Goebbels. A cruel Biography.
Evil man?, greatest enemy of Communists and Anglo-American
powers.
This book explores his real life with a technique which
cannot be rebutted.
A strange book.
Goebbels. Mastermind of the Third Reich by David Irving.722
pages. 1996. Focal Point. UK.
I have a copy autographed by the author.
It's a cruel book because it is based on Goebbels secret
personal diary, and other related diaries, which was not
meant to be published. It's also cruel because when he
attained power, he issued statements which were contradicted
by his secret diary.
It's difficult to analyze a 700 page book which deals
directly or indirectly with the major personalities and
events of the Second World War. I will limit my comments to
four aspects of the book.
The first surprise one gets is that he was in love with
women all the time.
It started with Anka Stalherm. It was platonic. She was a
married woman and he had a poor opinion of her husband.
During most of his life, he was pining for her but could not
attain her.
Women were strangely attracted to him although he had a club
foot. Numerous women wanted him and gradually he could not
resist them even when he was not important in Germany.
In December 1931 he married Magda. She was fertile and bore
him child after child.
When he had the power and the means, he fell in love with a
Czech beauty, Lida Baarova, for whom he had built a
magnificent retreat.
Hitler liked Magda and was distressed by Goebbels constant
romantic adventures. Hitler then ordered him to stick
loyally to Magda. She stayed with him till the end and went
out of this world, along with her children, when the
Russians finally stormed Berlin.
Irving documents the social context of Germany before the
war. The Communists were active in the streets. The economic
and police structure was controlled by the Jewish elites.
Goebbels joined Hitler's supporters known as the SA. He
defeated Communists in street battles. He was frequently
arrested by the Jewish-controlled police. He would ridicule
the police chief and get arrested. He could not win. Irving
documents each episode.
He recognized Hitler as an authentic leader of Germany
but found that most of Hitler's top supporters were
mediocre. He was specially critical of Goring, chief of the
German air force, the luftwaffe. He could not understand
Hitler's love for Italian leader Mussolini whose weaknesses
and the flabbiness of Italian troops damaged Germsany's
cause.
Often Goebbels, quietly in his diary, disagreed with Hitler
and even thought that Hitler was not a revolutionary leader.
However he remained totally loyal to Hitler because Hitler
had done so much for Germany that he was the only person
whom the German people could consider their trustworthy
leader.
The most important aspect of Irving's book is about
Goebbel's role in the war.
Defense of Germany became increasingly difficult after
Russia {USSR} and USA joined UK. Churchill, the British
leader had provoked Germany into attacking civilians. With
American help, the British air force devised a technique to
set fire
to entire German cities. The fire storms ignited by the
British killed tens of thousands of men, women and children.
Large numbers of civilians were burned alive even in their
shelters. Churchill had been advised that if huge numbers
of civilians were killed, Germany would collapse and the
German people may even turn against Hitler.
This is where Goebbels became the real leader of Germany as
Hitler's health deteriorated and he was targeted in a bomb
attack by a traitor named Stauffenberg and his clique.
Goebbels defeated the internal enemies and was able to stir
up stiff resistance to the western allies and Russia. Irving
gives us a flavor of Goebbels speeches and the transforming
influencing they had on the German people.
Irving very briefly summarizes the bombing of German cities
and the superb defense of Berlin 's air space organized by
Goebbels, the only time the British air force was
defeated.
The British air force, says Irving, ravaged the cities of
Essen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf asnd Duisburg in May 1943. Then
the bombers breached several Ruhr dams drowning 700 people.
The bombers burned alive 2450 people in the town of
Wuppertal. [pages 433-434.] In June, the British bombers
"devastated" the cities of Dusseldorf again an d also
Bochum, Oberhausen, Cologne and Krefeld by two-thousand ton
bomb raids. [p.435] Images of the raids showed "mangled
headless infants, and bulldozers tipping bodies into pits."
His wife Magda and the children burst into tears.
Goebbels went from city to injured city helping people and
issued 157 civil defense circulars. In the mean time the
British raided Wuppertal again and this time 2750 people
were burned alive. [P. 436]
On July 24, 1943, in a massive raid the British air force
set the entire city of Hamburg on fire, killing more than
50,000 people. They were literally incinerated "inside the
bunkers, torn apart by explosives, tossed into the flames by
the fiery tornadoes." [p.441] Hamburg was second only to
Berlin.
David Irving notes that after the horrific fire bombing of
Hamburg, with 50, 000 civilians killed and tens of thousands
injured, a ripple of fear
and instability touched the German people. The diaries show
that Goebbels understood that Berlin would be the next
target of the British air force.
