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Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief Jamada al-Awwal 24,1433/April 16, 2012 # 17


Br. Shamim Siddiqi [Long Island, New York] has sent his famous book CALLING HUMANITY to President Obama, urging him to see that Islam alone can solve the problems of the world. Please scroll to end.
Also, we'll be giving out more complimentary copies of CALLING HUMANITY. Write to New Trend for one.


With thanks to NCPCF we give complete text of al-Arian's message. Mentions Dr. Aafia & Ali Timimi. Scroll to end.
For the first time Prof. Sami al-Arian spoke though under house arrest addressing a non-Muslim civil rights group.


Breaking News #1: Pro-Israel Norwegian White Supremacist who killed 77 civilians on trial.

April 16: Anders Breivik, a White Supremacist who killed 77 civilians on July 22, 2011, was brought to trial. He claims that Muslims are taking over Norway and he had to kill the Norwegians who do not support Israel. He came to court dressed up in expensive suit and tie and gave the White Power salute. He looked well fed and had lived for 9 months in prison in hotel-like conditions. He claimed he killed in "self-defense." [Another Zimmerman? Sort of like the Israeli claim that it has to use jet fighters to defend itself against defenseless Palestinians.]


Breaking News #2: Major prison break releases 380 Islamic prisoners [Source : Dawn]

April 15: An estimated 100 Pak Taliban attacked a prison in Bannu, northern Pakistan at fajr and freed 380 Islamic prisoners, among them Adnan Rasheed who had tried to kill General Musharraf, Pakistan's former military dictator. The prison break happened after the Pakistani Taliban fought a two hour gun battle with troops defending the prison. They then demolished the prison walls and gate with RPGs and freed the prisoners who were on death row. Pakistani military reinforcements arrived soon after the break and are trying to re-capture the prisoners though the Pak Taliban say some have already reached Taliban controlled areas.


Breaking News #3: Government decides to open NATO Supply line. Islamics decide to block.

April 14: Pakistani seculars and Islamics are going head to head again. The parliament, which backs the US and is largely secular has decided to re-open the NATO supply line to Afghanistan. The Islamic movement known as the Defense of Pakistan council has announced that it will block the supply route. Jamaate Islami, ad-Dawa, JUI [Samiul Haque] lead this movement but the entire spectrum of Islamic groups has joined it.
On this date, the "block NATO" movement showed its strength by holding a mass rally on the highway from Peshawar which was addressed by prominent Islamic leaders.
April 15: Syed Munawar Hasan spoke to a big rally in Dera Ghazi Khan where he focused on American intervention as the cause of Pakistan's wavering from its national interests. He lauded Shaykh Osama as a martyr and said that a thousand Osamas would rise from the soil of Pakistan. [Please scroll to end for latest news from Pakistan].


Spotlights on Marriage
An Invitation to think from Imam Badi Ali, National Shoora Leader, Jamaat al-Muslimeen
Spotlight #1:
Marriage is Paradise on earth. Do not make it hell
Spotlight #2:
Marriage is mercy and love. Live it!
Spotlight #3:
Marriage is to love and to be loved.
Spotlight #4:
The magic of marriage is some of what we are expecting in Paradise.
Spotlight #5:
If you love Allah, you love what He loves.
Spotlight #6:
Marriage is communication and concession.
Spotlight #7:
Marriage is a precious gift from Allah. In it we gain each others heart.
Spotlight #8:
Marriage is a long journey of life. Make sure of your objectives in life.
Spotlight #9:
The goal in marriage is to help each other please Allah to reach Paradise and to build a family.
Spotlight #10:
Beautiful words need a beautiful partner to understand and to listen.
Spotlight # 11:
If you are a good husband, you will have a good wife.
Spotlight #12:
Remember, arguing and bickering burns energy. Remember to use this energy for something better.


Strange Things Du'a can do for you

[Sent by Tennessee Dawah.]

I asked Allah for strength and Allah gave me difficulties to make me strong.

I asked Allah for wisdom and Allah gave me problems to solve.

I asked Allah for courage and Allah gave me obstacles to overcome.

