[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.
----------------------------------------------------------
Scroll down to end for important statement on the
arrest of Prof. Sami
al-Arian
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Transformation of Saddam Hussain
by Buut Shikan (Idol Breaker)
Why does Saddam Hussain fight? Can we
understand this complex
personality who is evil incarnate for the
Bush
administration?
Much has been written about the terrible
actions Saddam has committed
against Iran, against the Kurds and against the
Shi'ites. He is not alleged
to have committed any crimes against
America
but
America wants to punish him
for what he has allegedly done against Iran, the
Kurds and the Shi'ites.
America is very conveniently generous in its
sympathies.
Is it skeptical to say that an accused
person is innocent until proven
guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? As far as I
know, American law, Islamic
law, international law are all based on this
presumption of innocence.
If there is evidence against Saddam, why is
it not presented while he
is free to defend himself? No such verifiable
evidence has ever been
presented against Saddam Hussain. We only have
the word of Sharon, Bush,
Christopher Hitchens and "hojjat al-Islam"
Qazvini's for it. All these
"honorable" men say, he did do terrible things;
so for the sake of
discussion, let's accept it.
But don't people change? Can we think of any
great person who never
changed, for the better or for the worse? No such
instance can be cited.
[Perhaps our readers will cite some such.]
There are some standards, universally
acceptable, by which a person can
be judged. Let's try to apply them to Saddam
Hussain. [I like to break my
points into numbered items for ease in reading.
Essays are difficult to read
in the TV/computer generation.]
1. Corrupt people, especially dictators, like to
live in luxury, if the
choice is between death/disgrace and luxury.
Saddam was urged by the U.S. to
go into exile and live comfortably (perhaps in a
palace in Saudi Arabia or at
a dacha in Russia). He declined. That's not the
sign of a corrupt person. [The
Shah of Iran was a corrupt person: He took that
choice and left his
government for overseas.]
2. Dictators are also cowards. They are used to
bullying their people but
when faced with the weapons of a superpower, they
bow down and lick the boots
of the superpower.
Mubarak
the dictator of
Egypt
is a coward. He dare not
decline any order from the White House although
he tortures the sons and
daughters of Islam. Musharraf of
Pakistan
is a
coward. He said "yes sir" on
getting just a phone call from the White House.
He went ahead and betrayed
Pakistan's closest and trustworthy allies to
please Bush. Saddam, in spite of
threats of destruction from the White House, has
shown no cowardice. He is
certainly no coward.
3. Even the toughest rulers when faced with
overwhelming military force will
surrender. This can be called "discretion" or
simply "fear of human power."
In the case of Saddam Hussain, the imbalance
between his forces and those of
his opponents is startling, to say the least. The
military force he is facing
is the strongest in the world. Anything the
Iraqis have is bound to face
American firepower of such destructive potential
that the disparity boggles
the mind. Yet, Saddam does not surrender. He is
definitely not in fear of
human power.
Who then is the real Saddam Hussain? What keeps
him so strong and willing to
face overwhelming odds. Perhaps he sees himself
as Salahuddin (Saladin)
waiting to liberate Jerusalem. His opposition to
the terrorist entity known
as Israel is unambiguous.
Perhaps he sees himself transforming gradually
into Husain who sacrificed
himself at Kerbala in defiance of overwhelming
odds. Of course, no one today
has the purity and goodness of Imam Husain. The
comparison is not to be taken
in a literal sense. My effort is to apply the
symbolic value of Imam Husain
to human beings who at a certain stage of their
development can become strong
enough to stand defiant before human power. Can
human beings achieve
greatness? Can great beauty emerge from darkness
and great human weakness?
Yeats wrote about the Irish patriots who
were hanged by the British
but who refused to bow down in front of British
power even when they were
about to be put to the gallows. One of them Yeats
had despised. When he saw
the despised man fearless, for the sake of God
and Ireland, he wrote his
poem, "a terrible beauty is born."
No one knows how the saga of Saddam Hussain
will end. Will he continue
the way he is going, willing to accept death
instead of humiliation? In that
case, his place in the history of the oppressed
people, the Arab masses, the
Islamic resurgence is assured.