He considered Berlin his city. He was the gauleiter of
Berlin. He had spoken to crowds of thousands and assured
them that Germany would not be defeated.
He too personal charge of the defense of Berlin. As he flew
over Hamburg, he saw that what remained of the noble city
was only " charred and lifeless" ruins.
He made a major effort to evacuate the civilian population
of Berlin. Two million people, including most of the
children were evacuated. The weakened but eager German air
force was alerted. On August 23, 1943, the British bombers
came and were massacred. Using visual sightings, Goebbels
defense forces shot down 56 British bombers. Even then 765
Belin civilians including 27 children were killed.
On August 31, the British bombers came again and the German
defenders pounced and shot down 47. This time only 13
civilians, were killed and no children.
On September 3, the British leader Churchill sent in his
best, 295 Lancasters. The Germans were ready and shot down
20 Lancasters. However the Brits were able to kill 346
civilians but only one child. Churchill saw defeat and
stopped attacking Berlin. Churchill had lost 126 bombers in
only three raids. [p.442] A great victory for Goebbels.
Germany was not ready for total war. Large segments of the
country outside the cities behaved as if was peace time.
Goebbels realized huge armies from the West [America,
Canada, Gritain, Indian troops] and massivet Russian armies
from the east would roll into Germany once the front lines
were broken. He urged preparation for total war but it was
too late. Hitler was getting physically weaker by the day
and the bomb attack by the traitor Stauffenburg shook the
military structure.
Constant speeches by Goebbels brought up the German fighting
spirit. Many Germans, particularly the SS units, fought to
the end.
Goebbels and his wife Magda took their own lives at the end
and also ended the lives of their 6 innocent children.
Hitler and the woman, Eva Braun, who had loved him for 14
years also took their own lives. Goebbels refused to
surrender regardless of the impossible odds,
When Russian artillery was hitting not far from Hitler's
bunker and the end was near, Hitler was shocked to see that
Goebbels wife Magda was still there and told her to leave.
Her reply to Hitler, whom she greatly admired is worth
noting:
"Mein Fuhrer, my husband is the leader of Berlin. Life
without my husband would have no purpose for me - nor did I
bear my children to have them put on display in the Soviet
Union and America as the children of the propaganda minister
Goebbels." [p. 515-516]
This book is not about Hitler.
I will say about Magda's words: spoken like a true German
woman.
Pakistan
Imran Khan. Complete Sell Out.
[Source:
Al Jazeera July 2]
Pakistan's Khan backs China on Uighurs, praises one-party
system
Imran Khan repeats his country's support for the Chinese
government regarding its policies in Muslim-majority
Xinjiang province.
Pakistan's PM Imran Khan also lauded the one-party system of
governance in China, where the state is exclusively
controlled by the Communist Party of China [File: Dinuka
Liyanawatte/Reuters]
Pakistan's PM Imran Khan also lauded the one-party system of
governance in China, where the state is exclusively
controlled by the Communist Party of China [File: Dinuka
Liyanawatte/Reuters]
2 Jul 2021
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has repeated his
country's support for the Chinese government regarding its
policies in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, while
also praising the country's one-party system as offering a
better model for societies compared with electoral
democracy.
Khan was speaking to members of the Chinese news media who
were visiting Islamabad as part of the 100th anniversary
celebrations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on
Thursday.
Rights groups accuse China of systematic and widespread
"mass internment and torture amounting to crimes against
humanity" against the Muslim population in its southwestern
Xinjiang province.
In a report last month, Amnesty International termed the
situation in Xinjiang "a dystopian hellscape", citing dozens
of witness accounts that detailed allegations of
brainwashing, torture and an erasure of cultural
identity.
But Khan, who has regularly called for international action
against Islamophobia, particularly in European countries,
said he was satisfied with the Chinese government's denials
of any rights abuses.
"Our interaction with Chinese officials, that version of
what is happening in Xinjiang is completely different to the
version of what we hear from the Western media and the
Western governments," he said on Thursday.
"Because we have our very strong relationship with China,
and because we have a relationship based on trust, so we
actually accept the Chinese version. What they say about
their programmes in Xinjiang, we accept it."
Pakistan shares a longstanding strategic relationship with
its northeastern neighbour China, which has invested more
than $60bn in the country through the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Khan also lauded the one-party system of governance in
China, where the state is exclusively controlled by the
Communist Party of China and there are no direct elections
for major positions or the country's parliament.
"The CPC is a unique model. Up until now, we were told that
the best way for societies to improve themselves is the
Western system of democracy," said Khan.
"What the CPC has done is that it has brought this
alternative model. And they have actually beaten all Western
democracies in the way they have brought up merit in their
society."