I asked Allah for love and Allah gave me troubled people to help.

I asked Allah for favors and Allah gave me opportunities.
Maybe I received nothing I wanted, but I received everything I needed.

Please SHARE


Photo shows some of the Hispanic women who have embraced Islam in America.
Zionist Abuse of Islam has failed.
[With thanks to Sis. Najat Amatullah on facebook. For her comments in Spanish, scroll down .]




Egypt: April 13. Woman leads Latest Mass Rally by Islamic Groups in Tahrir Square, Cairo.
:Demonstrators want to block attempt by the generals to support remnants of Hosni Mubarak's tyranny.
Photo below shows a Muslim woman protected by men all around her leading the demonstration.
[Egyptian military rulers "disqualified" the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi candidates for the President.]



Our America: from our media monitor
NPR and New York Times Unite in Abusive Campaign against Somalia's Islamic people

On April 4, National Public Radio [NPR] Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times who has just returned from Somalia. Almost an hour was spent in abusive attacks on al-Shabab, Somalia's major Islamic group. Jeffrey wanted to convince his listeners that al-Shabab are responsible for the suffering of the Somali people.

There are big holes in Jeffrey's story. Firstly, he did not visit any place outside Mogadishu which is occupied by non-Muslim military backed by western powers. Secondly, he admitted that al-Shabab are carrying out large scale "commercial agriculture" in the areas under their control. Thirdly, he tried to denigrate Muslim relief groups from Qatar and Turkey who are in Somalia. He is angry at the al-Shabab that they do not allow big western relief organizations to enter Somalia. Fourthly, he tried to condemn the habab for carrying out arranged marriages as a form of prostitution. Any rational person would know that the suffering women of Somalia, many of them widows and orphans, badly need men who would marry them.

Coming from America, the land of random sex and one night stands, only a Zionist would have the gall to condemn the Shabab for arranging marriages without dating and love affairs.

Jeffery brought out ONE PHOTO of a child who died of starvation. He based his entire attack on that ONE PHOTIO. Then he admitted that the child died in Mogadishu, not in a Shabab-controlled area. His dilemma was that he could not explain why the child died of starvation when he admitted that there is abundant food in Mogadishu!

Looks like Jeffery did not really know why the child died and attributed it to "starvation."

The utter shame of it is that Jeffery has been awarded the Polk Award for this propagandistic attack on Somalia. It looks like a case of Zionists helping Zionists to tell lies about Muslims.

[A further complication in the interview was that the Jewish-Zionist woman carrying out the interview had to deal with the fact that in the morning of April 4, a female al-Shabab had carried out a martyrdom operation against the forces occupying Mogadishu. Quite a troubling detail.Why do women love al-Shabab's cause?]


Trying to scare US Muslims backfires: by Kaukab Siddique
Tarek Mehanna's Case: Seventeen Years for non-Violent Crime. What does the US gain?
Compare with Israeli Professor at U Penn who murdered his wife.


A tenured Israeli professor at University of Pennsylvania bludgeoned his Christian wife to death two days before Christmas. Police uncovered his efforts to cover his tracks. He was arrested, pleaded guilty and was give only FIVE years for the brutal murder. He is up for parole this year.
Tarek Mehanna, of Egyptian descent, has never hurt anyone. He was outraged by US atrocities in Iraq and opposed the occupation of Muslim countries. The "government" tried to make him an informant. His refusal led to scrutiny of his life and opinions and these were presented as links with al-Qaida. He has been sentenced to 17 years. The media, it appears, were not permitted to discuss his defense. He got only a couple of lines in the media referring to him as an al-Qaida wannabe. [Once a prisoner is defined as "al-Qaida" he is no longer seen as a human in America.

It's become a routine in the US that Muslims get incredibly long sentences on the slightest of evidence which would not stand up in any court which had not been "instructed" and given "guidelines" for Muslim cases. Look at the cases of Dr. Aafia, Dr. Ali Timimi, Dr. Kifah, Prof. Sami al-Arian and a long list of others. High education and clean personal records do not soften the Draconian attitudes of American courts.

