Shawwal 11, 1425/ November 24, 2004 #115
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SIX FASTS IN SHAWWAL
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) used to fast on six days during the month of 
Shawwal.
[Source: Sahih Muslim.]
The purpose is to build on the month long fasting in 
Ramadan. 
As the 
Hadith 
implies, it is meant to prepare the Muslim to be in a condition of 
fasting and awareness throughout the year.
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SUDANESE 
CHARITY ORGANIZATION COMPLAINS OF UNJUST and ILLEGAL ACTION BY the 
U.S
November 22: Speaking to journalists in Khartoum, Sudan, Director of 
the Islamic African Relief Agency 
[IARA], 
Muhammad Ibrahim Suleman, said that the U.S. government did not 
investigate the charity or inform it that there were any charges 
against it. Just before Ramadan, the five man office of IARA in 
Columbia, Missouri was suddenly closed down by the U.S. Suleman said 
that we learned from the 
MEDIA 
that the U.S. was charging IARA with links to Osama bin Laden and 
terrorism. The Director said there is absolutely no basis to the 
charges against IARA.
[New Trend 
analysts say: The U.S. imaking making big propaganda about 
"genocide" in Darfur, Sudan but it closed down a charity which was 
actually helping the people of Darfur. The message seems to be: No 
Islamic charity should be permitted to help the suffering Muslim ummah.]
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"IMAM" W. D. MUHAMMAD's KUFR: He Cannot accept that there won't be 
any Messenger after Muhammad [pbuh]!
[Eyewitness account.]
On November 10, 2004, speaking at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, 
W.D. Muhammad, who is often presented in his own magazine 
Muslim Journal 
as the "leader" of the 
Muslims of America, 
declared with great emphasis that it is wrong to believe that there 
will be no messenger after Muhammad [peace be on him]! 
Very few students and none of the Muslim faculty attended the meeting, 
but the Muslim students who were there were shocked to hear 
W.D. Muhammad's beliefs from his own lips. 
The belief that Islam has been completed and perfected is CENTRAL to 
Islam. When Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadiani tried to claim that "revelation" 
could come to him too, the Pakistani people led by Maulana Maudoodi and 
others had a popular law passed that anyone who claims that there was 
a prophet or a messenger after Muhammad [pbuh] cannot be considered a 
Muslim
[To be continued.]
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MARGARET HASSAN's KIDNAPING and MURDER WAS OPPOSED BY ALL 
ISLAMIC 
RESISTANCE GROUPS.
The murderers USED it to DEFLECT ATTENTION FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF 
FALLUJAH
By Yvonne Ridley
[The writer is a journalist of international stature.]
[Exclusive to New Trend.]
I hate conspiracy theories. Most have their roots in the realms of 
fantasy and generally serve no real positive purpose at all. 
For instance, so many people are in denial that the 
9/11 
hijackers were Muslims. 
Why can't people just accept that 19 brothers turned up at the right 
airport, at the right time and boarded the right planes ... yeh, I 
know it's pretty unbelievable - but the truth often is. 
If we believe some conspiracy theories, the Pentagon was never hit 
... well if that's the case it developed a severe termite problem on 
September 11 2001! 
But every now and again some event happens which really does defy all 
logic. 
For instance, let's examine the brutal kidnap and murder of 
Margaret Hassan. 
On the surface we have an Irish-born woman with dual British and 
Iraqi 
nationality who is picked up from the streets of Baghdad as she goes 
about her work for a charity. 
What sets Margaret aside from other westerners is that she was not 
really Irish or British ... she'd gone native. 
Margaret was married to an Iraqi and had lived in Baghdad for 30 years. 
She had also reverted to Islam. 
So in many ways you would have expected her kidnappers to have released 
her almost immediately on realising the Westerner they had seized was 
actually of more use a free woman than a hostage. 
Instead there were harrowing vidoes showing Margaret Hassan to be 
pleading for her life. The videos were slightly different to the other 
videos we have been shown, but the horrific content tends to cloud such 
minor details. 
People were outraged and shocked. Ordinary Iraqis took to the streets 
and marched, demanding her release ... it produced international 
condemnation of the Iraqi resistance wholesale. 
The propaganda was immensley powerful and the harrowing Margaret videos 
certainly had impact. 
Media 
commentators roundly condemned the hostage-takers and all sections of 
the Iraqi resistance found itself covered with the same black propaganda. 
The images were so dreadful it took many peoples' attention away from 
the impending massacre of Fallujah. The timing of her kidnap and 
release of the videos could not have come at a better time for the US 
military planners who were about to lay Fallujah to waste. 
This deliberate, and selective focusing on Margaret, repeated frequently 
