How is Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen Different from Others.?
On April 29, Br. Kaukab Siddique gave the final juma' khutba
of Ramadan in masjid Jamaat in Baltimore.
The masjid was packed owing to Ramadan. A section of the
crowd can be seen in this photo.
Links on facebook show the complete khutba on video. Here
are the main points summarized.
Text Surely, We revealed it in the Night of Power.
[97:1]
The Qu'an was sent down to humanity. It was given to the
angels first and then Jibril [Gabriel]
revealed it to Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, over 23 years.
The Qur'an is central to Islam. No human viewpoint is
equal to it. Second to the Qur'an are the authentic hadith
of the prophet, pbuh. The Qu'ran and the hadith were then
transmitted by the Sahaba, the Companions, r.a,. of the
prophet, pbuh, to future generations.
Thus the order of importance in Islam is:
The Qur'an.
The authentic hadith.
The sahaba. See 9:100 for the importance of the
sahaba.
Tabain. Those who learned from the sahaba.
Tabba tabain. Those who learned from the tabain.
Many scholars emerged in Islamic history but none of them
are as important as the sahaba.
The greatest Islamic scholars refused to cooperate with
rulers who became kings and tyrants.
We see Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik and Imam Bukhari,
among others who rejected kingship in spite of great danger
to their lives.
Unfortunately Muslims got bogged down in the
jurisprudence of later scholars. They had much knowledge but
they cooperated with the kings and thus their teachings
could not oppose the kings.
When the Mongols attacked Baghdad, this vast and
beautiful city was wiped out within a few days because the
scholars were involved in fiqh and had not prepared the
people to fight back.
Owing to Ibn Taymiyya, the Muslims finally fought back
and drove out the invaders.
Part 2.
We do not accept funds from any government or from any
group linked to governments.
You see here the brothers who have renovated the entire
masjid with their own funds, not taking even one dollar from
us. This is called "fi sabil Allah."
Our masjid is different from most other masajid.
We oppose the bombing and occupation of Muslim
countries. Thus we support Palestine and Kashmir.
We oppose Israel and all dictators.
We support Muslim political prisoners within the US.
Among them Imam Jamil al-Amin, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Ziyad
Yaghi and many others. We do this in public .
We support oppressed and exploited people including the
victims of police brutality.
We support the rights of women. Our sisters are equals
in this masjid. A Muslim woman is the founder of this
masjid, supported by other women.
May Allah accept our prayers and our fasting.
Pakistan
Imran Supporters
Desecrated Islamic Sanctities in Masjid Nabawi.
Gulf Today Report
Saudi authorities have arrested dozens of Pakistani
pilgrims, who confronted and shouted slogans against Prime
Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his delegation at Masjid-e-Nabwi
in the Holy City of Madinah.
Some protesters who hounded and chanted slogans against
Shahbaz and his delegation in Madinah have been arrested by
the local authorities, the media director of the Saudi
embassy in Islamabad confirmed on Friday.
The official said that the protesters have been taken into
custody for "violating the regulations" and "disrespecting"
the sanctity of the holy mosque.
Several Pakistani pilgrims heckled federal ministers
Marriyum Aurangzeb and Shahzain Bugti in Madinah.
In a viral video, a group of men who encircled the federal
ministers, while they were being escorted inside the mosque,
also used profanities against them.
Talking about the unprecedented incident, Aurangzeb said
that the PML-N has instructed not to engage with the group,
adding that she was praying for the guidance of the
group.
She has condemned the incident of passing derogatory remarks
against Shahbaz Sharif, who is in Saudi Arabia, and his
delegation by the group at Roza-e-Rasool adding that holy
lands should not be used for political gains
War News
Ukraine
Propaganda is deceptive.
The Russian army is advancing slowly but steadily. Ukraine
is receiving very
large military and economic aid from America, UK and
Germany. Thus Russia cannot win easily but is winning.
Looks like America and the West are fighting Russia.
Israel is irritating Russia and Russian support for
Palestine is emerging.
There are heavy casualties on both sides.
Pakistan
Attack by Female Bomber on Chinese.
Excerpted from Yahoo news.