Why is this being done? The US seems to be under the impression that harsh and irrational sentencing will "send a message" to the Muslims of America. They will be scared and trembling in their shoes. As a result, the US Muslims, will respond in this way, the US hopes:
  1. We are not terrorists. Please have mercy on us.We pray five times a day and love everyone. [ICNA types]


  2. We urge Muslims to join the FBI and to pray in the Pentagon and watch the destruction of our Ummah. [ISNA types]


  3. We will work as eyes and ears of Homeland Security and hand over any potential extremists [just as we did with the 5 youths who went to Pakistan]. [CAIR types.]


  4. Master, tell us what to do and what to say, and we will. [Zuhdi Jassar types.]


  5. All that is not enough. We'll join the Democratic Party [or Republicans, if they win]. [Abdul Malik "Mujahid" types.]
The Zionists hope that Muslims will be too scared to talk to non-Muslims about the injustices the US is carrying out and this will thwart the spread of Islam. The real target of the oppressors is Islam and not any individual scapegoat.

What is really happening? US Muslims are more opposed to US policies than ever before.

These 4 letter organizations which support those in power are Muslim opportunists whose interests are intertwined with those of the Zionist-Corporate power structure. Most Muslims in America, after a long process of political "growing up," abhor these tiny groups. They are unknown in most mosques or are "accepted" to ward off Zionist persecution. Go to any mosque and you'll find almost 100% of US Muslims :
  1. Oppose Israel.


  2. Oppose occupation of Muslim lands.


  3. Condemn the siege of Gaza and the bombing of Pakistan and Yemen and oppose intervention in Somalia and African countries.


  4. Consider the American justice system, as far as Muslims are concerned, a COMPLETE FRAUD and a shameful travesty of justice. These are show trials which would have made Stalin proud.
The ICING on the CAKE: The sentenced Muslims have not given up Islam nor have they gone back on the idea of the just resistance of Muslims. They do not consider Israel a legitimate entity. They do not reject the Muslim right to resist occupation. In spite of the surety that they will get pitiless long sentences, they do not waver. Ever heard of a Muslim giving up Islam when confronted with the onslaught of the US "justice" system? Not one! Read the statement of the Bangladeshi Muslim "Shifa" Ehsanul Sadequee or that of Pakistani Aafia Siddiqui. Read the statement of Abu Ali. Above all these was the historic statement of Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman. This blind man, who has no English and is totally at the mercy of his oppressors has not sold out.
[Check it out for yourself: Other than followers of ICNA, ISNA, CAIR, is there any Muslim who considers Israel legitimate, or supports occupation and intervention by the US or considers the US justice system just? Zero. Even supporters of these renegade groups will admit privately that their leaders are munafiqs.]
Here we offer you the statement of Tarek Mehanna. Read it carefully. It is history in a nut shell. This more or less sums it up.



Received from National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF)
TAREK'S SENTENCING STATEMENT APRIL 12, 2012

Read to Judge O'Toole during his sentencing, April 12th 2012.

In the name of God the most gracious the most merciful
Exactly four years ago this month I was finishing my work shift at a local hospital. As I was walking to my car I was approached by two federal agents. They said that I had a choice to make: I could do things the easy way, or I could do them the hard way. The "easy " way, as they explained, was that I would become an informant for the government, and if I did so I would never see the inside of a courtroom or a prison cell. As for the hard way, this is it. Here I am, having spent the majority of the four years since then in a solitary cell the size of a small closet, in which I am locked down for 23 hours each day. The FBI and these prosecutors worked very hard-and the government spent millions of tax dollars - to put me in that cell, keep me there, put me on trial, and finally to have me stand here before you today to be sentenced to even more time in a cell.

In the weeks leading up to this moment, many people have offered suggestions as to what I should say to you. Some said I should plead for mercy in hopes of a light sentence, while others suggested I would be hit hard either way. But what I want to do is just talk about myself for a few minutes.

When I refused to become an informant, the government responded by charging me with the "crime" of supporting the mujahideen fighting the occupation of Muslim countries around the world. Or as they like to call them, "terrorists." I wasn't born in a Muslim country, though. I was born and raised right here in America and this angers many people: how is it that I can be an American and believe the things I believe, take the positions I take? Everything a man is exposed to in his environment becomes an ingredient that shapes his outlook, and I'm no different. So, in more ways than one, it's because of America that I am who I am.