Khan, who was elected to power in a general election in
2018, said electoral democracy "straight-jackets you" when
it comes to reforms, and lauded the "flexibility" of the
Chinese model.
"Up until now, the feeling was that electoral democracy is
the best way where you get leadership based on merit, and
then hold that leadership accountable. But what the CPC has
done is that without that electoral democracy it has
actually achieved that much better," he said.
War News
Afghanistan
Retreat of a superpower. July 1
Fighting North and South.
The last US and Nato forces have left Afghanistan's Bagram
airbase, the centre of the war against militants for some 20
years, US officials say.
The pull-out could signal that the complete withdrawal of
foreign forces from Afghanistan is imminent.
President Joe Biden has said US forces will be gone by 11
September.
But the withdrawal from the sprawling base, north of Kabul,
comes as the main jihadist group, the Taliban, advances in
many parts of Afghanistan.
Latest. July 3.
Local sources say Taliban fighters have captured the
headquarters of three distructs in Badakhshan province,
Most important
June 30, Taliban captured the crossing points leading from
Afghanistan into Tajikistan.
Earlier. June 29,
Taliban captured 3 districts in Ghazni province and one
province in
Paktika province.
Opinion
July 4.
New Trend Considers this a
unique Message of Support for
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui by Nadrat Siddique.
This is what Nadrat wrote.
Boston is a humbling experience. I finished the hot, hilly
26.2 miles for Aafia in 4:04:41.
(The clock reading shows 4:08. The disparity arises because
not everyone can cross the start line at the same time in
such a large race. Fortunately each runner is timed
individually with an electronic chip embedded in one's race
number, worn on the front of one's shirt. Official results
are at: baa.org).
I was a lowly 6,463 out of 11,973 women finishers (women
complete only against women). So roughly the same number of
women finished ahead of me, as finished behind me. Unless
you are a professional athlete, Boston is not a race you do
to win. The entire field is very fast, well-trained
athletes. I was just grateful at having completed it, and
particularly without resorting to walking. (Yes, I even ran
the infamous Heartbreak Hill in its entirety.) No quitting
when you're running for Aafia!
Invitation to Think
Right now, Bill Cosby, 83, is a free man and America is outraged!
by Sis. Aisha
Jamaat al-Muslimeen
Cosby was sentenced to three to ten years for sexual assault
with eligibility for parole. Recently, after serving over
two years in prison, Cosby had been denied parole for not
participating in therapy for sex offenders. Cosby defiantly
stated that he would serve all ten years of his sentence
rather than say he is guilty.
It was in the early 2000s that accusations of Cosby drugging
and raping women came to light. And, of course, comedian
Hannibal Burress's famous rant about these allegations,
during one of his stand-up routines, shed even more light on
them. Could this have been one of Hollywood's open secrets?
Many murderers and sexual predators have gone on to cement
their legacy on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2005, Andrea Constand accused Bill Cosby of sexually
assaulting her but, after considering his chances for a
successful prosecution, Montgomery County (Pennsylvania)
District Attorney Bruce Castor declined to indict Bill
Cosby. Former D.A. Castor, now Montgomery County
Commisioner, considered his chances for conviction very low
for the following reasons:
Constand took a year to make her claim
There was no evidence of rape.
On a few occasions, there were inconsistencies in her
statements about the alleged assault.
It was discovered that before going to police Andrea
Constand had contacted civil attorneys, which indicated that
she was seeking money.
Constand maintained a close relationship with Cosby after
the alleged assault.
Her recorded conversations with Cosby to get an admission
of guilt was likely illegal and could be seen as
extortion.
Most importantly, there were no other records of anyone
else ever having gone to police with these same
accusations.
Therefore, the only way to bring criminal charges would be
if Cosby confessed.
This refusal to prosecute in criminal court allowed the
alleged victim to pursue a civil court case against Cosby
but for financial compensation. Former D.A. Castor reasoned
that not pursuing a criminal case would enable Andrea
Constand to get some form of justice. Unlike criminal court
cases, civil court proceedings have a lower standard of
proof.
According to former D.A. Castor, his strategy was to remove
any threat of a criminal prosecution thereby preventing
Cosby from invoking the Fifth Amendment, which prevents
defendants from testifying against themselves in criminal
cases. This also applies in civil court cases, if there is
still a chance for a criminal prosecution based on any new
evidence resulting from a deposition. But, if there is no
threat of a criminal prosecution then, the defendant must
testify in a deposition.
