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Shawwal 4, 1433/August 23, 2012 # 37
It was a blood soaked Ramadan and Eid in the Muslim world.
Please scroll to end
for WAR NEWS
Dr. Wilmer Leon outlines an "internal" coup being planned
against Obama by the Right wingers.
See end.
Man's Twin: The emergence of Pakistan in story form. In Part
I, Gulnar was rescued from a Hindu mob by a Sikh. What
happened after he takes her to his home?
Please scroll to end for Part II.
Final Reminder
Jamaat al-Muslimeen's National Islamic Shoora will be held
on September 1, inshallah.
Host: Imam Badi Ali
Secretary General: Sis. Ashira Naim
Ameer: Br. Kaukab Siddique
How to organize an Islamic movement in America which is
uncompromising but non-violent? Your ideas and suggestions
are welcome. Write to:
butshikana@hotmail.com
.
We have received good pointers from Br. Shamim Siddiqui
[Long Island, New York] author of Calling Humanity.
Important Program on Imam Jamil: Bringing his Black Radical
& Islamic Career Together
[With thanks to Imam Khalil Abdur Rahman, Imam Jamil's rep.]
The SNCC Legacy Committee is jointly sponsoring and
producing a program on Imam Jamil Al-Amin, September 27th,
at Busboys and Poets, in DC, on 14th St. and V, from 7pm to
9pm.
The panelists are four and they consists of the wife, his
sister and two SNCC members.
The venue is small with the intent of having an overflow,
for the purpose of perception; press (media event) and to
garner support from the Washington, DC insiders who know
Imam Jamil.
Muslim Marathoner runs while fasting!
On August 18, Nadrat Siddique ran 14 miles while fasting.
Then on August 19, she ran 11 miles while fasting. She
considers these practice runs. [She did NOT do Eid on the
wrong date, August 19.]
Outreach
Islamic Literature Given to 200 in Philadelphia after
Jumatul Wida'
On August 17, a six page Jamaat al-Muslimeen document was
given to 200 Muslims after the final Juma prayer of Ramadan
at a masjid located at 43rd and Walnut street in
Philadelphia.
The package included an article on Tukish support for the
Muslims of Myanmer [Burma], an article on how Muslims who
don't behave made Islam difficult for an American Muslimah,
an Arabian scholar's article on living for the day, plus
reports on blind US support for Israel and assaults on women
at a US air base in Texas. There was also an announcement
about Jamaat's shoora meeting coming on Semptember 1.
Sent by Nadrat Siddique, a devastating article published by
Committee for Crescent Observation International [CCOI] on
Dr. Omar Afzal's web site, which destroys all the arguments
Saudi-ISNA has brought forth to have an Eid without the
Sunnah of sighting. A must read! Very objective.
Please scroll down.
Personal from Kaukab Siddique
There was almost no Eid for me, but al-hamdulillah there are
still true believers!
This time it looked as if ISNA had succeeded. Every mosque
in Maryland was going for Eid on a comfortable Sunday
[August 19] with no pretense of moon sighting. What a weird
situation, I thought, these fasts have been long and the
weather has been hot, and I fasted and kept up the five
prayers, and it looked like there would be no Eid for me
unless like other munafiqueen I too simply ignore the
command of the Prophet, pbuh, and go for Eid without
sighting the crescent. The horizon had been clear, so one
could not claim that it could not be seen because of the
clouds.
ISNA has moved into the secularism and paganism of America
where "comfort" and "convenience" are more important than
DEEN.
I fasted on the 19th and was sure there would be no Eid for
me this time. I began to console myself: After all it is not
fard [obligatory]! Then suddenly at 9.30 PM there was a
phone call. Those who followed the Sunnah would be praying
Monday morning at 8.30.
I thought, there would hardly be anyone there. It was a
working day. The mosque was way deep inside the city and
ISNA type munafiqs had already had everyone pray WITHOUT
sighting on August 19. Who would be there?
I made it there exactly at 8.30 and there was a crowd of
Muslims there already, both men and women. The crowd kept
growing and the prayer had to b e delayed till almost 9.30.
Looked like dissidents who still follow Muhammad, pbuh, were
trickling in from every masjid except the rich folks' club
which has a million dollar dome and parking lot. Finally
they were several hundred.
The khutba, delivered by an African American brother, was
beautiful. He focused on AQEEDA and on Allah's authority
rather than human authority, especially focusing on
opposition to groupies and cult leaders. His recitation was
sublime. Alhamdulillah! All praise is for Allah. He will
reward those who followed His messenger, pbuh. Surely those
who fast but violate the sunnah get nothing but hunger and
thirst which they compensate by eating too much. Most of
them are fatter after Ramadan than they were before..
Strange but true: ISNA got support from Tablighi
Jamaat/Deobendi Sect in the fake Eid date.
New Trend has been getting reports that ISNA's Sunday Eid
got support from an unexpected source. Tablighi Jamaat has
established itself so well in California and Toronto that
this time these old timers showed their hand.
They did not want to be seen as opposing hadith. So they
announced that yes, the crescent was sighted but NOT in the
US or Canada but in South Africa and then the Caribbean!
So we can have Eid on Sunday because there has been a
sighting in South Africa and then the Caribbean. Do Muslims
in America carry on their Islam with South Africa and the
"Caribbean?" Of course not. On being pressed, it was
disclosed that, yes, Caribbean is not a country but it was
sighted in Guyana and Grenada [not even in the rest of the
'Caribbean" like Jamaica and Trinidad!]
These Deobendis must be illiterate in Islam to not know that
Islam teaches local sighting of the crescent, not areas
beyond the horizon, as the hadith makes it very clear.
These people with big beards collect a lot of money if the
Eid is on the weekend. Eid on week days drops the catch by
more than 50%. So the almighty dollar may be affecting these
pious "ulema." {they never disclose how much they collected,
most of it being in cash!]
[Editor's note: I have usually not written against Tablighi
jamaat. They look so pious and teach just the basics of
Islam. However, I have noted that they NEVER speak against
any regime however oppressive it might be. They never speak
even against Israel. I have noted that large numbers of
Pakistani GOVERNMENT SERVANTS are part of Tablighi jamaat,
especially after retirement. This group has NEVER opposed
the occupation of Iraq or Afghanistan or the bombing of
Pakistani villages. Just a coincidence over decades,
especially the silence over Israel? Go figure!]
Our America
Putting Self-Interest Above Religion and Political Issues
Romney's VP candidate is Devotee of Ayn Rand, Popular Jewish
writer.
Ayn Rand: Why Is She So Popular?
BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19280545
A Russian-American writer who died 30 years ago is still
selling hundreds of thousands of books a year, and this week
one of her former devotees, Paul Ryan, became Mitt Romney's
running mate in the US presidential election. So why is Ayn
Rand and her most famous work, Atlas Shrugged, so popular?
... Rand's philosophy, which she called objectivism, tapped
directly into the American ideals of freedom, hard work and
individualism. In novels like Atlas Shrugged, and her
non-fiction like The Virtues of Selfishness, Rand argued for
the removal of any religious or political controls that
hindered the pursuit of self-interest.
Tracking ISNA's Efforts to Destroy the Ummah at the Basic
Level
Committee for Crescent Observation International (CFCO)
Statement.
Posted by Nadrat Siddique on Monday, August 20, 2012 at
11:15pm
Position Statement by CFCO International Ulema
Shariah
-
Islamic Shariah allows only Hilal (sighted moon)-based
Islamic dates.
Daleel: Qur'an (2:189): "Ahilla" are the "Mawaqeet."
-
The Prophet (S) put this Qur'anic injunction into practice
himself:
Daleel: Ahadith: Extra care for sighting Sha'ban moon, Sumu
li-Ru'yatihi... , etc.
-
Consensus and "ta'amul" of the Ummah for the last 1400+
years.
Ru'yah
The phrase: "Ra in ghumma alaikum" leaves no doubt that:
-
R'aa" in this Hadith means only "naked eye, local
sighting, of a Hilal".
-
Ra'a here cannot be interpreted any other way. It cannot
remotely mean "Knowledge of the moon in the sky". The moon
must be "seen by naked eye and not by binoculars, or
telescopes. The moon must be "Seen by everybody with normal
vision, and not by a few out of a group of observers at any
place". It cannot mean "sightability" or "expected
visibility" later after the invisible moon has passed by a
place hours ago.
-
The moon must appear as a Hilal, and not as broken beads
in a powerful telescope.
-
Matla is "Local" and cannot be global.
The Hilal must be sighted "locally". Obviously, the whole
world will not be cloudy or hazy exactly around the sunset
to keep the moon invisible. The earth is not a flat
field.
The Khulafa and the Companions were unanimous on all these
three points.
-
Ibn Abbas (R) asked Kuraib to fast 31st day as a moon was
not seen in Medina.
-
Ikrama and Salim: (On a sighting at a place located at
some distance from Medina): Ma lana wa li ahl-i Astawa
(Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaibah)
Conjunction (The New Moon)
At the conjunction no part of the Moon is visible.
Rocket-mounted camera pictures showed a totally black moon.
Powerful telescopes cannot detect any visible part of
it.
It might be calculated exactly, but cannot be the basis for
a calendar as the conjunction occurs at all times of day and
night, and not at sunset when the Islamic date/day
begins.
Local or extended Matla
-
Islamic date starts from the sunset after a moon is
confirmed sighted.
(Fuqaha have established the number of witnesses and rules
of Shahadah)
-
Ibn 'Abbas did not accept Damascus "general sighting"
applicable to Medina. He did not tell people in Medina to
celebrate Eid because the month of Ramadan had become 30
days by a sighting somewhere else.
-
He asked Kuraib to fast 31st day because on his 30th (but
Medina's 29th) day of fasting a Hilal was not visible on a
clear sky. (Bulugh al-Maraam)
(Ittihad vs. Ikhtilaf al-Matali' Fiqhi positions are
meaningless now that all have accepted the world to be a
globe, not a flat field, and a Hilal is seen over the globe
in 24 hours the same way we see the sun in 24 hours.
Counting a whole country (48 contiguous states in the USA) a
"united Matla'" is a recent practice, based on a
Maslaha.)
Hisaab (Calculation)
-
Only the moon at conjunction phase can be accurately
calculated, but not the Hilal.
-
Accurate calculation of the "conjunction" was known for
more than 2,500 years. Babylonians, Chinese, Hindus, and
others used the conjunction based lunar calendars.
-
Jewish calendar was based on Hilal-sighting. But Hilel II
changed the Jewish calendar to "Calculated by the
conjunction-at-Jerusalem" some 2,300 year ago. This calendar
was used by the Jews in Medina, and is still in use
everywhere by the Jews. (Spier)
-
Arabs tribes used their "sighted-moon" based calendars
(Tawqeet by Ishaq al-Nabi).
-
The Prophet (S) fasted the first Ashura in Medina by the
Jewish calendar (Ahadith).
-
After Ramadan fasting became obligatory, the Prophet (S)
tried to follow the Arab tradition of the "sighted moon".
The friction with the Medina Jews started for both the
"sighted vs. calculated" start of the lunar month, and
"Nasi".
-
The Jews started questioning his "Prophet-hood". (How
could he be a 'navi' ("Nabi") when he could not even tell
the start of the month?) (Tabari and other Tafaasir on
"Shaan al-Nuzuul of Aayah 2:189)
-
The Prophet (S) categorically instructed: La Tasuumu
hatta tarawul Hilala, wa la tuftiru...fa in ghumma
alaikum.... (Several versions, with "Ghumma, Ghubbiya,
etc.)
-
Muslims have been preparing Islamic calendar for hundreds
of years based on "sighted moon", but their fixed dates were
never "final" and had to be adjusted by the sighting.
-
Ulema of the Ummah consistently rejected the
calculations for fixing Islamic dates as they were
"estimation", and not "Qatai". A few lesser-known Fuqaha
allowed it as an "aid" to sighting.
-
According to Ibn Taymiya: "Those who rely on the
calculation (for the Hilal) have gone astray in Shari'ah,
invented a "bid'ah" in the religion, and are misconceived
intellectually, and in the field of Hisaab."
Fixed Islamic Dates for the US
-
Local visibility in 48 contiguous US states is easy to
calculate since 1978 (Dr. Abdali).
-
For a fixed Islamic calendar for N. America, Monzur /
RGO's (MoonCal) "A" parabola fulfils the "general
visibility" Islamic criterion. For a 90% certainty of
sighting B, C, and D curves should be excluded. (For
example, Sha'ban 1427 moon's sighting reports on August 24,
2006 from all over the world confirm that hundreds of
experienced observers who attempted did not see the moon
from Miami to California though the "A" curve covered parts
of southern USA)
-
Sightability or expected visibility has no basis in
Shari'ah to start a month. Experts considerably differ about
when a moon would become visible. CFCO Intl. always
projected its dates based on "near 100% visibility somewhere
in North America" and the calculated dates proved accurate
by consistent observations since 1981.