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) -A suspected female bomber
killed three Chinese teachers in Karachi on Tuesday, police
and officials said, drawing strong condemnation from
Beijing, in the first major attack this year against
nationals of long-time ally China working in Pakistan.
The three were among passengers on a minibus returning to
Karachi university after a lunch break when the bomb
exploded at the entrance to the university's Confucius
Institute, killing the Chinese teachers and a Pakistani
national, police and officials said.
A separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) based
in southwestern Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan
and Iran, claimed responsibility for the blast, adding in an
email to Reuters the attack was carried out by a woman
bomber.
It shared in the email a photo of her clad in a long shawl
sitting with two children. The photo could not be verified
independently by police or other officials.
China's Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the attack and
"demanded" Pakistan punish the perpetrators, protect Chinese
citizens and prevent such incidents from happening
again.
"The blood of the Chinese people should not be shed in vain,
and those behind this incident will surely pay the price,"
it said in a statement.
Media showed CCTV footage of a woman dressed in black
wearing a backpack standing close to the bus shortly before
the bomb went off and sent up clouds of fire and smoke.
Pakistani media also showed the wrecked minibus dotted with
shrapnel holes, and witnesses said the explosion was so big
it rattled the windowpanes of other buildings on the
sprawling campus.
[NT notes China has put more than a million Muslims in
concentration camps in Sinkiang province.]
Nigeria
Al-Jazeera reports ISIS expanding its area of Attacks.
The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) armed
group has claimed responsibility for an explosion that it
said killed or injured 30 people at a market where alcohol
was sold in Nigeria's Taraba state, marking an expansion of
the area where the ISIL affiliate operates in the
country.
The explosion took place on Tuesday in the rural town of
Iware and local police initially said three people were
killed and 19 injured. They could not immediately be reached
on Thursday to comment on the ISWAP claim or casualty
count.
Opinion
[Indian Propaganda movie Creating widespread incitement.]
The Kashmir Files: Myth or reality
(First part of four parts)
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
April 25, 2022
'Early reviews in the Indian media had found the film deeply
Islamophobic, dishonest, and a provocation.' Sanjay Kak,
Kashmiri Pandit filmmaker and writer
This movie feeds into cycles of hate and revenge. It
collapses Kashmir's history and politics into an
Islamophobic morality tale that is palatable and profitable
to Hindutva India. Dr. Nitasha Kaul, Kashmiri Pandit
novelist and academic.
"The Kashmir Files" written by Vivek Agnihotri is an Indian
film which was released on March 11, 2022. The focus of the
film is the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) in Jammu &
Kashmir. The conclusion of the film is that 1990 exodus of
Kashmiri Pandits was a genocide.
Among the many harms of the film is the intimate wrong it
does to people from the Kashmir Valley. Both Muslims and
Pandits bear the scars of conflict. Both communities need to
share painful histories to get past them. These histories
are not always of mutual recrimination but also of
friendships and a common way of life lost in the armed
conflict. The Kashmir Files seems to close off the
possibility of a space where such longing may be
expressed.
Is 'The Kashmir Files' myth or reality? The discourse needs
to be supplemented with facts and figures.
But before presenting my personal observations, let me put
forth the analysis of some prominent Pandits (Kashmiri
Hindus) and Indian scholars.
Sanjay Kak, an eminent and celebrated documentary filmmaker,
and writer but more importantly a Kashmiri Pandit himself
who wrote an opinion piece in Al-Jazeera under the heading,
'THE DANGEROUS 'TRUTH' OF THE KASHMIR FILES' on April 14,
2022. He said that 'early reviews in the Indian media had
found the film deeply Islamophobic, dishonest, and a
provocation.'
Sanjay Kak said that as a documentary filmmaker and writer
whose work has centred on Kashmir for almost two decades, I
have always been confounded by the facts - or the lack of
them - of the departure of the community in 1990. My
community, I should say, for, I am a Kashmiri Pandit. There
is little clarity about even the most elementary things. We
also know that early in 1990 some Kashmiri Pandit families
began to flee in fear. Their leaving was probably intended
as a temporary move though it was to prove tragically
permanent for most. We also know that despite all this, at
least 4,000 Kashmiri Pandit families never left their homes.