So, former D.A. Castor said he decided to eliminate any
opportunity, present or future, for the State of
Pennsylvania to criminally prosecute Bill Cosby only with
regard to Constand's case. This would allow Constand's civil
attorneys to ask Cosby any questions they wanted and he had
to answer them. This was agreed upon by lawyers for Constand
and Cosby, at the time.
On March 15, 2015, over ten years later, Andrea Constand
successfully sued Bill Cosby, in civil court, and won a
$3.38 million dollar settlement. It was in four depositions
that Bill Cosby gave several incriminating statements. One
of the statements was that he had given quaaludes, which is
a controlled substance, to women before engaging in
allegedly unwanted sexual contact with them.
However, former D.A. Castor's successor, Risa Vetri Ferman,
decided to violate the previous decision to not criminally
prosecute Cosby by reopening a criminal case against him.
Also, during this trial, five other accusers were allowed to
give testimony from incidents that allegedly occured decades
ago. The statute of limiations would have expired for those
accusations. D.A. Ferman, who is now a judge, filed her
criminal case against Bill Cosby on September 23, 2015,
which was only a few days before the statute of limitations
for sexual assault for Andrea Constand would have
expired.
Based on the previous decision not to prosecute Cosby in
criminal court, the only way former D.A. Ferman would have
been able to prosecute a criminal case was with new evidence
because the deposition was off limits! The deposition could
not be used as a "gotcha" move after it was agreed there
would be no criminal prosecution resulting from it. The fact
that the judge allowed the deposition into evidence and for
a criminal trial to move forward was a violation.
On an earlier episode of the Community Cop Show, co-host
Julian Harper informed viewers that the reason why comedian
Bill Cosby was tried and convicted, criminally, was because
former D.A. Risa Ferman violated a legally binding agreement
made by her predecessor, former D.A. Castor.
Could former D.A. Ferman's position as a judge be her reward
for her transgression? Judge Jackie Glass got her own tv
show after imposing the unusually long sentencing O.J.
Simpson to nine years, which legal experts questioned.
Staten Island D.A. Daniel Donovan Jr. was given a vacant
congressional seat after failing to bring charges against
officers involved in Eric Garner's murder, which was caught
on video.
This is kuffar politics. Their rules are for the rest of us
to follow but, when some of these powerful politicos don't
like our chances at winning their games, they change the
rules midstream. Unfortunately, there are instances where
only Allah knows the truth and a conviction can be very
difficult to obtain in a he-said-she-said case. As a victim
of any kind of crime, the worst nightmare to experience is
the overturned conviction of the person who harmed you!
In any future effort to convict Bill Cosby, time appears to
be on his side because the statute of limitations expired
for all of the known accusers. Plus, there is no physical
evidence. Even the deposition, which was supposed to be
inadmissible may not be used.
Julian Harper, a retired detective, remarked that
prosecutors should not violate laws nor our rights in order
to get convictions. According to the Associated Press, the
highest court in Pennsylvania agreed and overturned Bill
Cosby's sexual assault conviction because of the previous
arrangement made with former D.A. Castor.
It is clear that Bill Cosby's freedom is based on a
technicality and not on any evidence supporting his claims
of innocence. He is worth $400 million and it is possible
that more civil suits will be filed against him by other
accusers.
(Source: TheGrio.com & PACourts.US
With thanks to Br. Ather.
Sask. First Nation announces hundreds of unmarked graves
found at former residential school site
Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997
CBC News · Posted: Jun 23, 2021 5:14 PM CT | Last Updated:
June 23
The Cowessess First Nation says it has found hundreds of
unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential
School gravesite. There are already some marked graves at
the site. (CBC)
WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find
distressing.
The Cowessess First Nation says it has discovered hundreds
of unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian
Residential School in Saskatchewan.
A news release Wednesday from Cowessess and the Federation
of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations (FSIN), which
represents Saskatchewan's First Nations, did not give a
specific number but said it will be the most found to date
in Canada.
Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme and FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron
are scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning to
provide more details of the findings.
The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to
1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located, about 140
kilometres east of Regina.
The First Nation took over the school's cemetery from the
Catholic Church in the 1970s.
Earlier this month Cowessess started using
ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves.
The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to
1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located. There are
already some marked graves at the site. (CBC)
Last month the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C.
announced the discovery of a burial site adjacent to the
former Kamloops Indian Residential School that preliminary
findings indicate contains the remains of 215 children.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde
said the news is tragic but not surprising.
"I urge all Canadians to stand with First Nations in this
extremely difficult and emotional time," he posted on
Twitter Wednesday evening.
Residential school survivor remembers a friend he never saw again
Barry Kennedy, a residential school survivor who attended
Marieval Indian Residential School, said he is shocked by
the news but not surprised.