-
A simple way to check a sighting claim is: "Seen at a
place X MUST BE SEEN at Y and all other locations west of X
within the parabola."
ISNA Fiqh Council argues that:
-
"Sighting of the Hilal" is not required by Shari'ah;
-
"Calculated" dates based on "Sightability" determine the
Islamic dates; and
-
For the US "Matla" should be extended from London to
180W.
All three have no validity in Shari'ah, and are tantamount
to abandoning the Qur'an, the Sunnah and the practice of the
Ummah.
For the last 28 years, ISNA (earlier MSA) Fiqh Council has
diligently pursued only one goal: Synchronize the Islamic
dates in the USA with those of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. First
it replaced the "Ru'yah" in 1978 by the "News from any
Muslim country" (Kahf). Then it used the "local vs. united"
Fiqhi positions to justify its wrong decisions. Since 1986
ISNA astronomers often attested sightings from dubious
observers. Last year it seriously thought about "6.5 degree
elongation" proposal to scuttle the Hilal requirement. Now
it has proposed "the Conjunction before 12:00noon GMT"
criterion to get rid of the Qur'anic injunction about the
Hilal.
Letter: Our articles on Dating Eid and the Tragic birth of
Pakistan under India's Attack
[Novel Man's Twin.]
Respectable brother Kaukab sahib:
Salaam alaikum.
Thank you for a most sensible and correct viewpoint about
dating Eid. The Prophet never said the Umma should time it
according to Egypt or Arabia.
I fear many disagree with your views. I will not not call
them hypocrites but will use a more appropriate word
whenever one can be found.
May Allah Kareem protect you from hypocrites, may you
continue to express the sensible Islamic point of view,
ameen.
Muslims of Pakistan did not treat fleeing Hindus and Sikhs
too well either. It seems there were pigs on both sides.
They have caused a wound which will take generations to
heal. The scar will remain.
Respectfully,
Mir Salim Ullah
Letter: Secularist Viewpoint on "Sunnah:" Ride Camels!
Mr. Kaukab Sidiqui, I am sure ISNA is going against the
Sunnat because they are using modern technology to determine
lunar phases, much more accurate than moon sighting. You are
also going against the sunnat by driving a car to your
masjid while sunnat is either walking or riding a camel. I
am not ISNA member and do not care about it but your
argument is so ridiculous that I had to point that out to
you. These are the ridiculous arguments and fights over
ridiculous things like fighting over moon by "modern" mullah
that are making Muslim a laughing stock of the world.
Ghazala Kazi
Letter: ISNA's Eid Deception & Silence on Massacre of
Muslims in Burma:
Too many Iftar Parties. Rich Muslims can't help Sis. Laila's
son [Ziyad]?
Assalamu Alaikum Brother:
Reading the the New Trend on ISNA's Eid Deception boils my
blood, but nothing can be done as
our leaders everywhere have become hypocrites and are
turning blind eye to the unjust systems.
The Sikh community are shouting loud enough for the massacre
of Sikhs in the Temple and has made others like Obama to
lower the American flag for them.
Show me how many Muslims are coming out speaking up against
the Massacre of Muslims in Myanmar? We are all busy in just
one thing: fasting and Iftari parties. Every Masjid is
having the Iftari parties, but not thinking of the poor and
the needy on the streets, or coming out speaking up against
the suffering of the Muslims, like the single Mother's son
in prison.
So in reality the first blame goes on our own and then the
others.
There are so many rich Muslims: can't they help this Mother
[Sis. Laila] to fight for her son?
How about the Zakat money, can that be used for this matter?
[I guess not).
There are many like ISNA & IDRF, but it is the followers of
Isna who are at fault. We know about the Dajjal who will
lead to the wrong path but it not his fault; it is the fault
of the followers.
Sis. Gulshan [Canada]
ISNA Joins Copts to Oppose Islamic Law in Egypt, a Muslim
Country.
[NT Ed. note: The language in this report is loaded against
Islam and Muslims. Be careful.]
(RNS) Muslim and Coptic Christian leaders in the U.S. are
calling on the Egyptian government to exclude any mentions
of Islamic law or language that discriminates against
minorities in its draft constitution.
In an letter released Tuesday (Aug. 7), the leaders urge the
constitution writers to "recognize the equality of all
Egyptians and to reject any language that would discriminate
against any citizen of Egypt on the basis of that citizen's
religion or gender."
Because Egypt is home to millions of Christians, attempts to
describe Islamic law, or Shariah, as the source of the
country's law should also be rejected, the letter said.
Shariah is interpreted differently by various schools within
Islam; some Muslims believe Shariah is a personal code that
has no place in government, while in several Islamic
countries - Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan and others
- Shariah infuses national law.
Egypt's recently elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was
backed by the Muslim Brotherhood but has pledged to be "the
president of all Egyptians."
Signatories of the letter include Rep. Keith Ellison,
D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress; Imam Mohamed
Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America,
the largest Muslim organization in America; as well as the
Rev. Hegomen Moises Bogdady and the Rev. Michael Sorial,
priests with the Coptic Orthodox Archdiocese of North
America. James J. Zogby's Arab American Institute sponsored
the letter.
The Egyptian Embassy in Washington did not reply to requests
for comment.
The letter represents an unusual move by U.S. Muslims to try
and shape policy toward Muslims and non-Muslims in a
Muslim-majority country like Egypt, especially against a
backdrop of attempts in some 20 U.S. state legislatures to
ban Shariah from state courts.
The letter is also an important interfaith document between
Muslims and Copts, whose relations have been strained in
recent years. After a Coptic Christian family of four was
murdered in their Jersey City, N.J., home in 2005, the
American Coptic Association and some other Coptic groups
initially accused Muslims. The killers turned out to be
non-Muslims, but relations never completely healed after
that incident.
[It is doubtful that Romney can outdo him.]
Obama Has Been Great For Israel
Colin H. Kahl - Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/08/16/obama_has_ben_good_for_israel
... As the Defense Department official with primary
responsibility for enhancing Israel's defense capabilities
and deepening joint military cooperation with the United
States from 2009 to 2011, I can attest to a different
reality: No president in history has done more for Israel's
security than Obama. The case for Obama's Israel policy
begins with record-high levels of Foreign Military Financing
(FMF). The Obama administration has increased security
assistance to Israel every single year since the president
took office, providing nearly $10 billion in aid - covering
roughly a fifth of Israel's defense budget - over the past
three years.
Introducing the great German revisionist, Germar Rudolf, a
friend of Muslims & Palestine
Galileo Revisited
By Prof. em. Dr. Daniel McGowan
The story goes that, when Galileo faced his inquisitors,
they showed him the instruments of torture. Whatever else he
may have been, Galileo was also a physician, so he knew what
metal does to flesh, hence he recanted.