Wasn't it the sage Imam Ghazzali who wrote
that those who are seen as
pious worshipers of God might end up in the last
row of the believers by the
time they die, while those who are seen as in the
last row, might be in the
front row of Islam by the time they die.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRIDAY PRAYER LEADERS CONDEMN U.S. ASSAULT ON
IRAQ as
Zionist
Inspired
The Muslim World in Turmoil
News is coming in from around the Muslim
world. The masses of the world
community have emerged strongly and totally
against
U.S.-British-Israeli
attack on Iraq.
1. In
Palestine
today, both in Gaza and in the
refugee camps, there were huge
pro-Saddam and anti-U.S. demonstrations. In the
occupied holy city of
Jerusalem, peaceful worshipers were attacked by
the Israeli police with tear
gas when they protested against the invasion of
Iraq.
2. In Pakistan, in tens of thousands of mosques
around the country, at the
appeal of the Islamic coalition and the jihad
movement, imams condemned the
U.S. invasion and the crimes of Sharon and Blair
against the Muslim nations.
Numerous small protests were held. [The city of
Lahore is preparing for a
mammoth pro-Iraq, anti-U.S. demonstration on
March 23, which may compare with
the unprecedented anti-war demonstrations in
Karachi and Lahore.]
The U.S. embassy and consulates in Pakistan have
announced that they are
closing down for "security' reasons.
3. YEMEN gave the first three martyrs to the
peaceful anti-war movement on
March 21 when tens of thousands of Yemenis
demonstrated in the city of Sana.
In their attempts to close down the U.S. embassy,
they clashed with police.
Three demonstrators were martyred by the police
while one of the police was
also killed.
4. There was a second day of demonstrations in
Cairo and Amman including
clashes with police. The Mubarak dictatorship is
getting nervous because the
whole population opposes the war on Iraq while
Mubarak supports it. [Mubarak
allowed U.S. warships to pass through the Suez
without allowing any
discussion in his rubberstamp "parliament" and
clamped down on demonstrations
at the Suez canal.]
5. Although Karzai signed up to support the U.S.
attack,
AFGHANS
RALLIED IN
KABUL to oppose the invasion.
6. Numerous demonstrations have erupted against
the war in
Indonesia.
Indonesians have given the U.S. embassy 48 hours
to close down.
7. SUDAN's
people by the thousands condemned the
invasion.
8. Even IRAN's spiritual leader Khamene'i has
spoken against the U.S. attack
but Iran made it clear that it would not do
anything against the U.S.
9. Numerous anti-war demonstrations took place in
LEBANON
after Friday
prayers.
[We are waiting for reports from other
countries.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sis. Hamdiyeh from South Carolina sent the
following two stories
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
40,000 pounds of Explosives and Napalm Dropped
on Tiny Safwan Village
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749944836.html
"Dead bodies are everywhere," a US officer
reported by radio.
Later in the day, the American firepower was
turned on Safwan Hill, an Iraqi
military observation post a couple of kilometres
across the border. About
six hours after US marines and their 155mm
howitzer guns pulled up at the
border, they opened up with a deafening barrage.
Safwan Hill went up in a
huge fireball and the Iraqi observation post was
obliterated.
"I pity anybody who's in there," a marine
sergeant said. "We told them to
surrender."
The destruction of Safwan Hill was a priority for
the attacking forces
because it had sophisticated surveillance
equipment near the main highway
that runs from Kuwait up to Basra and then
Baghdad. The attacking US and
British forces could not attempt to cross the
border unless it was
destroyed.
Marine Cobra helicopter gunships firing Hellfire
missiles swept in low from
the south. Then the marine howitzers, with a
range of 30 kilometres, opened
a sustained barrage over the next eight hours.
They were supported by US
Navy aircraft which dropped 40,000 pounds of
explosives and napalm, a US
officer told the Herald.
A legal expert at the International Committee of
the Red Cross in Geneva
said the use of napalm or fuel air bombs was not
illegal "per se" because
the US was not a signatory to the 1980 weapons
convention which prohibits
and restricts certain weapons. "But the US has to
apply the basic principles
of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and take
all precautions to protect
civilians. In the case of napalm and fuel air
bombs, these are special
precautions because these are area weapons, not
specific weapons," said
Dominique Loye, the committee's adviser on
weapons and IHL.
When dawn broke on Safwan Hill, all that could be
seen on top of it was a
single antenna amid the smoke. The marines then
moved forward, their
officers saying they were determined to push on
as quickly as possible for
Baghdad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kurds attack militant Islamists
SULAIMANIYA (Reuters) - An Iraqi Kurdish faction
controlling part of
northern Iraq says it has launched an offensive
to crush an Islamist group
that both it and Washington have accused of
having links to al Qaeda.
