Rabi' al-Awwal 7, 1425/ April 28, 2004 #52
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THOUGHT OF THE DAY:
IQBAL taught the real way to PEACE

April 21 was the anniversary of Allama Iqbal, the poet who dreamed of Pakistan, a separate homeland for the Muslims of India. The groundwork of Iqbal's ideas was the concept of KHUDI or selfhood. The Hindus, he taught, must recognize that Muslims have a right to self-determination, that Muslims are different from Hindus in all aspects of their lives. ISLAM IS UNIVERSAL yet SPECIFICALLY DIFFERENT from paganistic religions.
INDIA has still not learned that tolerance and peace should not be based on the idea that we are all alike. Peace will come only when our DIFFERENCES are accepted and the Muslim right to self-determination is not a controversial issue.
AMERICANS too can learn from Iqbal. Peace means that we will accept the KHUDI of each people, the selfhood of each way of life. As long as America wants peace through imposition of its way of life on others, there will be no peace. America's GLOBAL CONSUMERISM is up against ISLAMIC UNIVERSALISM based on the unity of the Muslim Ummah, ONE GOD, ONE BOOK, ONE SUNNAH, ONE QIBLA, from Morocco to the Philippines, from Chechnia to Nigeria, ONE NATION.
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TRY THIS ONE FOR FUNNY!
Watch Iraqi resistance in Fallujah, Najaf, Mosul, Baghdad, U.S. troops breaking into homes to search for "suspects," Iraqis celebrating the destruction of 4 U.S. humvees in Baghdad, and then read this:
"We are in the early phase of Iraq's reconstruction." [Mr. Negraponte, U.S. "ambassador" to be for Baghdad, April 28, MSNBC.]
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INSIDE THE NEWS ON U.S. TV [by our media monitor]

MOSQUE "Liberated" by U.S. Troops

April 27, 2004: Did CNN know what it was showing or did the pictures get through because the editors didn't know what it was? CNN showed heavily armed U.S. troops walking around in a mosque in Fallujah. There were no signs of any weapons or any kind of litter or signs of use in the mosque. The prayer mats were neatly arranged in the clean, well-kept mosque as the Americans moved around in their battle gear, their heavy boots looking out of place in the area of peace where Muslims worship the Creator of the universe.
AC-130 GUNSHIP ATTACK EXCITES U.S. TV Producers

For more than six hours on April 27, CNN, FOX and MSNBC seemed thrilled by photo clips of U.S. helicopter gunships pouring dozens of shells into two houses in a slum in northwest Fallujah. Again and again and again American TV channels showed the gunship attack and the ensuing explosions and flashes.

[In most civilizations, the picture of a heavily armed force trying to smash someone who does not have the weaponry to shoot down a helicopter gunship would draw a reaction of revulsion and disgust. America is probably the only country in the world where the bully is admired. Perhaps it has something to do with the history of slavery and the annihilation of the American "Indians." - Editor]

ATTACK IN DAMASCUS, SYRIA: NEWS QUICKLY SANITIZED
Something very unusual happened in Damascus on April 27. First news reports indicated as follows:

1. A series of explosions in the area where embassies of Iran and Canada are located.
2. Sounds of small arms fire.
3. Gun battle between Syrian troops and a "terrorist group".

Syria quickly sealed off the area and cut off the news reporting. [Remember that "terrorist" nowadays is a euphemism middle eastern governments use for Islamic resistance.]
Few people know that Syria's regime is aligned to the U.S. and Israel although it pours out propaganda about Palestine. One proof is that in the last TWENTY FIVE YEARS there has been no clash between the Syrians and the Israelis: Not one shot fired! Syria wiped out Islamic opposition in Hamah in 1982. According to Patrick Seale, in his book ASSAD, the regime built swimming pools and gyms on the sites of mosques in Hamah. [Seale is an admirer of Assad.]

SLAUGHTER OF SHIA RESISTANCE NEAR NAJAF

On the outskirts of Najaf, April 27, the U.S. claims to have killed 64 Shia gunmen who were fighting a U.S. tank column. The U.S. forces called in helicopter gunships to hit the resistance. It seems that the Shia fighters were fighting out in the open and disregarded the rules of guerrilla warfare. The killing of so many people indicates that more people will join the fight. Gradually the influence of Moqtada al-Sadr is increasing. The key cities of Najaf, Kerbala and Kufa seem to be in his control.

The Americans have been working to neutralize Al-Sadr through the pro-Iran Ayatollah Sistani whom the U.S. supports. However, Sistani's influence is being eroded. A U.S. attack on Najaf would tip the balance in favor of Al-Sadr. Thus the U.S. seems to have worked itself into a no win situation: If U.S. forces stay outside Najaf and slowly whittle down Al-Sadr's supporters, support for Al-Sadr will keep growing, though slowly. His khutbas are attracting large crowds. If the U.S. grows impatient and attacks, the Shias might go over en bloc to Al-Sadr.
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MUSLIM UPRISING IN SOUTH THAILAND or Police Atrocity?

The BBC is reporting [April 28] that nearly 100 Muslims have been killed by Thai troops in the deep southern district of Narathiwat. The reporting coming out of government sources in Thailand which the BBC used doesn't make sense. According to these reports, the Muslims ATTACKED Thai police stations with KNIVES and HATCHETS. The police, armed with automatic rifles, gunned them down. Only 4 police officers were killed.