They have continued to live in Kashmir, not in secure
ghettos, but scattered across the valley. Living in what
often feels like a war zone, without extended networks of
family and community, their lives are not easy. But nor is
life easy for their Muslim neighbours, with whom they live
in what has come to be recognised as one of the most
militarised zones in the world.
The simplest questions fail to yield reliable answers, Kak
warned. How many Kashmiri Pandits lived in the valley prior
to 1990? The figures conjured up by the right-wing fluctuate
between 500,000 and 700,000, although considered estimates
place it at about 170,000. How many of them left the Kashmir
Valley after 1990? A recent response by the region's Relief
and Rehabilitation Commissioner placed the figure at
135,426, although on inflamed television debates the needle
again fluctuates between 500,00 and 700,000 and can
inexplicably go up to a million.
Ipsita Chakraverty, an Indian artist, writer and activist
wrote in Scroll.in, on March 19, 2022, "As for the numbers
displaced, researcher Alexander Evans suggests there were
160,000-170,000 Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley in 1990, most
of whom fled in the violence. Other scholars claim the
numbers were lower. The Jammu and Kashmir government's
website says 60,000 Kashmiri Hindu families migrated out of
the Valley during the violence, which still does not match
the five lakh figure.
Sanjay Kak explained, "This is a film that brutalises its
audience with scenes of such extreme violence that it
eventually silences the possibility of considering
alternative narratives that we know to be true. I could
think of few: although terrible tragedies did happen to many
individuals, most Kashmiri Pandit families were not betrayed
by their Muslim neighbours. While some properties were
torched and destroyed, most temples and homes were not
ransacked or looted, and many more have run to ruin over
years of neglect. Most critically, this myopic narrative
succeeds in obscuring the fact that what happened in Kashmir
in the 1990s was not centrally a conflict between Muslims
and Hindus. It was an uprising against the Indian
state."
Eventually, 'The Kashmir Files' is not about setting
straight a historical record of Kashmir in the 1990s or
creating an environment that might ease the return home of a
community in exile. Its narrative is instead powered by a
visceral demonisation of the Kashmiri Muslim, one that
renders reconciliation ever more difficult. And by
connecting the return of the Kashmiri Pandit to the dream of
a glorious ancient past, a political project that elides
Kashmir's complicated history of 700 years, it seeds the
idea of a return to a Hindu homeland. This is an idea that
is redolent with implications of dispossession and
settlement. That is what makes its "truth" dangerous, Sanjay
Kak concluded.
Ipsita Chakraverty echoed the same sentiments by writing
that each death is a tragedy. Each instance of forced
migration is a wound. But the film appears to deliberately
exaggerate numbers to paint not just militants but all
Kashmiri Muslims as a hostile people who colluded en masse
in the persecution of their Pandit neighbours.
Dr Nitasha Kaul, novelist, poet, academic and a Kashmiri
Pandit wrote an opinion in 'The News Minute' under the
heading, "Kashmir is not a file: Propaganda and politics in
India" on March 24, 2022. She said that this movie can show
'Free Kashmir' banners and refer to the plebiscite on
Kashmir as a condition of accession that was never carried
out - in order to debunk these things - but anyone else in
real life who dares to seriously discuss these very things
publicly in India risks being imprisoned or charged with
sedition.
Dr. Kaul added that the movie dwells on Kashmiri Pandit
suffering alone and makes ample use of Islamophobic tropes -
all Muslims in the movie are violent, barbaric or lecherous
or devious or vile.
This movie feeds into cycles of hate and revenge, Dr. Kaul
warned. It collapses Kashmir's history and politics into an
Islamophobic morality tale that is palatable and profitable
to Hindutva India. It should offend all Indians, Hindus,
Muslims, Kashmiri Muslims, men, women, and others who have
ever cared for humanity across religious lines.
Ajit Singh, an Indian educationist wrote an Op-Ed in 'Brown
Girl Magazine' entitled, 'The Kashmir Files - Fabricates the
Truth to Demonize Muslims' on March 24, 2022. He said as far
as Kashmiri Pandits are concerned, they have every right to
present their version of the story, but they didn't need to
hire an amoral sycophant who won't shy away from using every
nasty trick in the fascist playbook to create irreparable
fault lines that will ultimately help the incumbent
political party to dismantle democracy in the garb of
portraying the true accounts of victims.