A senior official of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), which runs part
of the Kurdish enclave it helped wrest from
Baghdad in 1991, said on
Saturday PUK forces were determined to wipe out
Ansar al-Islam during the
U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein.
Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam) holds a
string of villages near the
border with Iran.
"We have begun attacking their positions with
rockets. There is no way that
we can move south during the liberation with them
in place, we have to be
able to protect our backs," the PUK official
said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties
from the area, which runs up
against a chain of jagged mountain peaks
alongside the Iranian border. PUK
says it was unable to get permission to attack
Ansar al-Islam's positions
from across the frontier.
Washington accuses Ansar al-Islam of working with
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
network to produce chemical weapons in its
mountainous hideout and of having
ties to an al Qaeda figure it believes played a
part in the killing of a
U.S. diplomat in Jordan last year.
The PUK, which is coordinating with U.S.
intelligence officials in northern
Iraq, blames the group -- which has several
hundred mainly Kurdish
fighters -- of directing a string of attacks on
its officials, including an
attempt on the life of its prime minister.
The clash comes as U.S.-led forces bombard
Baghdad and cities near the
fringe of Kurdish-held territory. PUK officials
have indicated the early
stages of the war would be a likely time to move
against the group.
In Oslo, a Norwegian court ruled on Friday that
police could detain a former
leader of Ansar al-Islam, Mullah Krekar, for four
weeks in an anti-terrorist
investigation.
Krekar, who has had refugee status in Norway
since 1991 and denies any links
with terrorism, told an Oslo court he was no
longer leader of Ansar
al-Islam.
He has launched an appeal against his detention.
22 Mar 2003
<
http://www.reuters.co.uk/home.jhtml?source=rtr
>
----------------------------------------------------
From Badi Ali, North Carolina
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friends,
Here is the statement on the arrest of Sami
Al-Arian with an updated list of
signatories.
Statement by the Blue Triangle Network
on the Arrest of Professor Sami Al-Arian
The Blue Triangle Network expresses grave concern
over the arrest of
Professor Sami Al-Arian in Tampa, Florida and
four others on
terrorism-related allegations. Professor Al-Arian
has undertaken a hunger
strike in jail to protest his arrest, and this
too is a cause for concern.
After his arrest, Al-Arian made this statement:
"I'm crucified today because
of who I am: a stateless Palestinian, an Arab, a
Muslim, an outspoken
advocate for Palestinian rights, but more
significantly a persistent defender
of civil and constitutional rights on the home
front."
Whether or not the government is able to prove
that Professor Al-Arian, or
the others indicted, carried out any of the
specific acts of which they are
accused, the central issue here is this: the
unlimited power of the
government to single out a person for his or her
political stance, conduct
unlimited covert surveillance and then bring
criminal charges. To be blunt,
that is just what a police state looks like.
Professor Al-Arian has been the target of U.S.
government surveillance for 15
years, during which time he was known as a vocal
supporter of Palestinian
rights. He also attracted government attention
because of his participation
in the campaign against the use of secret
evidence as a tool to detain Muslim
and Arab immigrants in the years before
Sept. 11, 2001.
In the period since
9/11, Professor Al-Arian became an outspoken and
eloquent critic of the
attacks on civil liberties and attacks on Muslim,
Arab and South Asian
immigrants that were carried out by the U.S.
Government.
Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, Professor
Al-Arian was suspended from his
University of South Florida position because of
his political views.
Unsubstantiated accusations were made that
alleged he was connected with
Palestinian groups which had been labeled as
"terrorist" by the U.S.
government. In particular, he was singled out for
using the phrase "death to
Israel" during a speech. It is a long established
standard in the U.S. legal
system that such political advocacy is protected
free speech. In the past few
months, he had won some victories in his court
fights to prevent the
University from firing him.
After 15 years of surveillance, the government
had not been able to bring any
criminal charges against Professor Al-Arian. Now
come the indictments and
arrests of February 20.
The indictment against Al-Arian details political
statements and political
activity over the years. For example, the
indictment states he attended an
April 7, 1991 conference in Cleveland, Ohio and
that allegedly "SAMI AMIN
AL-ARIAN further mentioned the Gulf War, and
questioned why they stopped the
protests against it. He then said they should
continue the protests, continue
to damn America, continue to damn Israel, and
continue to damn the allies of
America and Israel until death." (It should also
be pointed out that while
the indictments of Professor Al-Arian and the
others have been handed down in
the name of U.S. national security, the things
they are accused of doing were
entirely focused in Palestine and Israel.) We
must ask, why are perfectly
legal political speech and activities listed in a
criminal indictment? What
is this meant to prove?