Not so Germar Rudolf.
It's also said that, in his recantation, Galileo crawled
across the floor to his accusers.
Not so Germar Rudolf.
In a letter written by Germar from his prison cell he
examines why he became a Holocaust revisionist and why he
was prepared to pay such a terrible price. The fact is that
Germar was never much interested in World War II or the
Holocaust. What interested him were the whys and wherefores
of lies, delusions and propaganda. Why are they created? How
are they propagated, maintained and enforced, and why do we
believe in them? To him Holocaust propaganda is not a mere
historical issue but rather also an ideological issue. Nor
does there seem to be any single motive for his interest;
rather it stems from a mixture of personal history and
personality. From childhood he was blessed (or cursed) with
an insane curiosity and with what he describes as "a greatly
overdeveloped sense of justice." We also learn that he was
brutalized by his father.
In his typical German primary and secondary education, he
touched the subject of the Holocaust several times:
"The usual claims about it seemed indubitable, undeniable to
me, truth chiseled in stone, self-evident."
Germar Rudolf in January 2010
But in 1989 he came across the writings of Paul
Rassinier,[1] a former French communist, partisan fighter,
and inmate of Buchenwald and concentration camps. Rassinier
heard stories after the war of mechanized exterminations in
Buchenwald - a claim he knew to be untrue. He wondered, "If
they can lie about that, what else can they lie about?" To
the young German student, Germar Rudolf, Rassinier "opened
my eyes and allowed doubts. Nothing more, just doubts."
Germar had been raised not to doubt anything about the
orthodox Holocaust narrative, which in itself maddened him,
as did the increasing persecution in Germany of anyone who
raised the issue.
"[...] at once I knew - and a little research confirmed it -
that who doubts or dissents is relentlessly ostracized,
persecuted, and even prosecuted with no chance of defense.
So I said to myself, this is outrageous, unacceptable,
against all norms and ideals of this society, and the fact
that there is no other topic where dissent is more severely
suppressed is evidence enough for me that it is also the
most important topic. He who is sure of being truthful is
relaxed; only liars call for earthly judges. [...]
I was sure I was right, and unless I was convinced by
rational, scientific arguments that I was wrong, I was not
going to give in. They made the mistake to provoke the blood
out of me by persecuting me. That's it. No negotiations any
more. My father didn't manage to break me with stick, whip,
fists or by using me as a missile, and so they won't break
my will with violence either. It only gets stronger with
every beating."
That is Germar Rudolf: a strong-minded contrarian with
enormous willpower.
"The only way to take this away from me is by killing me.
Period. Anybody who punishes me for merely exercising my
human right of being a human, a creature able to doubt and
explore, will meet my utmost unbreakable resistance. I won't
allow anybody to reduce me to a submissive slave.
Nobody."
Revising the Holocaust Narrative
An increasing number of scholars and lay people clearly see
that something is not right with Elie Wiesel and the current
Holocaust narrative. The writings of Germar Rudolf and
others simply confirm what they already suspect. They may
care little for chemical traces in the brickwork at
Auschwitz or topological evidence of mass graves, but they
have seen other historical events substantially revised and
they are suspicious of the outrage and scorn heaped upon
those who question the uniqueness and scope of this
particular event, especially when it is used to persecute
Palestinians and promote endless war in the Middle East.
That Jews suffered greatly during the Third Reich is not in
question, but the notion of a premeditated, planned and
industrial extermination of Europe's Jews with its iconic
gas chambers and immutable six million are all used to make
the Holocaust not only special but also sacred. We are faced
with a new, secular religion with astonishing power to
command worship. And, like Christianity with its Immaculate
Conception, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, the Holocaust has
key and sacred elements - the exterminationist imperative,
the gas chambers, and the sacred six million. It is these
that comprise the holy Holocaust which Jews, Zionists, and
others worship and which Germar Rudolf and other
revisionists question.
Nor is this a small matter. If it were, why the fuss? Why
the witch-hunt? Why the demonization and imprisonment of
David Irving, Ernst Zündel and Germar Rudolf? And it is not
just these infidels. What may well be a massive lie is being
used to oppress whole nations. The German and Austrian
people are blamed for conceiving and perpetrating the
slaughter; the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian,
Latvian, Estonian, Rumanian, and Hungarian people are blamed
for hosting, assisting, and cheering on the slaughter; the
Americans, the British, the French, the Dutch, the Belgians,
the Italians, and even Diaspora Jews are blamed for not
doing enough to stop the slaughter; the Swiss are blamed for
profiting from it; the entire Christian world is blamed for
its faith-traditions and ideologies that allowed the
slaughter to take place; and more recently the Palestinian,
Arab, and Muslim people are blamed for wanting to perpetuate
the slaughter by delegitimizing Israel. To many the current
version of the Holocaust oppresses the entire non-Jewish
world and indeed much of the Jewish world as well.
Germar Rudolf is a Holocaust revisionist and a dedicated
researcher of historical evidence. For him "Holocaust
denier" is simply a term of abuse to be hurled as "witch"
might have been hurled in the Middle Ages. But for me,
"Holocaust denier" is a label with which I have been smeared
for merely trying to define the term. Although I have never
denied any of the three tenets of the orthodox Holocaust
narrative, the mere fact that I am interested in revisionism
and have actually met contemporary revisionists has caused
the more cowardly of my colleagues to smear me and denigrate
my reputation at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
I first met Germar in April 2010. He had recently been
released from prison in Germany and was staying in England
until he could get a visa to return to his wife and child in
the United States. We spent several days together along with
our UK Director of Deir Yassin Remembered Paul Eisen, Henry
Herskovitz from Ann Arbor, and Francis Clark-Lowes, an
activist from Brighton.
Germar spoke of many aspects of the Holocaust and Holocaust
revisionism that were completely new to us. We were
fascinated with his struggle. He spoke about his erstwhile
Catholic faith, about Germany and Germans then and now, the
Third Reich and Hitler, his own present state and
relationships, his hopes and fears for the future, and many
other topics. Speaking fully and fluently in English and
with an astonishing grasp of facts and interpretations, the
hours turned into days and yet never, not once did he repeat
himself.
Resistance is Obligatory
In Germar's new book "Resistance Is Obligatory" you will
read the address made by Germar to the Mannheim District
Court prior to his sentence and conviction. You will see the
writings of Germar on a variety of matters including
truth-seeking as the essence of human dignity, the conflict
between the truth-seeker and the state, the meaning of
science, justice and resistance in Germany and in other
countries. You will find appendices documenting numerous
motions to the courts and their rejections, letters to
distinguished historians and their craven and sometimes
less-than-craven replies. Finally, you will hear the court's
verdict and the sentence.