When I was six, I began putting together a massive collection of comic books. Batman implanted a concept in my mind, introduced me to a paradigm as to how the world is set up: that there are oppressors, there are the oppressed, and there are those who step up to defend the oppressed. This resonated with me so much that throughout the rest of my childhood, I gravitated towards any book that reflected that paradigm - Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and I even saw an ethical dimension to The Catcher in the Rye.
By the time I began high school and took a real history class, I was learning just how real that paradigm is in the world. I learned about the Native Americans and what befell them at the hands of European settlers. I learned about how the descendants of those European settlers were in turn oppressed under the tyranny of King George III.

I read about Paul Revere, Tom Paine, and how Americans began an armed insurgency against British forces - an insurgency we now celebrate as the American revolutionary war. As a kid I even went on school field trips just blocks away from where we sit now. I learned about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, and the fight against slavery in this country. I learned about Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, and the struggles of the labor unions, working class, and poor. I learned about Anne Frank, the Nazis, and how they persecuted minorities and imprisoned dissidents. I learned about Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and the civil rights struggle.
I learned about Ho Chi Minh, and how the Vietnamese fought for decades to liberate themselves from one invader after another. I learned about Nelson Mandela and the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Everything I learned in those years confirmed what I was beginning to learn when I was six: that throughout history, there has been a constant struggle between the oppressed and their oppressors. With each struggle I learned about, I found myself consistently siding with the oppressed, and consistently respecting those who stepped up to defend them -regardless of nationality, regardless of religion. And I never threw my class notes away. As I stand here speaking, they are in a neat pile in my bedroom closet at home.

From all the historical figures I learned about, one stood out above the rest. I was impressed be many things about Malcolm X, but above all, I was fascinated by the idea of transformation, his transformation. I don't know if you've seen the movie "X" by Spike Lee, it's over three and a half hours long, and the Malcolm at the beginning is different from the Malcolm at the end. He starts off as an illiterate criminal, but ends up a husband, a father, a protective and eloquent leader for his people, a disciplined Muslim performing the Hajj in Makkah, and finally, a martyr. Malcolm's life taught me that Islam is not something inherited; it's not a culture or ethnicity. It's a way of life, a state of mind anyone can choose no matter where they come from or how they were raised.
This led me to look deeper into Islam, and I was hooked. I was just a teenager, but Islam answered the question that the greatest scientific minds were clueless about, the question that drives the rich & famous to depression and suicide from being unable to answer: what is the purpose of life? Why do we exist in this Universe? But it also answered the question of how we're supposed to exist. And since there's no hierarchy or priesthood, I could directly and immediately begin digging into the texts of the Qur'an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, to begin the journey of understanding what this was all about, the implications of Islam for me as a human being, as an individual, for the people around me, for the world; and the more I learned, the more I valued Islam like a piece of gold. This was when I was a teen, but even today, despite the pressures of the last few years, I stand here before you, and everyone else in this courtroom, as a very proud Muslim.

With that, my attention turned to what was happening to other Muslims in different parts of the world. And everywhere I looked, I saw the powers that be trying to destroy what I loved. I learned what the Soviets had done to the Muslims of Afghanistan. I learned what the Serbs had done to the Muslims of Bosnia. I learned what the Russians were doing to the Muslims of Chechnya. I learned what Israel had done in Lebanon - and what it continues to do in Palestine - with the full backing of the United States. And I learned what America itself was doing to Muslims. I learned about the Gulf War, and the depleted uranium bombs that killed thousands and caused cancer rates to skyrocket across Iraq.
I learned about the American-led sanctions that prevented food, medicine, and medical equipment from entering Iraq, and how - according to the United Nations - over half a million children perished as a result. I remember a clip from a '60 Minutes' interview of Madeline Albright where she expressed her view that these dead children were "worth it." I watched on September 11th as a group of people felt driven to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings from their outrage at the deaths of these children. I watched as America then attacked and invaded Iraq directly. I saw the effects of 'Shock & Awe' in the opening day of the invasion - the children in hospital wards with shrapnel from American missiles sticking but of their foreheads (of course, none of this was shown on CNN).

