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.
--------------------------------------------
"Terrorism and Iraq: The Myth Unveiled"
Dr. Siddique's Study of War Presented at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo

Dr. Kaukab Siddique was in Buffalo, New York on April 10, 11 and 12, 2003. It was a highly publicized visit sponsored by local Muslim students who organized it with great care and effort. The campus of State University of New York (Buffalo) at numerous key points had posters inviting people to the event titled "Terrorism & Iraq: The Myth Unveiled." The posters said: "Come and listen to Dr. Kaukab Siddique, author of six books on Islam, including two on the rights of women, Editor of NEW TREND magazine and Human Rights Organizer."

The main events were as follows:
1. April 10. Speech at the university's auditorium in Knox Hall, where Dr. Siddique spoke for one hour and then took questions for an hour.
2. April 11. Juma' Khutba and salat followed by du'a.
3. April 11 and 12. Halaqa with Muslim students, visits to local mosques, informal discussions with a number of Muslims including African-American activists.

Here are the salient features:

Dr. Siddique's Analysis of the War: Outline

A. FACTS:
1. Saddam Hussain never attacked America.
2. Saddam never threatened to attack America.
3. Inspectors did not find any Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs).
4. Even when his regime faced extinction, Saddam did not use any WMDs against U.S. forces.

Thus the U.S.'s argument FOR WAR was false.

B. U.S. DID NOT SEEK and HAS NO MORAL HIGH GROUND:

The propaganda in support of the war on Iraq painted Saddam's regime as brutal and repressive. However, the U.S. NEVER CALLED FOR AN IMPARTIAL OR U.N. INQUIRY into such "repression" while Saddam was in a position to answer such claims. Instead there was emphasis on WMDs. WHY? The answer:

i. Saddam's atrocities were committed during the Iraq-Iran war when the U.S. was on the side of Iraq. Any inquiry would have brought out U.S. involvement.

ii. Other atrocities were during Kurdish and Shia uprisings which were again INSTIGATED by the U.S. Any inquiry would have brought out the U.S. role.

iii. The stories of atrocities are highly exaggerated. Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens refer to hundreds of thousands of Kurds killed. One atrocity which did occur was at Halabcha in which at least a hundred people were killed in a gas attack. There are indications that poison gas was used by both sides and civilians were caught in the middle.

iv. As the Saddam regime collapses, the stories of atrocities will be highlighted because there will be no one to answer them from the Iraqi side.

C. MILITARY CONFLICT: Saddam's stance was a kind of victory

The U.S invasion of Iraq is being presented as a military victory but:

i. There was no military equivalence between Iraq and America. It was like a child standing up to a giant. It's not a surprise that the child has been squashed.

ii. Saddam stood up to a superpower and defended Iraq for 22 days against the most powerful military force in the world. He has inspired the entire Muslim world, the Arab world, the African world.

iii. Iraq's defenses were hit with 15,000 bombs and 800 cruise missiles. The Iraqi army fought without air cover. No other army in the world could have stood up for 22 days. Israel defeated three secular Arab armies in SIX days because it had air superiority.

D. ISRAEL and AMERICA's JEWISH LOBBY: The real factors behind the attack on Iraq.

i. President Bush's regime is being run by Zionists, Jewish and non-Jewish. The brains behind the war movement are Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz. Disclosures about Perle indicate that the Jewish lobby is in turn connected to oil and business interests. [Ref: Perle's contacts with Kashgoggi unearthed by Seymour Hersch.]

ii. The Democratic Party had an opportunity to stop Bush's war moves but these efforts were thwarted by Leiberman and other Zionists within the Democratic Party. [Lieberman, with close ties to Israel, aspires to be President of the United States.]

iii. ISRAEL has for years demanded that the U.S. destroy Saddam. Israel's attack on the Osirik nuclear facility indicated that Israel saw Saddam as its key enemy. Just about every prominent Jew in America has been clamoring for Saddam's head and finally they got it.

E. SADDAM's SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE:

i. Saddam Hussain's Iraq was the only regime in the Middle East which openly supported the Palestinian struggle against Israel, including support for martyrdom operations. For Israel, it was essential that Saddam be eliminated.

