lands such as Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
9a. ISLAMIC INTERNATIONALISM is a riposte to the multinational
corporate
state and worldwide marketing of consumerism. Islam is not in
opposition to
any religion, least of all the religion of Jesus (peace be on him).
9. For a secure future, the world must ACCEPT THE PRINCIPLE OF
SELF-DETERMINATION. Americans have the right to shape their society as
they
wish. Similarly Muslims have the right to shape theirs according to the
Qur'an and the example of Muhammad (pbuh).
10. Zionist controlled media in America are a major problem and make it
impossible for Americans to see reality. There is 24/7 xenophobia aimed
at
Islam and Muslims on the Zionist controlled, dominated media.
11. As the World Conference Against Race (WCAR) showed, the Bush and
Sharon
duo are international pariahs, denying Africa and Palestine their basic
rights to reparations and return.
12. U.S. support for Israel is totally counterproductive. Israel is a
colonial outpost in a post-colonial world. Jews have lived in harmony
with
Muslims in Palestine for centuries but there is no scope within the
vision of
peace for a Zionist armed ingathering rattling the most modern "sabres"
produced by the U.S. Palestine belongs to Palestinians.
13. American armadas have no place in the middle east. They must be
withdrawn
for the sake of peace. Whom do they want to fight when no one is
fighting
them?
14. The bombing of Iraq followed by the slow death of 1,000,000 Iraqi
civilians, many of them children, over a ten year period, is a crime
against
humanity whose perpetrators in Washington need to be tried in a world
court.
15. The trial of Imam Jamil al-Amin is a farce. It signals the internal
expansion of the war against Islam which will traumatize the
African-American
community as much as the Arab and Pakistani communities have been
disturbed
by FBI activity after 9/11.
16. The Bush administration is covering up its ineptitude and failure
in
stopping the 9/11 attacks by raising up the banners of fascism where
the
liberties and rights of the American people are being trampled
underfoot.
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An audiotape of Dr. Siddique's speech is available for $1 postage from:
New
Trend, POB 356, Kingsville, MD 21087
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Dr. Kaukab Siddique has published a series of books on the religion,
culture,
history and politics of the middle east and South Asia. His best known
is THE
STRUGGLE OF MUSLIM WOMEN which documents the equality of men and women
from
the Qur'an and the Hadith.
An INDONESIAN TRANSLATION of The Struggle of Muslim Women was completed
by a
professor in Muhammadiyyah in February 2002. Earlier a BANGLA
translation was
published in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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Note our web site address, slightly changed: www.newtrendmag.org
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2002-03-17 Sun 19:35ct