"The Kashmir Files" Ajit Singh explained, has tried to
justify the unilateral actions of the government, one of
them being the unconstitutional abrogation of Article 370
that really had nothing to do with the exodus of Pandits. A
film that is stuffed with nefarious ulterior motives and
propagates malice against people from particular sections
cannot be made to stand in the line of worthy contenders
that could represent India on prestigious international
platforms.
"I don't think that the makers of this film want them
(Kashmiri Pandits) to return to Kashmir. Perhaps what they
intend is for them to always stay out of here." Omar
Abdullah, former Minister of State for External Affairs,
Government of India and for Chief Minister of Jammu &
Kashmir, Indian Express, April 23, 2022.
"The prime minister (Modi) and the BJP are promoting it (The
Kashmir File) by giving free tickets and making it tax-free.
They are inciting people. They divide people on religious
lines." Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister of Jammu &
Kashmir, NEWSCLICK, March 23, 2022
Debasish Roy Chowdhury, an Indian journalist wrote in TIME
on March 30, 2022, "But accuracy is not the film's priority,
nor is it interested in justice and closure for the Pandit
community. Instead, the purpose of The Kashmir Files is to
inflame hatred against Muslims; against secular parties that
Modi's followers brand anti-Hindu; liberal intellectuals and
activists, whose faith in India's inclusive democracy runs
contrary to the supremacist tenets of Hindu nationalism; and
against the liberal media that the Hindu right disparages as
sold-out "presstitutes." ...Accordingly, Muslims are
portrayed as uniformly evil, treacherous, and predatory.
Even little Muslim boys are shown as demonic."
(To be continued)
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai is the Chairman, Washington-based 'World
Forum for Peace & Justice'.
He can be reached at:
1-202-607-6435
. or.
gnfai2003@yahoo.com
Invitation to Think
Kashmir and India's Extreme Occupation and Aggression
by Dr. Firoz Kamal [excerpted]
India's occupation of Kashmir is indeed a part of its
constant war on Muslims. It is part of the project for
expanding the Hindu India's border. In Kashmir, the
genocidal massacre, rape and torture is continuing since
1947. What happened to Muslims in Jammu in 1947 is
catastrophic. It was a pure genocide. The Jammu region of
Kashmir had a Muslim majority population before the massacre
of 1947. The ruling Hindu Maharaja took a policy of Muslim
cleansing of the state and started it from the southern
district of Jammu. The RSS terrorists and Sikhs conducted
the genocide with the Maharaja's patronage. After cleansing
a huge part of the Muslim population, Jammu becomes a Hindu
majority district. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
separated the Hindu majority Jammu from Kashmir and made
Kashmir a federal territory.
Horace Alexander while writing in The Spectator in January
1948 says, "Hindus and Sikhs of the Jammu area... apparently
with at least the tacit consent of the Hindu state
authorities, have driven many thousands of their Muslim
neighbours from their homes". Citing Gandhi -the Congress
leader, he asserts that "some two hundred thousand are...
not accounted for". Christopher Sneddon, in his article
"Kashmir: The Unwritten History" estimates that between
70,000 and 237,000 Muslims were killed in Jammu. (Quote from
Karan Thapar's recent article).
Arjun Appadurai and Arian Mack, in India's World, believed
that 200,000 could have been killed in Jammu and a further
500,000 have been displaced. Much higher figures were
reported by the newspapers of the time. The Statesman
suggested 500,000 Muslims were killed. The journalist Ved
Bhasin and the scholar Ilyas Chattha claimed that the RSS
was involved in the genocide -supported by Kashmir's
Maharaja Hari Singh. (Quote from Karan Thapar's
article).