on the television news must have had an awesome impact on the viewer. 
Indignation about Fallujah would have melted away, the anger being 
effectively replaced by outrage and horror as we watched Margaret 
pathetically pleading for her life. 
The heart-rending pleas of Margaret were in vain. She is now believed to 
be the first woman killed by kidnappers. 
But there are certain aspects about the Margaret videos which make me 
feel slightly uneasy. 
Firstly all sections of the Iraqi resistance denied any role in 
her captivity from the outset. 
Then we were told that the much-feared and ruthless resistance leader 
Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi issued his own statement ordering her release. 
(If this man tells you to jump you ask: "How high?"). 
Now let's face it - Al-Zarqawi cares less for public opinion than 
George W Bush or Tony Blair so why would he try and distance himself 
from this particular kidnapping? 
Furthermore, another statement issued by his group emphasised that 
they don't hold women prisoners unless they are revealed as spies. 
In fact many of their keys demands have focussed on demanding the 
release of the women who are still being held captive by the US military. 
Should Margaret have been uncovered as some sort of secret agent her 
head would have been lopped off quicker than you could say 007. 
Furthermore, no group has claimed responsibility, which is unprecedented 
in relation to previous cases of hostages. 
And then when her body was found it looked as though she had been shot 
in the back of her head and her corpse mutilated. 
The mutiliation of a dead body is a total no-no in Islam, it is beyond 
scholarly debate, it is simply forbidden. And while the finest Islamic 
minds in the world can argue about the merits of executing Westerners 
(yes, the 
Qur'an 
does say Smite the enemy at the neck), messing around with a dead body 
is totally out. 
So we now have to ask ourselves just who did kidnap Margaret and for 
what purpose? 
And can I just remind you all, I do know what I am talking about. 
During my 10 days in the hands of the Taliban, a dodgy dossier making 
me out to be a super spy was handed over to my captors. 
Whoever compiled all the phoney intelligence went to extreme lengths 
to make a very convincing case that the Taliban had indeed arrested a 
key intelligence officer and not a humble journalist. 
I have since discovered the clumsy attempt was the work of Mossad 
and American intelligence. But in my efforts to track down the authors 
of the dossier I have since been told not to take it too personally! 
Apparently my demise - the more violent my death the better -would have 
silenced the growing anti-war movement in America and Europe and would 
have provided the West with some additionally powerful propaganda 
depicting the Taliban as brutal, evil and haters of women. 
Thank Allah my captors saw through the nonsense - and that is one of 
the main reasons I was released so quickly to the shock and awe of many 
Westerners. 
But let's return to Baghdad. 
Remember the two Italian women taken hostage who were released once it 
was verified that they were innocent of any collaboration? 
According to my man in Baghdad, women are treated with courtesy 
and respect by the 
Mujahideen, 
just as I was by the Taliban. 
Since money was not demanded, you can rule out criminal gangs. 
Examining the videos in detail, Margaret's captors did not use the 
same flags or same modus opperandi as the others, and there were no 
Qur'anic recitals. 
You know I can just sense the clumsy hands of the bungling intelligence 
services at work again. 
Please don't let Margaret's death divert your attention from the real 
war crimes being carried out in Fallujah. 
And if you think I've seriously lost the plot, please read a 
newly-published book by Jon Ronson called: The Men Who Stare At Goats. 
It is a clever, detailed investigation into the increasingly bizarre 
activities of a small group of highly placed men in US intelligence. 
And it reveals the extraordinary legnths these people will go to, to 
win your hearts and minds over this obscene war in Iraq. 
Next time you switch of your television, beware - because you could be 
the next target of mind-bending, thought control police ... that is if 
you haven't been targeted already.
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Strategic Studies
Kerry Admits Osama Video was a factor in his Defeat
Destruction Of Fallujah in 12 Days Indicates 
Bush's 
Next 4 Years
by Butshikan [Idol Breaker]
Many Muslims still don't realize it but President Bush's first four 
years were years of defeat for his policies. He puts on a brave face 
and says, we toppled the Taliban and removed Saddam Hussain. That's too 
simplistic an explanation for what happened. Here is the harsh reality 
of his first four years and the implications it has for his second 
four years.
- 
Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri and al-Qaida in general escaped 
intact from 
Afghanistan 
in spite of the most powerful bombing campaign launched by the U.S. 
Tora Bora indicated not only the grandeur of American firepower but 
its futility in the face of well organized non-State Islamic resistance.
 