I learned about the town of Haditha, where 24 Muslims - including a 76-year old man in a wheelchair, women, and even toddlers - were shot up and blown up in their bedclothes as the slept by US Marines. I learned about Abeer al-Janabi, a fourteen-year old Iraqi girl gang-raped by five American soldiers, who then shot her and her family in the head, then set fire to their corpses. I just want to point out, as you can see, Muslim women don't even show their hair to unrelated men. So try to imagine this young girl from a conservative village with her dress torn off, being sexually assaulted by not one, not two, not three, not four, but five soldiers. Even today, as I sit in my jail cell, I read about the drone strikes which continue to kill Muslims daily in places like Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. Just last month, we all heard about the seventeen Afghan Muslims - mostly mothers and their kids - shot to death by an American soldier, who also set fire to their corpses.
These are just the stories that make it to the headlines, but one of the first concepts I learned in Islam is that of loyalty, of brotherhood - that each Muslim woman is my sister, each man is my brother, and together, we are one large body who must protect each other. In other words, I couldn't see these things beings done to my brothers & sisters - including by America - and remain neutral. My sympathy for the oppressed continued, but was now more personal, as was my respect for those defending them.

I mentioned Paul Revere - when he went on his midnight ride, it was for the purpose of warning the people that the British were marching to Lexington to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, then on to Concord to confiscate the weapons stored there by the Minuteman. By the time they got to Concord, they found the Minuteman waiting for them, weapons in hand. They fired at the British, fought them, and beat them. From that battle came the American Revolution. There's an Arabic word to describe what those Minutemen did that day. That word is: JIHAD, and this is what my trial was about.
All those videos and translations and childish bickering over 'Oh, he translated this paragraph' and 'Oh, he edited that sentence,' and all those exhibits revolved around a single issue: Muslims who were defending themselves against American soldiers doing to them exactly what the British did to America. It was made crystal clear at trial that I never, ever plotted to "kill Americans" at shopping malls or whatever the story was. The government's own witnesses contradicted this claim, and we put expert after expert up on that stand, who spent hours dissecting my every written word, who explained my beliefs. Further, when I was free, the government sent an undercover agent to prod me into one of their little "terror plots," but I refused to participate. Mysteriously, however, the jury never heard this.

So, this trial was not about my position on Muslims killing American civilians. It was about my position on Americans killing Muslim civilians, which is that Muslims should defend their lands from foreign invaders - Soviets, Americans, or Martians. This is what I believe. It's what I've always believed, and what I will always believe. This is not terrorism, and it's not extremism. It's what the arrows on that seal above your head represent: defense of the homeland. So, I disagree with my lawyers when they say that you don't have to agree with my beliefs - no. Anyone with commonsense and humanity has no choice but to agree with me. If someone breaks into your home to rob you and harm your family, logic dictates that you do whatever it takes to expel that invader from your home.
But when that home is a Muslim land, and that invader is the US military, for some reason the standards suddenly change. Common sense is renamed "terrorism" and the people defending themselves against those who come to kill them from across the ocean become "the terrorists" who are "killing Americans." The mentality that America was victimized with when British soldiers walked these streets 2 ½ centuries ago is the same mentality Muslims are victimized by as American soldiers walk their streets today. It's the mentality of colonialism.

When Sgt. Bales shot those Afghans to death last month, all of the focus in the media was on him-his life, his stress, his PTSD, the mortgage on his home-as if he was the victim. Very little sympathy was expressed for the people he actually killed, as if they're not real, they're not humans. Unfortunately, this mentality trickles down to everyone in society, whether or not they realize it. Even with my lawyers, it took nearly two years of discussing, explaining, and clarifying before they were finally able to think outside the box and at least ostensibly accept the logic in what I was saying. Two years! If it took that long for people so intelligent, whose job it is to defend me, to de-program themselves, then to throw me in front of a randomly selected jury under the premise that they're my "impartial peers," I mean, come on. I wasn't tried before a jury of my peers because with the mentality gripping America today, I have no peers. Counting on this fact, the government prosecuted me - not because they needed to, but simply because they could.