Wajahat Habibullah in his "My Kashmir: The Dying of the
Light" suggests two reasons. First, it occurred when
communal riots and brutal massacres were happening right
across northern India. In that bigger outrage, this smaller
tragedy seems to have been forgotten. But the second reason
is intriguing. It exposes the complicity of Sheikh Abdullah,
then the undisputed leader of the Kashmir Valley in the
crime. He could draw attention to this massacre, but he
deliberately chose to ignore it because the Muslims of Jammu
did not support his National Conference but were inclined
towards Jinnah's Muslim League. The Sheikh's politics seems
to have silenced his conscience! (Quote from Karan Thapar's
article). In the face of such a crime, silence or negligence
is nothing but complicity in the crime. And Shaikh Abdullah
committed that crime deliberately.
During the last three decades of the intensified war in
Kashmir since the 1980s, the Indian Army has killed about
100,000 Kashmiris and raped hundreds of women. Torturing,
killing and raping have become routine brutality of the
Indian Army in Kashmir. What happened on January 21, 1990,
in Gawkadal, Srinagar is horrific. The Indian Army killed 52
unarmed civilians and injured 250 -reported by Human Rights
Watch. On January 6 1993, the Indian Border Security Force
(BSF) killed 43 unarmed civilians in Sopore in Kashmir who
were travelling on a bus. On October 22, 1993, in Bijbehara,
the BSF killed 51 civilians. It has been reported by Amnesty
International. On 29 and 30 May 2009 at Bongam in Shopira
district, the Indian Army men abducted, raped, and murdered
two young women and their bodies were drowned in a stream.
These are only a few examples and tips of an iceberg.
The Indian rulers have no shame, no integrity, no sanity and
no honesty. Even a huge number of Indians don't show
intellectual soundness either. What a low ideological sense
that they still worship cows, snakes, mountains, rivers,
naked sadhus, etc., and drink cow urine! It is a shame that
they could elect a man like Narendra Modi who is the
murderer of more than 3 thousand people in Gujarat. How can
a man with an iota of moral sense do that? What a shame that
Mr Modi still believes that his ancestral Indians could fly
in the sky and could transplant elephants' noses on humans.
Surprisingly, these fantasies are taught in schools. Many
Hindus also believe that cow urine contains gold and can
cure Covid-19.
Peaceful solution blocked
India has blocked any sort of peaceful solution to the
Kashmir issue. A peaceful solution is only possible if the
legitimate rights of the people are honoured and justice is
delivered. Justice is not the continuation of the military
occupation. But the Indian government doesn't show any
interest in that. They have taken a war path and want to
sustain the occupation by continuous war. The Indians show
their pride in democracy. They boast India as the largest
democratic state in the world. But they don't allow
democracy to work in Kashmir.
Democracy means respecting people's verdicts. But in
Kashmir, India is imposing its own agenda and ignores
people's wishes. India claims that Kashmir is an integral
part of India. That is the wish of the Hindutva Hindus. Do
the people of Kashmir subscribe to such an Indian view? What
do Kashmiri people wish that could be only known by a
plebiscite that Jawaharlal Nehru promised in 1948 -as it was
planned in the UN Security Council proposal for the peaceful
solution of the Kashmir problem. The UN Security Council
appointed the US Admiral Nimitz to conduct a plebiscite in
Kashmir. But India didn't allow Admiral Nimitz to enter
Kashmir and execute the UN plan. India thus betrayed its own
promise with the support of Soviet Russia.
India reiterates bilateral dialogue with Pakistan to solve
the Kashmir problem. But it puts a red line by saying that
Kashmir is India's integral part. Thus the wish of the
Kashmiri people is kept off the table of any bilateral
dialogue. Pakistan is not allowed to question that wishful
claim of India. So the door of a negotiated solution to the
Kashmir problem is unilaterally closed by India. Now there
remains only a single option, and that is a liberation war.
Even a Kashmiri child understands that. When the peaceful
means ends, war gets the legitimacy and remains the only
option. Such a liberation war is called jihad in Islam. But
India -like any other occupying forces label such a popular
liberation war as terrorism.
Guidance by Sis. Yasmin.
'Bismillah Walhamdulillah Was Salaatu Was
Salaam 'ala Rasulillah'.
**************************************
As Salaam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah .
8 Basic Mistakes Muslims make when Paying 'Zakaat Al-Fitr'.
Ibn 'Umar (R.A) reported that...Prophet (Sal Allahu'Alayhi
wa Sallam), made Zakat al-Fitr compulsory on every captive,
freeman, male, female, young and old among the Muslims,one
Saa'(a measurement) of dried dates or one Saa' of barley.