- 
The Taliban were not toppled. They left power voluntarily to save 
Afghanistan's cities from the wrath of the U.S. air force. However, 
their armed formations remain intact. The result is that Karzai rules 
Kabul alone and that too under U.S. protection. Nearly 80% of the Pashtun 
areas, the majority of Afghanistan, support the Taliban and likeminded 
groups. Owing to their absence, the recent "elections" were bogus.
 
- 
Saddam was easily removed but in 1998 he had made an alliance with 
Islamic activists and had prepared Iraq for defense AFTER OCCUPATION. 
The result is that today Sunni Iraq fights back against overwhelming 
American force.
 
- 
The U.S. captured hundreds of Islamic activists around the world but 
these were all "suspects." No one of signifance was captured. The only 
U.S. successes have been through General Musharraf who purged his 
intelligence agency [ISI] of Islam-leaning elements and seized Khalid 
Muhammad, Ramzi al-Shibh and others.
 
- 
Worldwide Al-Qaida has been on the offensive, striking Australians 
in Bali, Spaniards in Madrid, Saudi and Euro-American elites in Riyadh 
and European and Turkish elites in Istanbul, etc.
[The Australians withdrew from Afghanistan after the Bali attack and 
the Spaniards from Iraq after Madrid was treated like the US. had 
treated Kandahar.]
 
- 
The most frustrating experience for the U.S. was the inability to 
catch anyone directly related to the 9.11 attacks which were more 
destructive than anything in U.S. history. 
All of America's power structure was impacted by the 9.11 attacks. 
Muhammad Atta and his commando killed 3000 elite Americans , inflicted 
trillions of dollars damage and left the best intelligence agencies in 
the world looking foolish. The President and the Vice President of the 
country had to seek shelter from attackers who were interested in 
houris in Paradise rather comfortable middle class lives.
 
- 
When a despised enemy strikes a deadly blow and gets away with it, and 
that too at a power which has no equal in the world, the results had to 
have been well calculated. It was something like Nat Turner slaughtering 
the slave masters and their families. There was no question of the slave 
masters giving up slavery. He had to be killed. 
The only problem was that Osama did not wait to be killed. His entire 
team, with the exception of Atef and the family of Al-Zawahiri, who 
were killed in U.S. bombing raids, everyone else disappeared.
 
- 
The U.S. did what any deeply goaded, superpower would do. It launched 
its military might first at Afghanistan, and then at 
Jewish 
signal, at Iraq. These were helpless target and the attacks were simply 
meant to show that the U.S. was still a superpower. The plans to attack 
the two countries were already well laid but they took blatant shape 
in response to the 9.11 attacks.
 
- 
JUST BEFORE ELECTION 2004, Osama spoke again. New Trend was the ONLY 
analyst to point out that it was a move to help Bush win.
[New Trend published its report on the Osama video under the subject 
line "Osama Stunner...]
The video seemed to be supporting Kerry but it gave the American 
people the impression that Osama was still a threat
[a Nat Turner threatening great America].
It gave Bush the edge he needed in a tightly fought race.
 