"During my time at Marieval Indian Residential School I had
a young friend that was dragged off one night screaming," he
said.
Kennedy never saw his little friend again.
"His name was Bryan.... I want to know where Bryan is."
Kennedy said Wednesday's news out of Cowessess is only the
tip of the iceberg.
"I would imagine that, you know, by the stories that ...
were told by our friends and fellow students that there is
multiple locations, you know, per school."
"We were introduced to rape. We're introduced to violent
beatings. We were introduced to things that weren't normal
with our families."
'They deny us our right to grieve,' says one Saskatchewan
chief
Chief Wayne Semaganis from Little Pine First Nation in
Saskatchewan says hearing about the news so close to home is
upsetting.
"Even today there is still dismissiveness from the general
public — that it's a history, it's in the past," he
told CBC News.
"No it's not in the past. It's today. It's ongoing.... [The
children buried at residential schools] were murdered
— because if there were accidents, if they died of
natural causes, somebody would have been alerted."
Semaganis said it's frustrating that even now it's
Indigenous people who have to prove that they were hurt.
"There is still too many of the great majority of Canada
that don't understand our grief," said Semaganis.
"They deny us our right to grieve. That is what really
hurts."
'Horrific truth' of schools: Saskatoon mayor
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe issued a written statement
Wednesday evening, addressing the news out of Cowessess.
"Today, all of Saskatchewan mourns for those who were
discovered buried in unmarked graves near the former
Marieval Indian Residential School site," he said.
"I understand many were children, and it is heart breaking
to think that so many children lost their lives after being
separated from their families, and away from the love and
solace only a family can provide. "
Moe said he spoke with FSIN Chief Cameron as well as
Cowessess Chief Delorme, offering the full support of the
provincial government.
In an interview with CBC Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan NDP
Leader Ryan Meili said his heart goes out to the Cowessess
First Nation and the trauma they must be feeling.
"We knew this was coming. We knew that this was the case,"
the Official Opposition leader said.
"Yet you still get this pit in your stomach and just this
heart-sinking feeling."
More Sask. First Nations announce efforts to find graves of
residential school students
Most say Saskatchewan's residential school death toll is far
higher than the 566 confirmed cases
Saskatchewan needs to listen to Indigenous leaders, elders
and survivors, said Meili, and act on the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action.
Meili also called on the Catholic Church to release all its
records related to abuse at residential schools in order to
tell the whole story.
"We need to work alongside the communities that continue to
search the residential school sites and make sure we find
all of these unmarked graves," Meili said.
"I think about my own kids.... I cannot imagine someone
coming and taking them away and having them come back from
school months later, you know, broken and sad, or never come
home at all."
The City of Saskatoon announced its flags will be lowered to
half-mast Thursday morning to honour all the children found
in unmarked graves at the Marieval Indian Residential
School.
"This brings the horrific truth of these schools right to
our doorstep," Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said in a news
release.
"Many of these children will have had direct relatives who
now live in Saskatoon. They are the missing children that
families have been trying to find over the decades."
Support is available for anyone affected by their experience
at residential schools, and those who are triggered by the
latest reports.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been
set up to provide support for survivors and those affected.
People can access emotional and crisis referral services by
calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
Guidance from Sis. Yasmin.
The Message from a Muslim Student.
'As-Salaam Alaikum'.
What Malcolm X Taught Me About Muslim America.
I fell in love with Malcolm when I was fifteen. He was
eloquent, handsome and, most importantly, revolutionary.
Among a litany of emotionally stunted fictional white men,
the Caulfields and Gatsbys of the standard high school
English syllabus, the central character in The Autobiography
of Malcolm X stood apart. As the only Muslim in my English
class, I was quietly convinced that I understood Malcolm in
a way that no one else could.
As I approached Malcolm's birthday this month on May 19, I
reflected on why I was so quick to identify with his story
as a teenager. I have not spent time in prison, I did not
have an impoverished childhood, and I will never know the
struggle of being African American in the United States. I
remember being intrigued that his was not the Islam I saw
caricatured by the media as I came of age post-9/11, nor was
it the Islam of the foreign-born imams who I struggled to
follow on the rare occasion that my dad took us to a mosque.
To me, Malcolm X's Islam was the unapologetic Islam of the
streets. I was drawn to Malcolm because he was cool.