[Source: Sahih Bukhari - Arabic/English, vol. 2, p. 339, H #
579]
Mistake # 1~
Paying at Eid Salah.
Some people go to Eid Prayers and drop money into the
donation box thinking that they have paid their Zakat al
-Fitr.
No ! Zakat al-Fitr, which is food, must be in the hands of
the
needy family BEFORE the Eid Prayer!
If someone goes to Eid Prayer and pays then it is GUARANTEED
that the money will NOT arrive on time !
Mistake # 2~
Snail Mailing the money overseas [basic
principle as before] The Zakat al-Fitr, food, MUST be in the
hands of the needy BEFORE Eid prayer. One cannot mail the
money overseas and have it arrive in the hands of the needy
after Eid Prayer is over! However, if one is able to get the
Zakat al-Fitr to the needy overseas BEFORE Eid prayer is
conducted in their locality, then In Shaa Allah it's
alright.
Mistake # 3~
Not Paying.
Yes, as simple as this error is, it is to skip the payment
of Zakat Al-Fitr. EVERYONE must pay Zakat Al-Fitr, for each
& every member of the household. So if you have 8 people in
your house, 'Zakat Al-Fitr' must be paid X 8, even if the
youngest member is just a few days old!
Mistake # 4~
Confusing Zakat ul-Fitr with Zakat ul-Maal.
We are talking about Zakat al-Fitr here (think "Iftar"- i.e.
Ramadan). 'Zakat Al-Maal' ('Maal' literally means
wealth),
is the Zakah due on ones money, etc. and that could be
due
any time during the year depending on when it was due.
Mistake # 5~
Giving money instead of food .
Although some scholars have allowed giving money instead of
food, the spirit of Zakat Al-Fitr is to give food to the
needy of the community, NOT money. (one can give money to
the local 'Masjid' in charge and they can give food with
that money on time as specified . The Companion of the
Prophet [PEACE BE UPON HIM] Abu Sa'eed al-Khudree, {Radi
Allahu 'Anhu} said..
'In the Prophet's time, we used to give it (Zakatal-Fitr) as a
Saa' of food, dried dates, barley, raisins or dried cheese".
[Source: Bukhari - Arabic/English vol. 2, p. 340,~H #
582]
Mistake # 6~
Giving one's Zakah al-Fitr to a charitable building project.
Some people mistakenly give their Zakah Al-Fitr to a charitable
building project: like the building of a Masjid, or Islamic
school. There is a difference of opinion on this issue, but
suffice it to say that the spirit of Zakah Al-Fitr is that
the needy should have plentiful food on Eid. {'In Shaa
Allah'} All eight types of recipients of Zakah mentioned in
the 'Qur'an' are HUMANS, not "building projects".
Mistake # 7~
Giving Zakat ul-Fitr to non-Muslims.
Charity is given to both Non-Muslims and Muslims. However,
Zakah al-Fitr charity is something exclusive to the MUSLIM
poor and needy. Hence, one could not give Zakah Al-Fitr to
any needy person on the street. "Regular" charity can be
given to them, but not Zakah Al-Fitr.
Mistake # 8~
Delaying distribution. Sometimes Masjids might
collectZakah Al-Fitr money and then put it in a bank! It
doesn't reach the needy for months and months ! The correct
method is to give Zakah Al-Fitr immediately when it is
due.
~ My 'Salaams' to all ~
Y a s m i n.
"All that is on earth will Perish. But will abide {Forever}
the Face of thy Lord, full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour"
'Qur'an'- Surah Al-Rahman-55.26-27 }
Hadith of the Week
Narrated by Abu Huraira, r.a.:
While the Prophet was saying something in a gathering, a
Bedouin came and asked him,
"When would the Hour (Doomsday) take place?"
Allah's Apostle continued his talk, so some people said that
Allah's Apostle had heard the question, but did not like
what that Bedouin had asked. Some of them said that Alllah's
Apostle had not heard it. When the Prophet finished his
speech, he said,
"Where is the questioner, who enquired about the Hour
(Doomsday)?"