- 
As New Trend pointed out in its coverage of election results, we are 
entering an era of open ended war against Islam. Within 12 days, the 
U.S. wiped out an entire Islamic city, Fallujah. With blood flowing in 
the streets of Iraq, the U.S. is planning to carry out "elections" 
similiar to the ones held by 
Russia 
in 
Chechnia 
and by 
India 
in 
Kashmir. 
It can be done: All the U.S. has to do is to kill, wound, capture and 
terrorize the Iraqi people, and then reward and "elect" the renegades. 
Unlimited funds are available to buy people who are either hungry 
or sold out or scared to death.
 
- 
WHERE OSAMA FAILED: The Muslim masses did not rise up after 9.11. 
None of the pro-U.S. rulers have been toppled. 
The dictators, generals, tyrants and Kings have HAILED BUSH'S RE-ELECTION 
because their survival is linked to four more years for him. 
Osama's FAILURE is linked to the role of 
Iran 
which effectively spread this idea among Muslim elites that the 9.11 
attacks were carried out by by the Jews
[or in its American variation by Bush himself].
 
- 
Hence, many Muslims had no idea why America was so angry at Muslims. 
In 
Pakistan 
and other countries, peaceful demonstrations were held against 
"U.S. aggression." Analysts of demonstrations say that people 
demonstrate only when they expect something from the one they are 
demonstrating against. OSAMA's FAILURE was that the Muslim elites did 
not see 9.11 as the beginning of the war between America and Islam. 
They could not conceptualize the idea of standing up against America
[hence the conspiracy theories.]
 
- 
But OSAMA's STRATEGY is winning in the long run. The RE-ELECTION of 
Bush means that Muslims will either have to fight back or accept slavery. 
Bush means business. The attack on Fallujah in Ramadan, the desecration 
of mosques, the crescendo of attack on the blessed night of Ramadan
[lailatul qadr]
indicates an open challenge to Islam and the Muslim ummah worldwide.
 
- 
The Fallujah assault is also a signal to America's agents, all the way 
from Musharraf to Saudi Abdullah to Jordanian Abdullah, to 
Egypt's 
Mubarak, to India, to Russia, to step up their attacks on Islam more 
openly and boldly.
 
- 
This open and blatant assault on Islam is a strategic blunder by Bush. 
The Muslim masses are in no mood to be cowed down. In Iraq itself, 
the destruction of Fallujah has raised the level of resistance instead 
of crushing it.
 
- 
Bush seems to have picked up his strategy from Sharon. The Israeli Jews 
use tanks to shoot at Palestinian teenagers. Sharon had Shaikh Yassin, 
a quadripalegic in his wheel chair, assassinated, and went on to kill 
a whole range of Palestinian Islamic leaders. Bush seems to have been 
very impressed. Unfortunately for American strategy, Bush did not 
notice that Sharon's murders did not crush the Palestinian spirit of 
resistance. In fact, more Palestinians support Hamas and Islamic Jihad 
than ever before.
 