I was born to a second-generation Swedish American Lutheran
mother and an immigrant Muslim Pakistani father. My mother
did not want to convert, a decision my father respected, but
she agreed to raise us as Muslims. Growing up in Brooklyn in
what was then a black majority neighbourhood, Islam acted as
a passport of sorts—linking my visually out-of-place
family to the Senegalese restaurant owner, the African
American pharmacist who always closed for jummah (Friday
prayers), and the Yemeni bodega owner. The local mosque
issued the athan (call to prayer) four times a day, skipping
only the predawn prayer out of respect for sleeping
neighbours. Years later I was surprised by the controversy
that followed Duke University's attempt to issue the call to
prayer from the campus's chapel. Our neighbourhood was by no
means Muslim majority, but the significant Muslim presence
made it clear that being Muslim was respected.
Post-Trump Islam is becoming an increasingly racialized
category in the United States. "Punish a Muslim Day" took
place this past April. The day originated in England with a
widely circulated letter whose authorship remains unknown,
which called for various attacks against Muslims including
throwing acid on people's faces and bombing mosques. A
Pakistani American man tweeted in response:
On #PunishAMuslimDay. I don't want to give such a vile idea
the Twitter oxygen it craves. Just remember what our hero,
martyr, and walī, Malcolm X said: "Be peaceful, be
courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone
puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
Clearly, I am not alone in my reverence for Malcolm X. My
Facebook newsfeed is flooded every February on the
commemoration of his assassination with images of Malcolm
posted by South Asian Americans with captions like, "May
Allah bless our hero." (Full disclosure: I may have also
posted an Instagram or two.) Young South Asian Muslims who
embrace Malcolm as a walī, or saint-like figure, claim
his narrative of counterculture and resistance as their own.
This narrative is appealing because it is both authentically
American and stands in rebellious contrast to the
assimilationist aspirations of an older generation of South
Asians.
Muslims are the most racially diverse religious group in
America. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of
Muslims are white. (Pew follows the Census Bureau in coding
Arabs and Persians as white, a categorization contested by
many who argue that they are not perceived as white in
America.) About 28 percent of Muslim Americans are Asians, a
category predominantly made up of South Asian immigrants and
their descendants from countries such as Pakistan, India,
and Bangladesh. And, 20 percent of Muslim Americans are
black, a category that includes African Americans, as well
as recent African immigrants and their descendants from
countries such as Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria.
The average American thinks of Muslims as a brown mass,
lumping together South Asians and Arabs, and ignoring black
Muslims. The racialization of Islam has obscured both the
diversity of Muslim America, and the tensions that accompany
that diversity. These tensions, ranging from serious to
light-hearted, played out in my own childhood experience.
Back in Brooklyn, the Senegalese might look down upon the
African American Muslims and incorrectly assume that they
were recent converts. When my grandmother visited from
Pakistan and prayed in the Shi'a manner to which she was
accustomed, a board member from our local Sunni mosque
brusquely suggested that we shift to a Shi'a establishment;
we never went back again. My father had heard Arab men refer
to each as habibi, or "dear." In a cross-cultural faux pas,
he used it trying to be friendly, but our Palestinian grocer
did not take the term of endearment kindly.
Beyond my neighbourhood, discrimination against black
Muslims is rampant in Muslim American spaces. I was shocked
to hear a Pakistani American classmate in my undergraduate
Muslim Student Association refer to a Muslim international
student from West Africa as a "black monkey" in Urdu. More
than once I have heard my uncle's wax angrily and poetically
about their treatment in this country, only to slip in a
veiled racist remark about African Americans a few moments
later.
On a structural level, and looking specifically at South
Asians, white converts and South Asians are vastly
overrepresented among the leadership of prominent Muslim
American institutions such as the Islamic Society of North
America. In her book American Muslim Women, sociologist
Jamillah Karim demonstrates the ways in which racially
segregated divisions in housing between South Asians and
African Americans in Chicago and Atlanta influence the
racial demographics of mosques in those cities. Following
the patterns of the neighbourhoods they serve, mosques are
often divided along racial lines, although it's worth noting
that American mosques are typically more racially integrated
than American churches.
What is the source of South Asian racism against black
Muslims? As a result of the history of race in the United
States and the ongoing prevalence of a black-white racial
binary in which whiteness is associated with goodness, the
process of immigrants assimilating and aspiring to the
American dream of a secure middle-class life often ends up
translating into aspiring to whiteness. South Asian American
communities are no exception. Furthermore, colourism is a
huge issue in South Asia, where whiteness is often equated
with beauty.
In light of this history, is it a revolutionary act for
young South Asians to embrace Malcolm X? It can be, but
unfortunately, this embrace often falls into the trap of
removing Malcolm from his historical context and flattening
his legacy. For example, Malcolm's continued focused
commitment to black liberation post-hajj is often muted in
South Asian-sanctified visions of Malcolm. The same Muslims
who sanctify Malcolm X often dismiss African American
Muslims, associating them with the Nation of Islam (NOI).