I learned one more thing in history class: America has historically supported the most unjust policies against its minorities - practices that were even protected by the law - only to look back later and ask: 'what were we thinking?' Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during World War II - each was widely accepted by American society, each was defended by the Supreme Court. But as time passed and America changed, both people and courts looked back and asked 'What were we thinking?' Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the South African government, and given a life sentence. But time passed, the world changed, they realized how oppressive their policies were, that it was not he who was the terrorist, and they released him from prison. He even became president. So, everything is subjective - even this whole business of "terrorism" and who is a "terrorist." It all depends on the time and place and who the superpower happens to be at the moment.

In your eyes, I'm a terrorist, and it's perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I'm the one going to prison for "conspiring to kill and maim" in those countries - because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a "terrorist," yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the "terrorists" are, she sure wouldn't be pointing at me.

The government says that I was obsessed with violence, obsessed with "killing Americans." But, as a Muslim living in these times, I can think of a lie no more ironic.

-Tarek Mehanna 4/12/12



Sis. Najat Amatullah's comments in Spanish on the photo of Hispanic Muslimahs in prayer above.
Hay una entera Sura en el Corán que lleva nuestro nombre, la Sura de las Mujeres El primer mártir del Islam fue una mujer, Sumayya La primera persona que creyó en Mohammed (Sala Allahu 3alayhi wa salam) fue una mujer, Khadijah ... La recomendación que el Profeta Mohammed (Sala Allahu 'alayhi wa salam) dió a su nación antes de morir fue la de tratar bien a las mujeres La mujer es la mitad de la sociedad, y educa a la otra mitad Y puesto que la mujer es preciosa, Allah la honró con el hijab, para preservar su castidad y pureza...

[Translation: There is a whole Sura in the Qur'an that bears our name, the Sura of women. The first martyr of Islam was a woman, Sumayya. The first person that believed in Mohammed (peace and blessings be on him) was a woman, Khadijah. The recommendation that the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be on him) gave their nation before dying was the best treatment of wome. He said women are half of the society, and they educate the other half, and given that the woman is beautiful, Allah honored her with the hijab, to preserve her chastity and purity.]


Pakistan: From Shamsuddin Amjad
Jamaate Islami demands referendum on NATO supplies issue LAHORE, Apr. 16: Jamaat e Islami Secretary General, Liaqat Baloch, has demanded referendum on the issue of Pak-US relations and the NATO supplies stating that the parliament had become controversial due to its resolution for restoration of the supplies.

Addressing JI workers here on Monday, he said that the entire nation was against restoration of NATO supplies as it was not ready to accept USslavery or to be a party in the NATO aggression against the Afghan people any more. On the other hand, the parliament through its resolution, had given a fresh offer for slavery. This meant that the threats of US President Obama, Hillary Clinton and US generals had worked and even the opposition parties in the parliament had been cooled down to serve the US agenda.

Liaqat Baloch said that the US and NATO armies had been defeated inAfghanistanand the Afghan freedom fighters were making decisive attacks over NATO forces and their installations. This was the time when Pakistan could be freed from the US slavery and the parliament librated from Zardari's hold, he added.

He said the opposition parties in the parliament had changed their stance repeatedly and were successful in having some amendments in the original draft on the issue. However, he said, that President Zardari was the real beneficiary in the present situation which implied that the parliamentary opposition had provides oxygen to the rulers.

The JI Secretary General said that the US announcements against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the Ahle Sunnah leader Maulana Muhammad Ahmed, the continuing actions against the Shia community and the target killings in Karachi, were the product of the same master mind, a force which wanted to destabilize this country and prove it a failed state.

He said the US and its agents were trying to cow down the people on the NATO supplies issue. However, he said, masses drive against these would continue peacefully while the supplies would be stopped by force.