The government is basing its indictments on
alleged evidence gathered from
wiretaps authorized by the secret Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court.
This is a court which meets in secret and whose
proceedings are totally
unknown to the subjects of its deliberations. For
25 years any information
gathered by these wiretaps could not be used in a
criminal case. This was
because, until late last year, these wiretaps had
been supposedly for
counterintelligence purposes, i.e. for spying on
people who the government
said were spying on the U.S., and not for
gathering evidence for criminal
prosecutions. The constitutional standards that
apply in criminal courts and
which must be met to obtain the wiretaps, did not
apply. Late last year a
secret appeals court ruled that this information
could now be used as
"evidence" in criminal cases. The government says
it can now use the
"evidence" gathered over the last 15 years
against Professor Al-Arian.
What does this mean in reality? A secret court
can authorize secret
surveillance that will be used to collect secret
evidence based only on the
government's claim that someone is "working as an
agent of a foreign power."
There is absolutely no requirement, as in a
criminal court, to present
factual evidence that a crime has been committed
or is about to be committed
in order to obtain a wiretap. Instead, the
government can place people under
electronic surveillance permanently without
claiming that they have evidence
of criminal activity.
What is wrong with this picture? Why is it
legitimate for there to be a
separate legal system that applies completely
different standards of rights
and justice towards anyone the government wants
to label as a "terrorist?"
Under this system there is no protection for
people targeted in this way. The
restrictions on government spying on people
inside this country that were put
into place in the past were necessary because it
had been shown that the
government often blatantly fabricated "evidence"
against opponents of its
actions. The FBI's plots against leaders and
organizations in the people's
movements of the 1960's are well documented. The
surveillance and
disinformation campaigns waged against Martin
Luther King, Jr., the
Black Panther Party
and the anti-war movement were also
justified as necessary for
"national security."
This has a double chilling effect. It is a
warning to all political
activists, as White House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer stated after 9/11,
"People have to watch what they say and watch
what they do." It is also a
threat to people from other countries that they
may face criminal charges in
the U.S. if they carry out political opposition
to U.S. actions around the
world while they are here.
These methods have been directed against Muslim,
Arab and South Asian
immigrants in the U.S. in a wholesale dismantling
of civil liberties. These
are all measures, which, in effect, portray the
Muslim, Arab and South Asian
immigrants in this country as "the enemy within."
They have made the very
fact of being a Muslim cause for suspicion by law
enforcement, government
officials and uninformed citizens. This
demonization has produced calls for
mass detentions of Arab-Americans similar to the
rounding up of
Japanese-Americans in 1942. Such alarming
proposals have been expressed by
government officials and elected representatives
such as U.S. Civil Rights
Commissioner Kirsanow and U.S. Congressman Coble.
This is cause for serious alarm for all those
concerned with protecting civil
liberties and stopping the repression being
directed against Muslim, Arab and
South Asian immigrants. (March 9, 2003)
Signed by:
Blue Triangle Network
Solidarity-USA
South Asians against Police Brutality and
Racism, New York, NY
Lucas Martinez, Spokeperson for Libros
Revoluciσn, Los Angeles, CA
Jim Oines, Lutheran Pastor and Sanctuary
Movement leader
Catherine Podojil, Blue Triangle
Network/Cleveland, OH
The Islamic Center of the Triad, Greensboro, NC
Muslims for A Better North Carolina,
Greensboro, NC
New Jersey Solidarity, New Brunswick, NJ
Roman Gurrola
Nina McLellan, Cleveland, OH
Erin Wiegand
Fredrick Cloyd, San Francisco USA
Miah Arnold, Houston, Texas
Helen McDonald, member, Committee for the
Political Resurrection of Detroit
Red Bandanna: Roma Against Racism
American Islamic Institute, San Diego, CA
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Anti-Imperialist
* Jamaat al-Muslimeen International
To add your organization or individual name to
this statement, please reply
to:
NationalOffice@bluetriangle.org
Blue Triangle
Network
P.O. Box 7451, Dearborn, MI 48121-7451(313)
942-7187
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003-03-23 Sun 08:48ct