There has been a lot of debate in the press recently about
Louis Farrakhan, the current leader of the Nation of Islam,
and his anti-Semitic remarks.
Farrakhan's remarks should be analyzed and held up to
scrutiny, but it's also important not to overstate his
influence. The Pew Research Center points out: "Perhaps the
best-known group of black Muslims in the U.S. is the Nation
of Islam." But today only 3 percent of black Muslims are
part of the Nation of Islam. The vast majority of the NOI's
former adherents followed Warith Deen Mohammed's leadership
and converted to Sunni Islam in the late 1970s.
It should come as no surprise that Muslims Americans have a
race problem; after all, what is more authentically American
than non-black people profiting from aesthetic expressions
of blackness while ignoring actual black communities? In
Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip Hop in the United
States, Su'ad Abdul Khabeer describes the aura of cool that
has come to be associated with black Muslims, especially as
expressed through hip hop culture. Many young Muslims of all
ethnicities draw from Muslim cool, and Khabeer details the
irony of upper-class Pakistani American kids in the southern
suburbs of Chicago flaunting hip-hop culture and benefiting
from the aesthetics of black Muslim cool, while having no
connection whatsoever to the actual black Muslims living
mere miles away.
South Asians are not unique in their reinvention of Malcolm
as a saint; in fact, they are building upon a much longer
history of commodifying Malcolm which Manning Marble, the
formidable historian and expert on Malcolm, details in his
article, "Rediscovering Malcolm: A Historian's Adventure in
Living History." The hip-hop generation first revived
Malcolm's legacy in the 1980s. Artists such as Tupac Shakur
and Public Enemy referenced Malcolm and even sampled
excerpts from his speeches. In 1992, the year I was born,
Spike Lee released the film "X." In the 1990s President Bill
Clinton, whose policies on crime increased mass
incarceration at an unprecedented rate, was spotted wearing
a Malcolm X t-shirt while jogging outside the White House.
Most ironically of all, the United States government, which
had the FBI patently ignore and even encourage death threats
against Malcolm while infiltrating every organization that
he founded or was associated with, issued a postage stamp of
Malcom in 1999.
Movements such as the Nation of Islam are often portrayed as
historically disconnected from other forms of Islamic
expression in the United States, when in fact Malcolm X was
an international Muslim American spokesperson during his
lifetime, and the NOI provided Malcolm a platform for the
majority of his career. The politics of the Nation shifted
with time, but it was responsible for introducing thousands
of Americans to Islam. Until recently, scholars across many
academic fields have contributed to the erasure of black
Muslims by frequently relegating the Black Muslim American
experience to a quirky sociological footnote. The field of
American Islam is growing, but many university departments
across the country are still structured to view Islam as the
province of the exotic orient and not as part of American
life. Even ethnographic work on American Muslims tends to
focus on immigrant, mosque-affiliated American Muslims.
There is nothing wrong with these portrayals, but their
ubiquity gives a very limited picture of Muslim America's
diversity.
In Muslims and the Making of America, Amir Hussain, a
theological studies professor at Loyola Marymount, gives
ample examples of Black Muslim luminaries, including of
course, Malcolm X. The short text is clearly meant to be
accessible and shift public perceptions of Islam, which is a
noble goal. But I was troubled to read this line in the
introduction: "We were here before America was America,
arriving in slave ships bound for the colonies." Who is we?
Hussain is a Pakistani American man raised in Canada. His
ancestors were not forcibly taken on slave ships to the
United States, and his everyday lived experiences are not
the same as someone who is perceived by society as a black
American.
I have no doubt that Hussain's invocation of "we" came from
a place of goodwill and a desire to shed light on the
diversity of Muslim Americans stories. However, there is a
difference between standing in solidarity and learning from
someone's liberation struggle and appropriating that
struggle. Fighting Islamophobia should not come at the cost
of ignoring discrimination within our communities.
In the face of rising anti-Muslim sentiments, South Asians
and Muslims of all backgrounds can learn from Malcolm X and
draw upon his message of self-love and communal
self-determinism. But for non-black Muslims to truly honour
Malcolm, they must also call out racism internal to Muslim
American communities and be honest that the cool that
Malcolm demonstrated was a response to the circumstances
that he faced, and those circumstances are not ours.
Yasmine Flodin-Ali is a Ph.D. student in Islamic Studies at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she
studies issues of race and gender in contemporary Muslim
American communities
Germany Rising Again.
Point of View in these reports is that of Israel and the
Puppet Government.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's leading Jewish group on
Thursday sharply condemned protests in front of a synagogue
in the western city of Gelsenkirchen as "pure
antisemitism."