Photo below shows top Islamic leader Munawar Hasam addressing a large gathering in Dera Ghazi Khan [northern Pakistan just outside the tribal areas].He was showered with rose petals [visible in the photo]




Symbolic first step to block the NATO supply line. A huge rally on the highway from Peshawar shows crowd on the left with striped flags of Jamiatul ulema Islam [Sami ul Haque], green Pakistani flags and green flags with stripes which are Jamaate Islami flags. Sitting on the right are leaders who addressed the protestors.



With thanks to NCPCF
Prof. Sami al-Arian Speaks via skype from House Arrest.

Complete Text. Uncut.

Sisters and brothers, friends and colleagues, my fellow advocates for justice and freedom.
Assalamu Alaikum
It's indeed my honor and privilege to address you tonight in this great gathering even for a few moments.
This is my first public address in the U. S. in over nine years. I've been advised to refrain from speaking in public because of my pending case, but I thought this event is important enough to make an exception.
I'm not going to beat around the bush. So let me be very direct and frank with you. Nothing short of our very survival as free people living in a free and democratic society is at stake.
Let me even be more blunt. We, as a community, are at the forefront in the fight to reclaim the foundations and principles that established this great country.
Since 9/11, our society is being transformed slowly but surely into a surveillance and security state. If that trend is not reversed then everyone - not just the American Muslim community - can no longer claim to be free.
More than a half century ago George Orwell described such a state in his eye-opening novel 1984. In such society, fear of the government becomes the norm, the standard way of life. People are then cultured to submit to a new language and regulated speech: war is peace; slavery is freedom; ignorance is strength. In such an environment, where society is dominated by fear, people start conforming to every behavior dictated by the government.
So when a daughter hears her father criticize, in his dream, the leader, Big Brother, she reports him to the authorities. He is immediately arrested, tried, convicted and sent to prison. In the novel, Orwell describes how the father was grateful to his daughter for reporting him before acting out his dream so that he could be rehabilitated in time.
But fiction no more.
During my own trial, one piece of evidence used against me consisted of a phone call between two co-defendants where one of them recounted a conversation he had with me in his dream. It was reminiscent of the thought crime in Orwell's novel. Indeed much of the government's evidence presented to the jury during my six-month trial were speeches I delivered, lectures I presented, articles I wrote, magazines I edited, books I owned, conferences I convened, rallies I attended, interviews I gave, news I heard, and websites I never even accessed.
Of course my family and I were very grateful that our jury saw through the government's underhanded tactics and did not return a single guilty verdict on more than 100 counts against all the defendants.
But not everyone is as fortunate. Today Ali Al-Tamimi is serving life for giving a religious fatwa. Tarek Mehanna is serving 17 years for translating a document. Mufid Abdel Kader is serving 20 years because he had a beautiful voice and sang for Palestine. Ghassan El-Ashi and Shukri Abu Baker are serving 65 years each for feeding and clothing hungry Palestinian children, while Rafil Dhafir is serving 22 years for feeding Iraqi children. Ahmad Abu Ali is serving life because he gave a false confession under torture. Aafi Siddqui was sentenced to 86 years after she was shot and nearly died. Ziad Yaghi is serving 32 years in a conspiracy case because he traveled overseas looking for a wife. Yasin Aref and Muhammad Hussein are serving 15 years in another conspiracy where the script was written, planned, financed, executed, and directed by the FBI. The examples are far too many to recount.
The bottom line is this. Innocent people are targeted and their families are suffering because of their beliefs, opinions, associations, and advocacy. All first amendment activities- supposedly guaranteed by the US constitution.
President Obama said if he had a son he would have looked like Trayvon Martin. Let me tell you, all our sons look like Ahmad Abu Ali, Ziad Yaghi, and Tarek Mehanna
Brothers and sisters,
During my five and a half years in prison, I had to endure 41 straight months in solitary confinement, most of it before and during the trial. The conditions of confinement were Guantanamo-like conditions designed to break you down psychologically so you give up and surrender: isolation, abusive guards, little or no communication with family and friends, and limited opportunity to review the evidence assembled against you, just to name a few.
Almost all victims of government prosecutions are subjected to such inhumane treatment. Even serial murderers and rapists have more rights in the prison system than American Muslim defendants entitled to the presumption of innocence under the law.
But truly free people are not intimidated by scare tactics. On the contrary, they exhibit a sense of fairness, display respect for the freedom of others, and are willing to stand up and defend their highest ideals. That's the essence of a democratic society, where the people are unwilling to submit to fear or be intimidated or cowed by abusive authority and its tyrannical tactics.
So the question is: do you want to be free people and defend your rights? Or do you want to be scared and enslaved?
Remember, "All tyranny needs in order to rule the day is for people of good conscience to remain silent or do nothing."
To protect our civil freedoms is to speak more not less, to challenge authority run amok, to speak truth to power, that too often substitutes fear for rational thinking in order to control and dictate.
But also too often the vulnerable members of society are too traumatized to speak on their own behalf or defend their rights. So it becomes incumbent upon people of good conscience, our collective duty, our solemn responsibility, to champion their cause; to educate and inform the masses. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
But that only comes through freeing ourselves from fear and by exercising our right to speak, to freely express ourselves, to protest, to object, to lobby, to mobilize, to act, in short, to become a free citizen and a dignified human being. What distinguished great leaders like Mahatma Ghandi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela was their willingness to speak truth to power, and if need be, pay the price for it.
That's why we need the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms. It's the only coalition willing to tackle these difficult issues, which everyone is trying to ignore.
On behalf of all victims of injustice I ask you to support this important cause and show kindness, if not for these victims then for the future of your children. No community was ever empowered before winning their civil rights. This is our calling, our mission, our challenge. History will indeed judge us based on our response.
My sisters and brothers: I beseech you to open your hearts and be generous.
I want to thank my family for being with you tonight. And thank you all very much for supporting the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms.
May God bless you all. Wassalamu Alaikum.