The Bedouin said, "I am here, O Allah's Apostle ."
Then the Prophet said,
"When honesty is lost, then wait for the Hour
(Doomsday)."
The Bedouin said,
"How will that be lost?"
The Prophet said,
"When the power or authority comes in the hands of unfit
persons, then wait for the Hour (Doomsday.)"
Bukhari, Volume 1,
Book 3, Number 56
[With thanks to Sis. Kristi]
From Nigerian Guardian
Flashpoint al-Aqsa
A Palestinian man and an Israeli guard were killed in
separate West Bank incidents following clashes on Friday
between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem's
flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque.
The guard was attacked at the entrance of the Ariel
settlement, the army said, adding that they were pursuing
the "terrorists".
The Islamist Hamas movement hailed the killing as a "heroic
operation", with spokesman Hazem Qassem declaring it a
response to the "attacks on Al-Aqsa," the mosque which has
been one of the focal points for weeks of violence.
Background.
Rohingya Muslims' Huge Suffering.
Abdul Malik Mujahid [Chicago Leader]
Took up the Challenge.
The Burmese military's systematic human rights abuses
against their own population have pushed close to 1 million
Rohingya Muslims into massive refugee camps at the
Bangladesh border.
Despite this abominable record, the Burmese regime reigns
unchecked, free to continue terrorizing innocent people as
much as it likes. This is why the United States must act now
and re-impose comprehensive sanctions to apply the economic
pressure that will bring this rogue regime to the bargaining
table and force them to acknowledge their crimes.
In August 2017, Burmese security forces were unleashed to
rampage, unchecked, through Rakhine State in western
Burma.
Their numerous, unconscionable crimes against the region's
native, mostly defenseless Rohingya population are now
undeniable. The evidence for them has been unearthed in the
mass graves of innocent families, seen in the babies born to
mothers systematically raped by the Burmese army, and
testified to in countless stories from refugee survivors. It
is also there for all to see in the sprawling refugee camps
across the border in Bangladesh, where over a million people
languish in stateless limbo.
Since then, the Myanmar military has continued to carry out
a savage campaign of violence and expulsion against its own
population. Most recently it has turned its guns on the
Christian people of Kachin State.
The army appears to be stepping up its offensive, with the
apparent intention of repeating the successful results of
its genocidal campaign against the Rohingya against the
Christian minority in Kachin.
As a result of such persecution, approximately 400,000
Kachin Christians have fled the country since 2003. Villages
are being bombed and burnt, suffering a similar fate as the
Rohingya community in Rakhine state. Over 200,000 Kachin
refugees are now spread across Thailand, Malaysia, and the
U.S., with 160,000 in the U.S. alone.
This is happening every day, with additional reports of
atrocities committed by the military against civilian,
minority targets surfacing daily.
[Courtesy the New Arab]
Voices of Uighur Women.
Rahima Mahmut, director of the World Uyghur Congress in
London, praised the courage of the handful of women
survivors of the camps who have come forward to tell their
harrowing stories, whose testimonies have literally changed
the course of Uyghur advocacy around the world.
Often acting as a translator as the camp survivors poured
out their hearts, Rahima recounted the immense strength
needed to counter the shame they felt and to describe the
horror of their ordeals.
Tursunay Ziyawudun, was tortured and raped three times by
guards, teacher Sayragul Sauytbay, together with other
inmates described how she was forced to watch the gang-rape
of a young girl without flinching, Gulbahar Haitiwaji has
described life in the camps that rendered her dead
inside.
These accounts and others, said Mahmut, would "ensure that
the Uyghur genocide would not be erased from history."
"It is so important that the world bears witness for this
genocide to come to an end," she stressed. "The world must
look back in shame at what the Uyghur people have had to
endure. The camp survivors have ensured that there is an
undeniable record of the Chinese government's atrocities,"
she said.
Don't forget the political prisoners.
You don't have to agree with them but show that you care and
do not want them to be mistreated.
Sis. Ayesha Jones in Virginia has been writing to Imam
Jamil.
We need letters to :
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
Ziyad Yaghi
Samuel Baptiste.
Boycott is peaceful Resistance
Br. Rich has listed the businesses which support Israel.