Read it and Resist!
Not
[1] In Rudolf's case it was Rassinier's book Was ist
Wahrheit?, 8th ed., Druffel, Leoni, 1982; Engl.: The Real
Eichmann Trial or The Incorrigible Victors, Institute for
Historical Review, Torrance 1976.
Pakistan
Munawar Hasan Denounces Drone Attacks: Wants Permanent Ban
on NATO Supplies
by Shamsuddin Amjad
LAHORE, Aug. 22: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Syed
Munawar Hasan, has stressed upon the Islamic movements to
prove through their conduct that Islam is the religion of
peace while terrorism has been thrust upon the Muslims by
the west only to malign Islam and its believers. He was
addressing a large Eid celebration congregation at Mansoora
mosque. He also talked to media men on the occasion.
Syed Munawar Hasan said that the US and the west were
terrorists themselves. The US and its allies had killed
millions of innocent and unarmed human beings in Iraq and
Afghanistan without any justification and Pakistan was their
target now. Scores of people were being killed in FATA and
the Tribal areas by drones and drone attacks had continued
even during the month of Ramadan and on Eid days. These
attacks were going on in North Waziristan and a gulf was
being created between the people and the armed forces of the
country. It was the duty of the Army chief to realize the
task assigned to him by the nation and act accordingly, he
said.
The JI Ameer said, the civil government only comprised of
incompetent people and US slaves. The masses, he said,
wanted a permanent ban on the NATO supplies and an end to
the drone attacks. If the army and the government failed to
do this, the masses would be forced to come on roads and the
situation could take any turn for which the civil
government and the army chief would be responsible.
The JI Ameer said that the Pakistan's society was full of
tyranny. The people who ruled the country for the last four
decades had been deceiving the masses and exploiting them
openly. It was high time that these cheats be thrown out of
power.
He slated the jamming of the mobile telephone service on Eid
and said that the Interior Minister Rehman Malik was
supposed to facilitate the people instead of creating
problems for them. The Minister had been a total failure in
the maintenance of law and order in the country and in
controlling terrorist activities, and the whole country,
especially Karachi and Balochistan were in the grip of
terrorists. There was no justification for the Interior
Minister to stick to his office.
Continuing, Syed Munawar Hasan said the masses were confused
about the outcome of the elections to be held in the present
scenario. He said, the JI workers and leaders should go from
door to door and impress upon the masses to take the next
elections seriously and to reject the US slaves and those
holding fake degrees and vote for honest and competent
candidates of the JI for the solution of their problems.
War News:
Pakistan: US Drone Strikes and Pak Taliban attacks on Paki
Military
Book Says ISI and Kayani were involved in US Attack on Osama
bin Laden
August 21: The latest US drone strike killed 3 "suspected"
Taliban and wounded 10 in a village 10 miles from Miran Shah
in North Waziristan.
August 18: A US drone strike in the village of Shawwal in
North Waziristan killed 6 Pakistanis and wounded 2.
August 17: Quetta: A human bomber [Taliban] killed 3 of
Pakistan's elite Frontier Corp [FC] troops and 2 Paki
military intelligence officers.
August 16: Nine Islamic fighters infiltrated the
sophisticated Pakistan air force at Kamra [Attock]. The
gunfight continued for 4 hours. The Pakistanis seem to have
suffered heavy losses but admitted only 8 causualties. The
commander of the base himself was wounded. All 9 fighters
gave their lives.
[Our observers say that Paki air force is known for its
terroristic attacks on Muslim villages in the north. PAF
jets and helicopters have killed hundreds of Muslim
villagers because of their support for the Pak Taliban. This
audacious attack, comparable to the one on the Mehran Naval
base in Karachi last year has shaken the top Paki military
brass.] [Several Muslims, all in Punjab, were arrested after
the attack for 'enabling."]
[On Eid, August 20, Pak Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud
issued an Eid message in which he stated that Pakistan was
meant to be an Islamic state and the fight against the
US-backed military will continue till the establishment of
the Caliphate.]
August 22: Richard Miniter in his book Leading from Behind
says that a colonel in Pakistani intelligence, ISI, provided
key information to the CIA which led to the attack on Osama
bin Laden's home in Abbottabad. General Kayani too had
advance notice of the attack.
War News #2
Afghanistan:
US-supporters infiltrated by Taliban: Copter Downed. US Air
Strike Wiped out 36 [in prayer?]
Ramadan has been a tough month for US troops in Afghanistan.
They have come under steady hit-and-run attacks by the
Taliban mujahideen. There is also infiltration of
American-funded troops by Taliban who are killing US troops
from the inside.The most bizarre was the case of a teenager
who made friends with the US forces and then suddenly shot
and killed three marines.
On August 16, a US helicopter went down during a fire fight
with the Taliban north east of Kandahar.
Seven US troops and 4 Afghans trained by them were killed.
On August 19, The police chief installed by Karzai in
Lashkargah was killed. The same day in Farah province an
intelligence officer and a customs officer of Karzai were
killed.
There was a successful air strike by the US in Kunar
province in which 36 Taliban were killed along with their
commanders. Observers say it's not clear why they were
sitting out in the open. It seems that they were getting
ready for prayers.
On August 21, Taliban hit US air force base at Bagram,
damaging a helicopter and the C-17 in which General Dempsey,
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had flown in.
NATO lost 42 killed in Afghanistan during three weeks of
August, of them 3 from New Zealand, one Brit and 38 of US.
The number of wounded is estimated at 120 but not clear from
official sources.
War News #3: [New Trend analysis]
Al-Qaida flags flying: Aleppo holding out Against Assad.
Heavy fighting in Damascus.
Assad prays for photo!
August 22: Islamic forces are holding out in large districts
of Aleppo. Assad's tanks, artillery and jet fighters have
smashed entire blocks of the city but his troops are unable
to take back the areas under Islamic control.
In and around Damascus, heavy fighting is raging. Assad's
forces took back some areas but the mujahideen returned and
took back the areas.
Civilians are suffering every day owing to Assad's use of
heavy weapons in the cities. Many have fled, including
60,000 in Turkish refugee camps and 150,000 in Jordan.
Others have fled to Lebanon where pro-Assad and pro-Islamic
people have exchanged gun fire.
