New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

[Biggest Islamic web site in the U.S.]
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087.
Phone: 410-435-5000.

Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily shared by editorial committee.
Responses (positive or negative) up to 250 words are welcome.
Names will be withheld on request.
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BOOK OF THE MONTH
FROM UTAH TO ETERNITY by Sarah Louise Baker. 488 pages, $15.
A fictionalized account of a Mormon missionary's journey to Islam. Excellent for an understanding of the organization and limitation of missioneries. Humorous and informative.
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BOOK RECEIVED FROM UK

DEFENCE OF THE MUSLIM LANDS by Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, 93 pages, $11.
Beautifully published. A study on the rulings of Jihad. Answers critical questions on the types of Jihad, the conditions under which Jihad becomes an obligation upon all Muslims, fighting in the absence of the Islamic State, peace treaties with the enemy.
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Both books available from: New Trend, POB 356, Kingsville, MD 21087, USA
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[Tongue-in-Cheek]
"A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Media Coverage of the Attacks in Baghdad and Jerusalem on August 19
A Brainwashed American Looks at CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC
by Tunz-o-Mazah

There was a time when I used to read books. So I have a sense of reality, though it has receded into the back of mind, unable to compete with TV in full color.

I don't have much of a problem with the TV coverage of the attack on an Israeli bus in Jerusalem. I already know that Jewish lives are more important than Palestinian lives. The ultimate in evil is the death of a Jewish child. My humanity is outraged. The TV coverage is so effective, followed by numerous spiels by committed Jewish and pro-Zionist commentators. Now I understand issues which used to puzzle me. Now I know:
1. The ratio of Palestinian children killed to Jewish children is okay. For every 93 Palestinian children, 4 Jewish children are killed. Isn't it outrageous that 4 Jewish children are killed! Only the 93 Palestinian children should have been killed. I can take that much better because most of those attacks by Israel don't make it to my favorite TV channels.
2. Jerusalem is an occupied city. Israel took it by force. Good! Let's keep it that way. Let's invite the mayor of the occupied city to Baltimore's synagogue so he can tell us how beautiful the occupation is.
3. Somewhere I read that Israel expelled several million Palestinians and took their homeland and calls it Israel. Now I can forget about that and live a normal life.
4. I am relieved that the Palestinians have no tanks, artillery or jet fighters. [Our government makes sure they don't.] So when they try to break the occupation by turning themselves into weapons, they do a lot of collateral damage, including killing those lovely Jewish children. I cry over the children. Thank goodness the Palestinians have no sophisticated weapons, otherwise our [excuse me, I mean Israeli] military forces might be in danger.
5. I read somewhere that under International Law, the victims of occupation have the right to hit back and kill any occupier they can, regardless of whether the occupiers travel in buses or in tanks. That's in some book of law which was invoked against the Nazis in World War II, but TV helps me to put aside that troubling law of retribution.
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NOW I TURN TO A MORE DIFFICULT SUBJECT, the attack on the UN HQ in BAGHDAD:
How dare "They" attack the United Nations!
I know it's wrong to kill anyone. Why would anyone attack the UN when its only interest is in the "reconstruction" of Iraq?
Here I am so shocked by the attack, with all the horrors of death and destruction, that I am willing to forget quite a bit of what I learned WHEN I USED TO READ BOOKS.
Isn't it true that the UN DID NOT APPROVE of the U.S. invasion of Iraq? So, how shameful it is to attack the UN headquarters in Baghdad. [Don't tell me that the UN was part of the U.S. occupation. Don't tell me that a U.S. military platoon was guarding the UN HQ. Don't tell me that a U.S. "diplomat" was in the building coordinating the "reconstruction" when the bomb went off. Don't tell me that the UN cannot set up an HQ in Baghdad without U.S. approval. ARE YOU TRYING TO DEPROGRAM ME? Leave me alone. I want to believe!]

Unfortunately, the reading I did before TV brainwashed me keeps creeping back into my mind. My "gawd awful" brain keeps generating thought. Stop it! I want to believe!

My pesky brain tells me that though the UN did not approve the US-UK invasion:
1. The UN NEVER condemned the invasion of Iraq, although the US-UK were in clear violation of the UN Charter.
2. Secretary General Kofi Annan, comfortably married to a Jewish woman, NEVER condemned the U.S.-UK invasion. In fact he has consistently CONDEMNED IRAQ and its mujahid leader.
3. The UN was IN FULL SUPPORT OF THE EMBARGO and SANCTIONS on Iraq which left a MILLION plus Iraqi children dead over a period of 12 years. In fact those were UN sanctions which were imposed on Iraq and had to be respected even by Muslim countries like Pakistan.
4.The UN has NEVER implemented its resolutions against Israel, not one.
5. SANCTIONS HAVE NOT BEEN IMPOSED ON ISRAEL though Israel has violated just about every UN resolution.
6. My pesky brain tells me that in fact, PALESTINE WAS HANDED OVER TO THE JEWS by the UN.
7. Even those areas of Palestine which are supposed to be non-Israeli under the UN's convoluted logic are occupied TODAY by Israeli tanks. Does the UN move against Israel? NO.
8. Have the UN resolutions on KASHMIR been implemented? Forget it.
9. Has the UN imposed sanctions on Russia for its GENOCIDE in CHECHNIA? Are you kidding! You think the UN was put together to help the "bloody Moslems?"
10. [In the fog at the back of my mind I remember a good book which documented the fact that the UN is nothing more than an instrument of U.S.-British power. Perish the thought! I don't want that reality to haunt me.]

After shedding the ghosts of reality which my brain harbors, I go back to TV. MSNBC shows a Jewish professor from Haifa University and an American Jew, Steve Emerson, discussing "terrorism" [a code word for Islam] on "Hardball." Now I can stop thinking and enjoy the show.

Isn't it terrible that someone blew up the UN. How dare "they" stop the "reconstruction" of Iraq! We are liberating Iraq and these terrorists are trying to stop us. How dare they!

I love President Bush. How comforting was his thought that the attack on the UN HQ is actually an attack on "the Iraqi people." What a deep thought! [Unfortunately US troops in Baghdad did not believe Bush. The night after the attack on the UN, they imposed a strict curfew on Baghdad. What a shame! I was waiting for all those Iraqis to come out and support the US and condemn the attack. How will they come out if there is curfew?]

I enjoy TV but it is doing something to my brain which was unexpected. I was so impressed by "shock and awe" [all that colorful display of huge explosions in Baghdad as B-52s and B-1s dropped their loads on an Islamic metropolis]. After "shock and awe", that pillar of smoke coming out of the UN office looked puny. If it were bigger and more colorful, it would look better on TV. [Stop it you pesky brain. That's only the right of the US Air Force. Learn to love those beautiful big planes. O I loved those explosions on the Afghan mountains, Tora Bora. What glory! Little hiroshimas making Afghanistan's mud huts bounce, making the solemn mountains rattle.]

Stop it and watch TV! Here comes Martin Indyk, former U.S ambassador to Israel, explaining the ravages of Islamic fundamentalism on CNN. Seig Heil, Seig Heil. I love Bush. I love the U.S. air force.
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2003-08-22 Fri 20:32ct