F. MEDIA's WAR TO TURN AGGRESSION INTO LIBERATION:

i. CNN and other U.S. media have the technology to use photography, "cut and paste," and repeat endlessly to create the impression that the invasion of Iraq was a "war of liberation."

ii. The U.S. media would not let Americans see the flowing blood of Iraqis slaughtered by the heroic U.S. air force.

iii. Iraqi hospitals were full of the smashed bodies of men, women and children hit by U.S. cluster bombs but the media would not visit any hospital.

iv. The media focused on the downing of Saddam's statue but did not show Bush's "statue" being downed in Chicago, New York, European capitals and by masses of Africans, Pakistanis and Arabs. Bush was burnt in effigy, lampooned, cursed throughout the world but all that did not matter for the U.S. media.

G. SADDAM: NOT TOPPLED BECAUSE HE WAS A DICTATOR
or because his sons lived in luxury:

i. U.S. is in bed with dictators, kings and fascists around the world. Among the CIA's people are King Abdullah of Jordan, the Saudi family and Mubarak of Egypt as well as killer regimes in Uzbekistan and Algeria.

ii. Saddam was NOT toppled because he smokes cigars or Tariq Aziz buys Cosmopolitan magazine or Uday had a luxurious mansion. These images are directed by the U.S. media at Muslim audiences to misdirect them.

iii. TRY THIS: Project images of homeless people sleeping in the gutter in New York, Washington and Los Angeles and juxtapose them with images of Bush, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld all dressed up and having a good time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JUMA' KHUTBA in S.U.N.Y. Buffalo: ONE UMMAH, not 56 HELPLESS TINPOT countries

Br. Kaukab gave a khutba and led Friday prayers on March 11.
Texts:
"No bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another (in the Hereafter)."
(The Qur'an)

"Each one of you is a ruler and each one of you is responsible for those you rule ....." Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, Sahih Bukhari

The main points:

1. Communicate to teach and emphasize the good and to oppose and defeat wrongdoing and oppression. This is a duty commanded in the Qur'an.

2. According to the Prophet (pbuh), those who see wrongdoing and do not consider it wrong, those who start thinking that evil is good or that the powerful will win, they have left Islam but do not know it. [In modern language, such people are brainwashed.]

3. The UMMAH concept is the only antidote to the global power of multi-national corporations allied to Imperialism and Zionism. FIFTY SIX little Muslim countries are no match for America's power if they do not unite at the people-to-people level
----------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT SHOULD AMERICAN MUSLIMS DO? Advice.

Dr. Siddique had extensive discussions with Muslims and advised them as follows:

i. Know your rights and use all legal means to safeguard them.
ii. A terrible failure of leadership has made America's Muslims unprepared to face adversity. It's time to remove leaders who carried out a bloc vote for Bush.
iii. Most of America's people are our friends. Recognize your friends and your enemies.
iv. The American power structure is not and cannot be a friend of Islam and Muslims. So don't waste time in trying to please the White House, Congress and Senate. Your mail is routinely junked by the bosses you want to please.
v. Our natural allies are the people of America. Help them in their striving and their difficulties. The most important are four categories:
1. African-Americans.
2. Hispanics.
3. Women.
4. People of German descent.
vi. Bring Muslim women who want to follow the Qur'an and the Sunnah into the DECISION-MAKING and LEADERSHIP levels of every community and program. Tokenism won't work. ONE UMMAH means both women and men together at every level.
vii. Muslims are often themselves involved in racism, gender biases and class superiority. These evils are not allowed in Islam. The Qur'an has only one acceptable standard for merit: TAQWA or Allah-conscious behavior.
viii. Interracial, inter-national marriage is very important for the spread of Islam. Pakistanis marrying Pakistanis, or Egyptians marrying Egyptians is a serious obstacle in the way of Islam. Study the marriages of the Prophet (pbuh) documented in the Hadith to see what needs to be done.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2003-04-13 Sun 14:19ct