WESTERN DILEMMA: The US is very concerned that the al-Qaida
component of the Islamic resistance is growing larger every
day. Western observers note that al-Qaida flags are flying
quite openly. These are black flags inscribed with the seal
of the Prophet, pbuh, which says La Illaha il Allah. The
hadith prophesied that the armies of Islam would emerge from
the east with black flags.
Our analysis: Western analysts considered that Assad's
blatant massacres of the population would smash the uprising
but Assad would also be weakened. Then the West would
pressure Assad to carry out "reforms." He could even be
replaced by a surrogate, as has happened in Yemen. However,
now the people have support from Iraqi mujahideen as well as
fighters from all over the Muslim world. They have learned
to fight in Afghanistan and Assad's troops are no match for
them. It appears that the Syrian people are quite happy with
this turn of events.
Notice that the uprising has been on for 18 months. Assad
has killed about 20,000 people but has now lost an estimated
5000 of his own [Alawites and Syrian christians] after the
islamics started pouring in from the open Iraqi border.
So what should the West do now? It could still impose a
"no-fly" zone and claim that in spite of everything, it is
on the side of the Syrian people. It could [or may] carry
out air strikes both against al-Qaida and then in the mess
do some on Assad too.
Assad still thinks he can fool at least his own supporters
and the Iranians. On Eid, he came out and prayed in a
"government mosque" and had himself photographed while
praying. He must think he can fool everyone all of the time.
His Alawite and Syrian Christian troops have demolished
countless mosques WITH ARTILLERY because the demonstrators
come out of the mosques. [On Eid day, in spite of the
fighting, there was a rally against Assad in Damascus.]
Beware of Iranian propaganda which supports Russian and
Chinese support for Assad but condemns the small arms from
Turkey and money from Qatar and Saudi Arabia as a western
plot. Remember that Muslims live in Turkey, Qatar and Saudi
Arabia. Why would they not support the Muslims of Syria? Why
is that a western conspiracy?
Our America
Voter ID Laws: the American Coup d'état
By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III
A coup d'état is defined as a strike against the state. It
is the sudden, illegal deposition of a government, usually
by a small group of the existing state establishment. In a
typical coup the military is used to depose the existing
government and replace it with another body, civil or
military. In Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, military
historian Edward Luttwak states that "[a] coup consists of
the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the
state apparatus, which is then used to displace the
government from its control of the remainder."
Americans are very familiar with coups. The American
government has been involved in overthrowing foreign
governments for years. In 1893 American marines overthrew
Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. In 1909 President Taft
ordered the overthrow of Nicaraguan president Jose' Santos
Zelaya. In 1953 the CIA's Kermit Roosevelt and General
Norman Schwarzkoph, Sr. masterminded the overthrow of the
democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad
Mossadegh. In 1954 there was the Guatemalan coup, in 1963
there was the South Vietnam coup, in 1973 there was the US
backed coup in Chile, and in 1991 there was the US coup in
Haiti that removed democratically elected president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, just to name a few .
Historically the American government has used American media
to promote and rationalize the need for "regime change" in
foreign countries. Misinformation, distortions, and lies
have been presented as truths in order to convince Americans
that "dictators" must be overthrown in order to protect
American security, American interests (usually business
and/or access to resources), or to stop the rise of a
socialist/communist leader.
Today ultra-conservative interests are engaging in similar
tactics. They are not using the military; it is a bloodless
coup. A small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus
is attempting to effect regime change by corrupting the
American democratic process. Under the pretext of "voter
fraud" ultra-conservatives are working fervently to decrease
the number of legally registered Americans that will be able
to vote in the 2012 election by enacting laws requiring
voters to show government issued photo identification at the
polls. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, "More
than 5 million Americans could be affected by the new rules
already put in place this year — a number larger than the
margin of victory in two of the last three presidential
elections." Too many in mainstream media are blindly
reporting this false "voter fraud" issue as fact and not
asking those who are promoting it to provide evidence to
support their claims.
The logic is clear and makes perfect sense. Only those
legally registered to vote in American elections should be
allowed to do so. Any appearance of voter fraud in the
process taints the outcome and jeopardizes the democratic
process. Laws need to be put in place to ensure that only
eligible registered voters exercise the franchise.
Even though the logic makes sense, the problem with the new
voter ID laws being enacted is that they are addressing a
problem that does not exist. According to Mother Jones, "The
analysis of 2,068 reported fraud cases by News21, a
Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project, found 10
cases of alleged in-person voter impersonation since 2000.
With 146 million registered voters in the United States,
those represent about one for every 15 million prospective
voters..." In Pennsylvania, the latest state to approve ID
laws, the state attorneys signed a stipulation agreement
acknowledging that there "have been no investigations or
prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and
the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any
such investigations or prosecutions in other states." Simply
put, there's no data to support the claim. They passed a law
to address a problem that does not exist.
Another problem with the new voter ID laws is that they have
a discriminatory impact on the electorate. Most of the
legally registered voters that will be impacted by the new
laws are primarily seniors, people of color, those with
disabilities, low-income voters, and students. According to
the Citizens Without Proof report, "...11% of voting-age
American citizens—and an even greater percentage of African
American, low-income, and older citizens—do not have current
and valid government-issued photo IDs." Preventing these
demographics from voting is the real motivation behind these
laws.
According the Brennan Center for Justice, "16 states have
passed restrictive voting laws that have the potential to
impact the 2012 election (Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa,
Kansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia,
Wisconsin, and West Virginia). These states account for 214
electoral votes, or nearly 79 percent of the total needed to
win the presidency." Also, at least nine states introduced
bills to reduce their early voting periods, and four tried
to reduce absentee voting opportunities. Florida, Georgia,
Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia succeeded in enacting
bills reducing early voting. It's no coincidence that of
those states listed above all but three (Illinois, New
Hampshire, and West Virginia) have Republican governors with
Republican controlled legislatures with New Hampshire having
a Democratic governor with a Republican controlled
legislature. The 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed to
protect the effected constituencies in many of the states
that are passing ID laws in violation of the Act.
Why are ultra-conservative Americans undermining the
American democratic process under the hypocritical pretext
of protecting it? One person one vote is the cornerstone of
Jeffersonian democracy. So much so that American soldiers
are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice defending it at
home and promoting it abroad.
By passing these unjust Voter ID laws and changing other
voting processes they are engaging in attempted regime
change. They are violating the most cherished Constitutional
protection in a bloodless coup d'état against America's
first African American democratically elected president.
Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the nationally
broadcast call-in talk radio program "Inside the Issues with
Wilmer Leon," and a Teaching Associate in the Department of
Political Science at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Go to Dr-Leons-Prescription@facebook.com, www.wilmerleon.com
, email: wjl3us@yahoo.com., www.twitter.com/drwleon
© 2012 InfoWave Communications, LLC.