Shamim Siddiqui sent his famous book CALLING HUMANITY to President Obama with this message:

Dear Mr. President

Perhaps it would surprise you to learn that the most misunderstood thing in today's world is nothing but "Islam" - the System of life that God sent to mankind through His appointed Messengers teaching all how to live, act and behave on this earth in order to enjoy justice, peace and security all around within the human abode.

The Reason:
  1. Islam is not what is presented by the Muslims around the world, including our own land of opportunities. It is simply a very small segment of the whole of Islam as a way of life and that too in a very obscured form, creating its distorted impression to the people of the land;


  2. Muslims couldn't produce its Truthful Model so far in the context of the modern world anywhere in their respective societies;


  3. The secular West has been and is opposing its emergence tooth and nail anywhere due to its centuries old accumulated "historical prejudices", self-conceived reservations, self-innovated misinterpretations or distortion of facts, culminating into hate campaign against Islam and Muslims;

The Result:
  1. Human society couldn't solve any of its centuries-old problems by denying obedience to the Creator and Sustainer and neglecting the system that He sent to us to solve our problems without any prejudice and delivering justice to all and malice to none.


  2. The cradle of man is fast moving, God forbid, towards a catastrophic end or total destruction;


  3. Man has become irresponsible, reckless, selfish, greedy, lusty and is busy day in and day out in maximizing only his personal gains, name, fame and pleasure - feeling accountable to none. That has filled the human abode only with Zulm [Oppression], Fasa'd [transgression] and injustices all around. No man-made system could solve the prevailing inequalities between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, the oppressed and the deprived.

Keeping the aforesaid scenario in mind, I have written the captioned book: "Calling Humanity" and made my humble efforts to present ISLAM in its correct and truthful perspective as the CURE for all our prevailing ills. It is quite different than what you see around you both in the East and the West, in the Muslim world and the non-Muslim societies.

I am sending the book to you with the request to study it in depth and see how to help the human society to salvage its unending chain of problems and make his abode as the cradle of justice and peace. This is the urgent call of our time. Your leadership role will make a lot of difference in mitigating the human sufferings and putting the humanity back on the straight path of moderation and righteousness

With best wishes
Sincerely Yours,

Shamim Siddiqi
WWW.Dawahinameruicas.com
#516-333-4222

2012-04-16 Mon 18:41:32 cdt
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