Several other German cities including Berlin, Hamburg and
Hannover have seen anti-Israeli protests over the past few
days. At least two synagogues were attacked, and several
Israeli flags were torn down and burned since the latest
eruption of violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany tweeted a video of
dozens of protesters in Gelsenkirchen waving Palestinian and
Turkish flags and yelling expletives about Jews.
"Jew hatred in the middle of Gelsenkirchen in front of the
synagogue. The times in which Jews were cursed in the middle
of the street should have long been over. This is pure
antisemitism, nothing else!" the group tweeted.
The German government repeatedly condemned anti-Israeli and
antisemitic attacks earlier this week and said that "the
perpetrators must be found and held responsible and Jewish
institutions must be protected thoroughly."
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Funke Media
Group that "there must be zero tolerance for attacks on
synagogues in our country."
"All of us are called on to make it very clear that we do
not accept if Jews in Germany are made responsible for the
events in the Middle East — neither in the streets nor
on social media," Maas added.
The protests in Gelsenkirchen on Wednesday were dispersed by
police, German news agency dpa reported, but authorities
reported further incidents in other parts of the
country.
Some cities which had hoisted Israeli flags in front of
their city halls on Wednesday in remembrance of the start of
German-Israeli diplomatic relations on May 12, 1965,
reported that the flags were torn down and sometimes
burned.
An Israeli flag in front of a city hall in the western town
of Solingen was torn and burnt and two Israeli flags in
Berlin were also torn down late Wednesday night.
On Tuesday night, police stopped 13 suspects in the western
city of Muenster near a synagogue after an Israeli flag was
burned there. In the western city of Bonn, police said
several people damaged the entrance of a synagogue with
stones and investigators found a burned flag as well. In
nearby Duesseldorf, somebody burned garbage on top of a
memorial for a former synagogue.
Several cities and states in Germany have since upped their
security and raised police presence in front of Jewish
institutions, dpa reported.
Du'a and Message
from Imam Badi Ali
July 2 and 3.
As-slamu alaikum,
The life of our Prophet (pbuh) is filled with examples of
patience and endurance in the face of hardships.
The people of Taif stoned him to the point that his shoes
were full of blood. Instead of cursing at them, he prayed
for them.
Oh Allah, make me extremely patient and make me extremely
grateful. Ameen.
As-slamu alaikum,
The Prophet, (pbuh) when the time for prayer came, would say
to Bilaal (ra): "O Bilaal! Establish the prayer! Comfort us
with it!"
[Abu Daawood]
Therefore, prayer comforts one's soul and is a source of
tranquility and assurance, and the heart cannot find this
anywhere else.
So Salah is peace!
Worries End When salah Begins.
When your aim is to touch the sky, first put your forehead
on the ground in Sujood.
Ya Allah, accept our prayers and forgive our sins before we
return to you. Aameen.
Palestine. July 01, 2021
Nizar Banat: Thousands protest against PA in Ramallah amid
violent police crackdown
By: Shatha Hammad
Palestinians take to the streets for a second day to protest
against the death in Palestinian Authority custody of
activist Nizar Banat
Palestinian security forces on Saturday violently cracked
down on thousands of Palestinians demonstrating in Ramallah
for a second day against the death of political activist
Nizar Banat.
Banat died on Thursday while being held in the custody of
the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Angry protesters demanded the resignation of Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and accused the PA of killing the
prominent activist as they carried Palestinian flags, photos
of Banat and signs demanding "the fall of the regime".
Protests were also held in Hebron and al-Bireh.
Palestinian security forces launched a heavy barrage of tear
gas into the crowd in Ramallah and attacked protesters and
several journalists.
Earlier, plainclothed security officers spread out among
protesters as they marched from the centre of Ramallah
towards the presidential offices, and closed off the
intersection leading to the area, forcing shops to close.
One video from the protest showed security forces in plain
clothes dragging a protester across the road, as they
simultaneously beat him.
Banat's death has shocked and angered Palestinians and tens
of thousands marched at his funeral on Friday. He was an
advocate of free speech and a vocal critic of the PA.
In videos he posted on social media, he repeatedly
criticised the PA for corruption and its security
coordination with the Israeli military in the West Bank.
At least 25 officers had detained Banat after raiding his
home in the town of Dura, in the Hebron governorate, around
3:30am on Thursday. He was declared dead shortly afterwards.
Banat's family has accused PA security forces of killing him
after beating him and taking him away while
semi-conscious.
On Thursday, the Ramallah-based Independent Commission for
Human Rights revealed that initial autopsy results showed
that the activist was severely beaten, and evidence of
bruises and fractures were visible across his body
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