Please go to our web site.
See search engine on top left.
go to boycott.
boycott.htm
Nestle is an important investor in Israel.
See the rest.
Take care to see where you are spending your money
A massive asteroid passed by the Earth on Thursday. While
it posed no threat, experts say it came close.
The asteroid, named 418135, or 2008 AG33, is estimated to be
between 1,150 and 2,560 feet in diameter -- as wide as eight
football fields and twice as big as the Empire State
Building.
At its closest distance, the asteroid came within 2 million
miles of Earth, which, according to NASA, is actually a
concern.
Any object that comes within 120 million miles of the Earth
is considered a "near-Earth object", or NEO, and any
fast-moving object within 4.65 million miles is classified
as potentially hazardous.
Thursday's asteroid skimmed past Earth at around 23,300
miles per hour.
Asteroid 2008 AG33 last flew by Earth in 2015, and NASA says
it does so every seven years or so. Its next appearance is
expected May 25, 2029.
The path which asteroids take can change, however, which is
why NASA monitors ones that come this close.
Another large asteroid, named 467460, or 2006 JF42, is
expected to pass on May 9 at roughly 25,300 miles per
hour.
[Thanks to Sis. Kristi.]
JI notes Imran Khan Wasted 4 years.
Talking to media persons, Liaqat Baloch said that Imran Khan
government's performance disappointed the entire nation.
The success of the no-confidence motion has provided an
oxygen cylinder to the PTI but it is a temporary relief.
Imran Khan could not run the government, could not give
relief to the people, nor could he keep the party members
and allies together. Incompetence, failure, arrogance and
pride led to the end of his government.
The rhetoric of US intervention or conspiracy cannot last
long. It is not possible for the new coalition government to
pull the country out of the constitutional, political,
economic and administrative crisis.
Four years of the nation were ruined, let not another year
be ruined. The coalition government should make electoral
reforms and move towards fresh elections as soon as
possible, otherwise the political crisis will be serious and
complicated. The role of PTI constitutional officials in the
no-confidence motion and government formation process in
Punjab is shameful and unconstitutional.
Released by.
Africa
[via Abegaz]
Over 20 killed in anti-Muslim attack in Ethiopia:
Addis Ababa (AFP) - More than 20 people have been killed in
an attack on Muslims in the northern Ethiopian city of
Gondar during the funeral of a Muslim elder, a local Islamic
group said on Wednesday.
The Islamic Affairs Council of Amhara, the region where
Gondar is located, described Tuesday's attack at a cemetery
as a "massacre" by heavily-armed "extremist Christians."
The attackers "fired a barrage of heavy machine guns and
grenades... leaving many dead while others who were injured
have been taken to hospital," the religious body said.
"More than 20 have died due to yesterday's attack which also
saw the looting of Muslim properties," it added.
The mayor of Gondar, Zewdu Malede, told Ethiopian public
broadcaster EBC that the "incident was carried out by a few
extremist individuals."
"There has been some destruction and loss of lives from all
sides," he said, without offering further details about the
identity of the attackers or the victims.
"The situation was (brought) under control by 7:00 pm."
Officials at the Amhara regional government could not be
reached while Gondar police declined to comment.
The cemetery where the attack occurred has been the subject
of an ongoing dispute between Muslims and Orthodox
Christians, who account for the majority of Ethiopia's
population.
"Although ongoing wide-ranging measures have been taken to
invade the... cemetery, the place has been historically at
all times a Muslim cemetery," the Islamic Affairs Council
said in its statement.
The city's mayor said the attackers were extremists who had
sought "to burn down, to destroy, to destabilise and to loot
Gondar."
"This in no way represents the Muslim and Christian
communities," he added.
Muslims make up about one third of Ethiopia's population of
110 million and are a small minority in Amhara, the
country's second-most-populous region which is dominated by
Orthodox Christians.
In 2019, multiple mosques were
attacked in the town of Mota in Amhara, more than 350
kilometres (217 miles) north of the capital, Addis Ababa, in
a wave of religious violence that sparked condemnation by
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Analysts caution that conflicts that appear to be rooted in
religion in Ethiopia are often also shaped by disputes over
land use, ethnicity and other issues.