Man's Twin by Kaukab Siddique [Continued from
previous issue
.]
[The journey to Pakistan] [The Sikh saved Gulnar from the
mob and took her home. His wife Bimal would not let her
stay.]
"Bimal! Don't feel so threatened I don't get carried away by
apretty face..."
"If you want me here you must send her off. Find out about
the convoy," her voice was getting louder.
"Don't let her hear you, I'll find out. She will be gone
soon."
The whirling chaos of images and thoughts slowed a little
iGulnar's mind. She began to sort out cause and effect to
know what had happened to her.
"Abba and Ammi are dead. I have lost both my parents. Shahid
is dead. All of them are dead. That ball of fire was my
home. Harchand Singh brought me here, but before that...all
those men... will I live..,.should I live... why should I
live after this. Perhaps one of Harchand's daggers will
finish me quickly...it looks very sharp...that sharp edge
will be quick if I push it in hard enough...perhaps Abba and
Ammi will be there when I go to the other world." Gulnar
stretched her hand weakly towards the daggers arranged in a
decorative pattern on the nearby wooden shelf.
Harchand Singh steppedinto the room and saw Gulnar reaching
for the dagger. With a quick step he lunged forward and
caught her hand in a firm grip. For a moment he looked into
her troubled eyes. Then lowering his gaze, he said:"You are
very young. Your entire life is in front of you. A time will
come when you will be happy that you are alive. Life is very
precious. You must live; cling to your life. The days will
pass. The madness of the people will pass. Wait for that
time. Our elders and your elders have taught that life is
most precious. If you take your own life, the souls of your
father and mother will be very unhappy. They would want you
to live. For their sake you must live. Wait for the new day.
Wait! understand?"
Harchand kept talking to her for a long time. She watched
him listlessly. The flies buzzed around her face. She did
not try to avoid the flies. For a moment she thought she
would break down and cry,but the tears did not come.
Harchand kept on speaking. She could not hear what he was
saying, but some of his words echoed and re-echoed in her
mind. "You must live. Your father and mother would want you
to live."
Hours later when Harchand Singh left the room, Gulnar
noticed that he had removed the daggers as well as pieces of
crockery and all other sharp or moveable items from the
room.
That evening, men armed with guns and steel tipped staves
gathered in front of Harchand Singh's home. These were
Sikhs.Harchand's own people. Their leader, a tall bearded
man with a slight limp, shouted at the top of his voice.
"Harchand Singh, we know you have a Muslim girl in there. By
now you should have had your fill of her. Hand her over to
us."
Harchand Singh came out with a rifle in his hand. Behind him
stood Bimal Kaur his wife, with another rifle ready to
use.
"This is my house, and I know how to defend it. If anyone
makes the mistake of trying to enter, he will be a dead man.
That's all I have to say."
Gradually the crowd retreated, shifted away, and
dispersed.
"Did I not tell you that she must go?" Gulnar could hear
Bimal cajoling her husband. "If you don't send her to
Pakistan, tomorrow you will have to fight your own people.
"Yes, yes, I will find out what can be done," Harchand Singh
replied unhappily.
Three days later, Harchand Singh and Gulnar travelled
through the darkness of the night to a refugee convoy
guarded by the Baluch regiment. While bidding her farewell
he said,
"I wish you a better future in Pakistan. Remember you have
your whole life to live. The night will pass. The nightmare
will pass. God has made you very beautiful. If your soul is
as beautiful as your body, one day you will be happy. Wait
for that day to come."
For the first time, Gulnar spoke directly to him: "I will
not forget what you have done for me. I am going to live. I
am determined to live. Thank you and farewell."
The convoy moved out at dawn, slowly, with much confusion.
It was led by an army truck with six soldiers and an officer
from the Baluch regiment which would later become part of
the Pakistan army. The convoy straggled out onto the road
for almost two miles and where it ended, there was another
six soldiers carring .303 rifles. These two vehicles were
protecting several thousand refugees between them. The most
vulnerable of these were women who had lost all male
relatives. They were packed into six open trucks which had
been requisitioned by the army. These women were very quiet,
staring vacantly into space, not even trying to talk to each
other, unmindful of the glare of the sun and the dust cloud
kicked up by the movement of the convoy.
Gulnar felt thankful for the guns in the hands of the
soldiers. She huddled as far back into the truck as she
could, thankful again for being able to hide in a crowd of
people in the same predicament as she was.
Behind the ramshackle trucks carrying the women, there was a
motley collection of buses,trucks, jeeps and cars, all
packed with fleeing people carrying their most precious
belongings in their hands. The buses had people on their
roofs and hanging on at the doors and the windows. There
were infants crying and men coughing owing to the dust
cloud. But the children in the convoy were very quiet: even
when the convoy stopped so that people could go out into the
countryside and relieve themselves, the children did not
play or run around as children normally do. (Gulnar was not
a child any longer.In her parents' home she would have been
considered a child, a growing child in her teenage. But now
she was a woman, and the soldiers naturally told her to go
with the other homeless women.)
Harchand Singh had selected the best convoy he could for
Gulnar, the one guarded by the Baluch regiment. The sight of
soldiers in uniform kept marauders away. Harchand could have
just left her with one of the refugee columns, moving
towards Pakistan. There were dozens of such refugee columns,
moving out from every city, every collection of villages in
the Punjab. These refugees in their thousands moved slowly,
staying close together for protection against raiding Sikhs
and Hindus. Most of the refugees were on foot; the luckier
ones among them had brought along their bullock carts. At
night, the refugees were most open to attack. The
countryside was unlit by electricity. In the pitch darkness,
the raiders would slip in among the refugees, and kill and
rob. The raiders were especially looking for women to carry
away, terrified women unable to resist and at the margin of
hope. The night would be pierced by shouts and cries, the
agony of fatally wounded men, children screaming in terror,
women begging for mercy.
The numbers of refugees swelled from tens of thousands to
hundreds of thousands, then into the millions. The entire
Muslim population of Eastern Punjab was uprooted. Well
organized massacres claimed thousands of victims slaughtered
indiscriminately. In turn, the killers triggered panic and
the flight of an entire population. On a smaller scale the
killing and pillage occurred across the length and breadth
of India. Pakistan was to be drowned in a sea of blood.
Some signs of normal times remained. The train service to
Lahore was still running. Built by the British for military
purposes, the railway was still the fastest way of reaching
Lahore from any point in eastern Punjab. Many families took
this option to emigrate to Pakistan. It was a fatal mistake.