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Christians who do not Support 
Israel: 
The Presbyterians
On the Web at:
http://www.divestmentproject.org/index.shtml
"The Somerville Divestment Project focuses on grassroots organizing in 
Somerville, Massachusetts. Our goal is to pressure our city to withdraw 
its money from companies that help Israel commit extensive and ongoing 
human rights violations. 
"We have great news. The Presbyterian National Assembly just voted 
491 to 62 for divestment, and we are using this to propel our outreach 
forward in the communities of faith. Archbishop Desmond Tutu's moral 
call for divestment is at the heart of our campaign. 
"We call on our cities, towns, states, as well as unions and socially 
responsible investors to divest from Israeli bonds and companies which 
provide the arms and equipment to carry out Israel's military occupation. 
To this end, we have submitted a Socially Responsible Investment 
Resolution to the Somerville Board of Alderman. We are grateful that 8 
out of 11 Aldermen have chosen to co-sponsor this resolution. 
"Please, support our work to uphold human rights and contribute today.
Calendar
November - December
Nov. 30 "An Evening in Algiers" Fundraiser Details here
Dec 7th Aldermen's Legislative Committee Meeting - City Hall
Dec. 9th Full Board of Alderman Meeting - City Hall more
"New on the Site:
"A Voice from Israel: Shamai K. Leibowitz
"As an Israeli citizen and former tank gunner in the Israeli army, I 
feel the need to explain why I, along with many other Jews, support 
divestment from Israel. 
"We are asking the city of Somerville, as well as other cities and civic 
institutions, to divest from companies involved in selling arms, 
bulldozers and military technologies that are used to by the Israeli army 
to commit war crimes against 
Palestinians. 
As people committed to human rights for all, we call upon Americans to 
demand that their tax-dollars are not invested in companies that sell 
equipment and ammunition that fuel Israel's consistent and appalling 
violations of international law and human rights. 
"As a young soldier serving in the Israeli army, I was ordered to 
commit war crimes in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. My platoon 
meted out collective punishment on whole Palestinian communities, shot 
live ammunition at unarmed civilians, killed women and children, 
enforced prolonged curfews, creating humanitarian disasters, arrested 
and detained Palestinians without charge, demolished their homes, and 
arbitrarily destroyed crops and property. 
"Being an eyewitness to these war crimes led me eventually to announce 
my refusal to serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1994. But 
the Israeli government, unaffected by the growing 'refusenik' movement, 
has continued the dehumanizing Occupation. More than 3.5 million 
Palestinians continued to live under a military regime and were subject 
to bombings of neighborhoods, extra-judicial killings, torture, home 
demolitions, unlawful detentions, deportations and a myriad of human 
rights 
violations. 
"Dozens of Jews were among the many supporters of the divestment 
resolution who gathered in the Somerville City Hall on Monday Nov. 8. I, 
and several others, spoke in favor of this resolution, saying that it 
is precisely because we are Jews and because we truly care about Israel 
that we are asking the City of Somerville to pass this resolution. All 
of us present in Somerville were profoundly hurt when accused of being 
"anti-Semitic" or "anti-Israeli". People abusing the concept of 
"anti-Semitism" in order to support the Israeli government's 
racist 
policy towards the Palestinians do nothing less than desecrate the 
memory of those Jewish victims of real anti-Semitism. 
"I have heard too many times the argument that "now is not the time to 
divest because Israel is involved in a peace process". The "peace process" 
argument was used for dozens of years as an excuse to continue 
inflicting suffering, humiliation and destruction upon the Palestinians 
in the West Bank and Gaza. It is high time to do away with this myth. 
"It has become clear that even during the Oslo process, Israeli 
governments pulled the wool over the world's eyes. Israel continued 
to resettle its own citizens on confiscated Palestinian land in the 
Occupied Territories, in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva 
Convention, while at the same time entrenching a cruel military regime 
in the same areas and punishing 3.5 million Palestinians. 
"It became the primary objective of Israeli propaganda to hide the 
brutal reality of Occupation. To this end, Israeli governments constantly 
came up with "peace plans" and built a sophisticated "we only want peace" 
propaganda machine. However, over time, many of us who lived in Israel 
and visited or served in the Occupied Territories, saw the reality for 
what it is: Israel was intensifying an oppressive military regime over 
millions of Palestinians who were denied all human, civil and political 
rights, while building more Jewish-only settlements for Jews who enjoyed 
full civil and political rights. 
"As an Israeli thoroughly familiar with Israeli politics, I believe that 
selective economic pressure is the most effective way to end the brutal 
Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and bring peace and security to 
Israelis and Palestinians. If the Jewish people are ever to become "a 
light unto nations" (Isaiah 42:6), and return to their core values of 
justice and human dignity, Israelis and Jews of conscience must call 
now for effective measures to end the Occupation of millions of 
Palestinians. I realize how hard it is, conceptually, for American Jews 
to support divestment, but they should understand that these painful 
measures will eventually lead to the path of peace and security. The 
call for divestment reflects true loyalty both to Israel's peaceful 
existence and to the highest Jewish values. I call upon the Jewish 
community, as well as other communities, in the US - if you really want 
to see in your lifetime Israelis living in peace with Palestinians - 
unite with us behind divestment resolutions."
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2004-11-25 Thu 17:51ct