[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.
--------------------------------------------
The anniversary of Allama Iqbal, the visionary
poet of
Pakistan,
continues.
This is how his poetry addresses the corrupted
Muslim upper classes:
"waza' main tum ho nasara, to tamaddan main hunood
yeh musalman hain jinhain dekh kay sharmain yahood!
yuun to sayyed bhi ho, mirza bhi ho, afghan bhi ho
tum sabhi kutch ho, batau to musalman bhi ho?"
[Translation:
In appearance you look like Christians,
culturally you are Hindus/
Are these Muslims who would make Jews blush with
shame!
Given that you are sayyeds, mirzas and afghans/
you are all that, but tell me are you Muslims at
all?]
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Mugabe: A New Mandela from
Africa
Speaks out
Calls Attack on Iraq "Grave, Criminal Act"
ZIMBABWE
Mugabe tells
US
govt to 'go hang'
Posted Tue, 22 Apr 2003
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Monday told
the US government to "go
hang" and said the US-led coalition's operations
in Iraq were "a grave
criminal act".
Mugabe, in an Easter interview broadcast on state
television to mark the
nation's 23rd anniversary of independence from
British colonial rule, said
Western countries described him as a dictator in
the mould of Saddam
Hussein.
"When you stick to your principles they say you
are a dictator.
I am not a dictator," he said.
In Iraq, "you have a death toll of children, you
have people without limbs,
you have in international crime that is being
committed ... a grave criminal
act," Mugabe said.
Mugabe accuses Bush of vote rigging
Mugabe castigated the State Department's top
official on Africa, Walter
Kansteiner, and President
George W. Bush
over US
criticisms of last year's
presidential elections in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe narrowly won a vote condemned by
independent observers as swayed by
political violence and vote rigging.
"Who is Kansteiner to denounce the validity of
our election? If he doesn't
listen, let him go hang. Bush, of all people, is
saying so. We stick by our
election verdict. What happened in Florida? Who
of the two of us cheated on
elections? It was obviously Bush," Mugabe said.
The United States and the European Union, along
with Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, have refused to
accept the results of last
year's poll.
The US government has imposed travel restrictions
on Mugabe and officials in
his government and ruling party.
Mugabe acknowledges hardship but defends policy
Mugabe acknowledged the southern African nation
was facing its worst
economic crisis since independence in 1980 and
had experienced "three years
of suffering" since he launched an often violent
program to confiscate
thousands of white-owned farms. But he defended
the land-reform policy.
"We are delighted at last our land is now the
people's land. The white man
has been displaced by the black man. We are
strong politically," he said.
Mugabe described the opposition as
"neo-colonialist extensions of Britain"
and "agents of imperialism" nurtured by British
Prime Minister Tony Blair
and white farmers, the descendants of British
colonial-era settlers.
"Let it be known we are not totally independent
until we take over our land.
Now the land is in our hands, we have the
capacity to improve the lot of our
people. These hardships are going to go," he
said.
Zimbabwe suffers acute shortages of food,
gasoline and essential imports.
[Source not given by sender.]
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[Report by our Iraq Monitor]
U.S.
Media's
Coverage of the Karbala Gathering:
Covering Up the Tragedy of Iraq
There was something eerie about the U.S.
media's three day coverage of
the Shia gathering in Karbala. Muslims have
always complained about the
difficulty of getting their activities reported
in the U.S.
media.
Historic
anti-U.S., anti-Bush, anti-war rallies in
Indonesia,
Morocco and many other
countries did not get more than passing reference
in the U.S.
media.
Pakistan's
unprecedented marches by millions in
Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore,
Peshawar, Quetta and Hyderabad got near ZERO
coverage. [The only above zero
report was negative, with the false claim that
70,000 had turned up in
Lahore.]
Atrocities against Iraqi and
Palestinian
Muslims, even when reported by
the Arab media, have been kept off the air in
America. No one here saw what
happened to Kurds of Ansar al-Islam or the people
of Basra or to Baghdad's
civilians owing to the U.S. bombing.
Rachel Corrie,
the sweet rose of
America, a household name among
people of conscience from San Francusco to New
York, has yet to appear on
U.S. TV. Why? She gave her life in trying to stop
Israeli
atrocities against
Palestinians, crushed by an Israeli bulldozer
intent on demolishing a
Palestinian home.
Then came the gathering in Kerbala. EVERY
MAJOR TV CHANNEL, both cable
and the evening network news, reported it for
three days. Note the main
points:
1. The U.S. media were enthusiastic about the
gathering. NOT ONE NEGATIVE
WORD WAS SAID ABOUT THE GATHERING. No snide
comments about Shi'ism!
2.
CNN,
MSNBC
and others insisted,
REPEATEDLY, that there were at least a
million people there. Some remarks were also made
about TWO million being
there. [Compare with how much difficulty anti-war
marchers have had WITHIN
the U.S. in getting the media to report marches
of 100,000 or more people.
CNN has tended to whittle down half a million
people to one hundred thousand.]
3. The photography, however, gave the lie to
the figure of one million.
The crowd at Kerbala did not appear to be more
than 30 to 50 thousand. Not a
million!
4. The media insisted that THERE WERE AT
LEAST SOME people calling for
removal of U.S. troops from Iraq. These very few
anti-U.S. banners, specially
prepared in English for the media, were given
extra high coverage.
5. Just in case Americans really thought that
these people were
anti-U.S., there was an interview with the
ayatollah in charge who made it
very clear that he and his people were very
grateful to the U.S.
[6. CNN HEADLINE NEWS almost gave the game
away by saying that in Saddam's
time too such gatherings were held but then
"people used to come in buses and
cars and there was high security."]
Our Analysis: A gathering in Kerbala is
nothing strange or unusual. All
Muslims honor the grandson of the Prophet (pbuh).
However, the media gave it
maximum coverage to create the impression that
IRAQ IS NOW FREE. Thus,
bleeding, torn, looted, pillaged Iraq was
presented as "free and liberated"
through this filming of crowds at Kerbala.
People no longer have to think that B-52s
and B-1s were used to bomb a
crowded city like Baghdad, that thousands of
civilians were killed and
maimed, that Iraq was defenseless against
American tanks, and fidayeen and
mujahideen gave their lives trying to stop tanks
with RPGs and AK47s.
People no longer have to question the
burning of the
Qur'an
library,
the looting of museums, the desecration of the
resting place of Shaikh Abdul
Qadir Jilani, the attack on the mosque of Imam
Abu Hanifa. All that is to be
replaced with crowds celebrating in Kerbala.
The extra touch by the organizers of the
show were the handful of
anti-U.S. banners to provide "authenticity" and
give credence.
The Shias are allowing themselves to be
used, throwing salt on the
wounds of the Ummah. They will be used and
discarded but will have
successfully aroused suspicion against
themselves. [Compare with the
situation in Mosul where U.S. troops fired on
civilian demonstrators, killing
11 and wounding more than 100. The U.S. entered
Mosul with a tremendous show
of military power, tanks and Apaches, to quell
the civilian opposition.]
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2003-04-26 Sat 08:00ct