The train was a local. It stopped frequently at big and
small stations. And at every one of these stations, armed
Sikhs were waiting. They would get on the train and the
killing and looting would start. The attackers would jump
off when the train started moving. At the next station, the
same thing would happen. It was a massacre in relays. The
first few trains had as many as fifty percent of the
passengers murdered in them by the time they reached Lahore.
But then the percentage rose to 75% dead. The rest would be
in a state of shock or suffering from wounds and mutilations
of a great variety. Every now and then a train would reach
Lahore with every passenger in it dead. The railway
administration in Lahore spent all its energies in removing
corpses and cleaning the blood off the floors and seats of
the railway carriages. The killers did not waste bullets on
their helpless victims: kirpans, swords, bludgeons, long
knives were used: hence the blood.
Gulnar was lucky that Harchand Singh had not put her on the
train to Lahore.
That night the convoy with which she was travelling stopped
out in the countryside. The refugees huddled together. The
only light came from a campfire started by the Baluch
regiment escort. The night was still and menacing. The
refugees were not used to sleeping on the ground. The change
in their fortunes had been too sudden to be a learning
experience. Gulnar could not put into words what had
happened to her. She could not share her suffering with the
other homeless women. They had undergone basically the same
experience but were unable to communicate with each other
about it. Gulnar felt that her world had come to an end.
There was nothing but darkness and the shrieking of drunken
men in her mind. What tomorrow would bring was not even a
question to be considered. Perhaps there would be no
tomorrow. Her existence was limited to the pain in her mind
and in her body. Harchand Singh had made it possible for her
to live, to bear the pain, to keep moving towards Pakistan.
But that was all. How does one live after losing father,
mother, brothers, home, all in one night? How does one
survive gang rape and endless fear, all-encompassing fear?
Gulnar did not have any answers.
Infants were crying in the stillness of the starlit night.
Their mothers spoke to them in whispers. Suddenly there was
a cry and the sound of people running.
"Help, help, my daughter has been kidnapped," one of the
refugees was running, shouting and screaming towards the
army truck. Two of the soldiers ran to help him. One of them
aimed his rifle towards the general direction of the
darkness and fired one shot. The startling waves of sound
accentuated the heavy stillness of the night. Hindu raiders
had slipped into the outskirts of the bivoucked refugee
column and kidnapped a young woman. Her father had been
unable to stop the attackers. The Baluch soldiers were too
few to protect everybody. The father was trembling all over,
sobbing with his hands clasped to his face. Nothing could be
done. The raiders had disappeared into the night with their
booty.
Into the second day, the sky grew overcast and by the
evening, it was raining hard. The rain continued throughout
the night and into the next day. The torrential rain stopped
a recurrence of the previous night's raids on the refugee
column, but it brought new problems, dampness, cold and
disease.
Gulnar, sitting for hours under the rain in the back of the
requisitioned truck, had been drenched to the skin. She
began shivering with cold and lack of energy. The daily
ration of thin lentil soup and dry roti was not enough to
keep her feeling warm and healthy. Almost in a swoon she was
pressing against the woman sitting next to her. Instead of
being pushed away with curses, she felt the woman allowing
her to share the warmth of her body, caressing her as one
caresses a child. Gulnar peered at her neighbor's face in
surprise, It was a young/old face, streaked with fear, the
eyes narrowed and forehead wrinkled with deep concentration
of thought.
"I am Gulnar...who are you bibiji?"
"I?... used to be Tanveer....Tanveer Sajjad....I don't know
who I am now" the old/young woman spoke in a hoarse whisper
into Gulnar's ear.
"When will this journey end? Do you know?"
"I hope it never ends....I don't know what I'll do after it
ends." The woman was shaking with anguished but suppressed
sobs, without crying out loud, without making a noise.
Gulnar did not feel up to asking her for details.
By midday the clouds had dissipated and the hot, burning sun
returned. That night the raiders reappeared. The gloom was
scarred by screams, shots, curses. The Baluch escort was
busy rushing from place to place around the perimeter of the
sprawling convoy, firing shots into the dark. After an hour
of skirmishes, the galloping of horses indicated that the
attackers had decided to leave. The eerie pall of the pitch
dark night made it difficult for the regugees to see what
had happened. The people waited for the dawn in silence.
Into the second day, the sky grew overcast and by the
evening, it was raining hard. The rain continued throughout
the night and into the next day. The torrential rain stopped
a recurrence of the previous night's raids on the refugee
column, but it brought new problems, dampness, cold and
disease.
"Tanveer bibi..." Gulnar whispered. "Are you awake?"
"I can't sleep. It was a night like this when they came...We
were all fast asleep. We thought we had no enemies. They
killed Sajjad and my three sons. I fought them till I was
hit on the head. I fought them with anything I could lay my
hands on..."
Gulnar listened in silence. Perhaps every woman in the truck
could tell a variation of the same story.
"They chased me around the house until one blow struck me on
the head. They did everything to me while I was
unconscious....When I woke up, the house was on fire....they
had left me for dead, but they had taken our three
dauhters."
Gulnar began to cry. She had not been able to weep for
herself, but Tanveer's ordeal reminded her of the pain she
had suppressed. The tears dripped from her eyes in a steady
stream, streaking the growing layer of dust and dirt on her
face.
"The Baluch regiment came on a rescue sweep through our
town. The soldiers found me sitting outside our blackened
home....There was nothing left in the world for me....For a
week I was under medical care....I would have nightmares
about my daughters and wake up screaming."
The next morning, the convoy crossed into Pakistan. A fresh
breeze was blowing the fragrance of chambeli across the
river on the newly drawn frontier. The people in the convoy
seemed to have awakened from the stupor of terror. For the
first time in her journey, Gulnar heard people talking
normally to each other. They were laughing, embracing,
patting each other on the back. It was good to be alive. The
starchy ramrod-stiff soldiers were shaking hands,
congratulating each other on having brought another convoy
safely into Pakistan. The refugees were lining up for
prayers of thankfulness. They were prostrating, rubbing
their foreheads on the ground. One young woman was kissing
the soil, her dishevelled hair covered with dust. Tears
streaming down her cheeks, she was mumbling, "O land of the
pure, we have given up everything and we are here to serve
you." Gulnar could not share that sentiment. When she closed
her eyes to avoid the glare of the sun, she visualized homes
on fire, screams in the dark, the look of horror on her
father's face as the mob broke into their home.
[To be continued, inshallah.]
2012-08-23 Thu 18:07:00 cdt
NewTrendMag.org