It sounds like a government massacre meant to crush the Muslims who have been, for decades, demanding independence from the corrupt Thai state.
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QADDAFI A GOOD DICTATOR NOW?

The Libyan dictator is touring Europe. Suddenly he became a good guy. What happened? He is still a dictator and practices arbitrary arrest and torture against suspected opponents, according to Amnesty.

His secret lies in the agreement he made with Bush and Blair. Under the drama of giving up WMDs (left overs from 1992 when he allegedly got some technological help from Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan) is hidden Qaddafi's real reason for the alliance with the West: He wants American-British help to fight "terrorism." Indications are that the Libyan people are sick of his repression, the popularity of the Islamic resistance has increased, and the sickly looking dictator faced overthrow when he apparently decided to seek CIA protection.
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KILLING MISS LIBERTY
Bush Moves Against Freedom in Haiti & Palestine
by Edward Miller, San Rafael, California
[Dr. Miller is a veteran contributor to New Trend]

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. it is force. Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master"

George Washington

"I’m the commander, see, I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the President. I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

President Bush II to the National Security Council

The past weeks have witnessed two severe intrusions into the liberties of people already under siege. In Haiti on the 28th of February, a callous Washington, following the dictates of our mercantile lobby, forcibly removed Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the duly-elected president of this Caribbean state, despite criticism from the entire OAS group of countries. Washington thus deprived the Haitians of a helmsman devoted to lifting his people from the bottom of the economic ladder. International as well as American companies in Haiti were enjoying the lowest wages in the hemisphere, even lower than those paid in the maquilladoras in Mexico. By controlling tariffs, the US allowed US-subsidized agricultural products to flood Haitian markets, putting native farmers out of business. Aristide’s fight for a minimum wage, plus his demands from Chirac's France that they repay the Haitians for the bounty demanded of them by France almost two hundred years ago, did not please the White House.

Bush’s second blow against a people’s liberties took place this week in Washington, during the visit of Israel’s murderous Prime Minister. Our President, eyes fixed firmly on the Jewish vote in November, drove a dagger into the heart of the suffering Palestine population, reversing the long-acknowledged US support for a Palestinian State, and again rudely elbowing aside the UN which had long-demanded ( Resolution 242 ) the Israelis get back behind their 1967 border and quit their illegal settlements.

Sharon’s plan, endorsed by Bush, withdraws Jewish settlers from the Gaza slum, but retains Israel control of Gaza ‘s border with Egypt, the Gaza airport and access to the Mediterranian, effectively imprisoning the Palestinian population. Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements will expand to accommodate the Jews from Gaza. This further theft of Palestinian land with extensions of Sharon’s wall, will reduce Palestinian holdings to less than 25% of that promised by the UN. It will also isolate Palestinian cities, one from another with Israel-controlled highways and military check points, creating the same bantustan separation the Jews helped arrange in South Africa to prevent native African tribes from assuming any political power.
The degree to which Bush, has become "a ventriloquist’s dummy in Sharon’s lap", as columnist Charley Reese so aptly put it, was brought more sharply into focus this week as both Britain’s Prime Minister and the Palestinians were left out of the Washington loop "when Sharon’s people met two members of the Security Council and a senior American diplomat in Washington’s Hay Adams Hotel to thrash out an agreement before Sharon arrived 48 hours later... Blair gave no hint of bitterness in the Rose Garden press conference." ( reported by Henry Porter in THE OBSERVER April 18th)

Meanwhile in the ongoing Iraqi quagmire instead of a disciplined occupation force as in the British sector, America’s immature 18 and 19-year old soldiers, frightened and disorganized by the unexpected and sporadic violence being visited upon them by a population they came "to free from tyranny", have been firing indiscriminately into civilian crowds, or kicking and blasting down doors, terrifying Iraqi families at night. Isolated from the Iraqi population while cowering behind razor wire and concrete bunkers in hundreds of policing stations around the City, these soldiers are the worse possible advertisement for democracy. Meanwhile, military and mercenary police hired by US firms are still being targetted by grenades, missiles and remote-controlled bombs.

Baghdad is a city under siege, its bridges across the Tigress bombed out by both our military and the "insurgents", its roadways militarily blocked off by our Marines and its population often confined to their homes making it impossible to obtain either food or water.

Our President, who prior to his Iraqi invasion had arrogantly sidetracked the United Nations while pushing aside both France and Germany, now, hat-in-hand, is asking for a bailout from all three.

Paul Bremer, administrator to Iraq, under pressure from our military, from religious leaders of both Shiite and Sunni groups and from American firms whose mercenary protectors are being killed left and right, has been forced to dissolve the appointed "Governing Council" which was rejected by the Iraqi people. Bremer is hoping, with the assistance of the new mediator from the UN, Lockdar Brahini, to arrange another temporary governing group more acceptable to the Iraqis as Ayatolla Sustain and the Shiite majority press more and more for early elections.

Several groups are organizing across this country to rally Americans behind a movement to impeach President George W. Bush, rather than rely on the hope he will be defeated in November. As a freedom-loving people with a long history of fighting to keep our democratic way of life , we can no longer tolerate this dangerous clown in the White House.

"Government even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worse state, an intolerable one." ... "It is the responsibility of a patriot to protect his country from its government"

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
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2004-04-29 Thu 17:48ct