New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

(phone: 410-435-5000)
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087
( $1 for sample copy in print. $12 for one year)

1. Highly Educated Pakistani Woman's Children given to American Husband by Court Judge Ignored Naheed Morrill's Rights and Children's Pleas in Court
2. Yemeni Teenager who killed her rapist, breaks, accepts plea bargain after 3 prison years without Trial
3. Hispanic Muslim Speaks out on Jose Padilla's case: (Also refer to Victor Alvarez)

[Relevant texts: "Men and women who truly believe are each others' protecting friends and guardians (awliyya) ...." The Qur'an 9:71

"Women are the twins of men." Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, Hadith, Sunan Abu Dawud
"The best among men are those who are best to their wives." Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, Hadith, Sunan Tirmidhi.(Narrated by Abu Huraira, r.a.)
"Do not hold a grudge against your wife, for if you dislike one of her ways, you will like another." (Hadith, Sahih Muslim)
"On judgement day, Allah will punish a man who separates a mother from her child by separating him from those he loves." (Hadith, Sunan Tirmidhi.) In a lengthy Hadith, Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, gave the death penalty to a man who raped a woman, after proper investigation.]

On August 7, 2002 in a Fairfax, Virginia court, Judge Hudson ruled against Dr. Naheed Morrill in a child custody case. The judge allowed the husband to keep the couple's three daughters. The judge admitted that Naheed Morrill is fit to be a good mother to the children. However, after a break in the hearing, he came back and ruled against her giving the CHILDREN to the sole custody of the husband.

During the case, the children testified against their father but the judge ignored their pleas and ruled that they will stay in the father's custody for SIX months and the case will be re-visited if Naheed behaves herself (!).

The judge might have thought that Naheed, being a Pakistani, is flight risk. However, Pakistan embassy official Imran Ali was present and told the court that the Pakistani embassy will undertake not to give a visa to Naheed which would allow her to return to Pakistan. This plea too failed to sway the judge.

New Trend's impression is that the ongoing war against Islam has played a role in the judge's biased decision against the mother of the children. PAKISTANIS today are being discriminated against, wholesale and retail, in America. Dr. Naheed is not a Taliban supporter. In fact she is a westernized woman who had cut her hair at one time. However, she remains a Muslim and retains the self-image of being a Muslim. This fact alone has gone against her in present-day America.

Dr. Naheed says that her husband approached her landlord and tried to prejudice him against her by showing him a book on Islam by Maudoodi. He claims that she is trying to teach "fanaticism" to the children.

New Trend's coverage of this case has already received attention on dozens of discussion lists. Pakistani newspaper The NATION even published a report on the case after our report appeared. [Funnily enough, the last two paragraphs of the report were taken verbatim from New Trend but without acknowledgement.]

Dr. Naheed's suffering is a sign of our times. She needs the support of all people of conscience: a strange case of a physician reduced to poverty by a system of injustice whose latest victims are Pakistani Muslims.
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OUR LOYAL READERS probably remember the case of Yemeni teenager Haila Gabr who was abducted and raped by an male predator in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After the assault, the original faith in her sparked and she allegedly stabbed the predator to death. The story of her suffering is on our web site.

Such is the justice of America, that she was KEPT IN PRISON FOR THREE and a HALF YEARS without her case coming to trial. She suffered from the company of the criminal women she was kept with. We learned that after enduring much suffering, she agreed to plea bargain. Sis. Eileen has sent us information on Sis. Haila including her new prison address. Please write to her and show support. Sis. Eileen writes as follows:

Haila's address is:
Haila Gabr #431-527, PO Box 4004 Clinton, NJ 08809

She is having trouble again. I spoke with her last week. She never received a rule book. Two weeks ago there was a mass random urine screen. Haila being very modest had trouble giving the sample under the direct gaze of the matron. She was also menstruating and very very embarrassed. the matron told her that if she did not give a sample within two hours they would treat her as though she had used drugs and charge her with refusal to give a sample. She drank and drank lots of water, felt like vomiting, and sat and sat with the lady watching her and still was so tense she could not do it. Finally, the lady said you know that you must do it in two hours and Haila said yes thinking she had another half hour to try. The lady said time is up and she is to have two weeks or more in lock up plus NO VISITORS for one whole year. I am appalled. She said she will appeal it and speak to the woman who leads the prayer but who is on vacation. I see that Islamic modesty is a real problem in prison and makes the sisters seem like trouble makers
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ABDULLAH al-MUHAJER (Jose Padilla) is a U.S. citizen who was targeted by Attorney General John Ashcroft himself with some of the most sensational accusations America has heard of in recent history. Br. Sulaiman Solano writes about the implications of this case. [We also urge readers to remember Victor Alvarez (Muhammad Salman), a Puerto Rican Muslim who was convicted on along with Shaikh Omar ‘Abdel Rahman. He is now in Marion, Illinois prison and needs support from the Muslim community. Here is Br. Solano's report:

ASSALAMUS ALAIKUM
The time has come for all muslims in the USA to standup for our Constitutional Rights and the rights to privacy. We are loyal citizens and should not be treated as "suspects." The government's highly touted case against a Hispanic Muslim who happens to be a native USA citizen and who was "suspected of plotting" with Al Qaeda to detonate a dirty bomb looks like a bust...
The man/brother is innocent. Four moths after his "arrest" in Chicago, this Brooklyn-born Jose Padilla, 31 years old, has not be been charged, and his plot was blown out of proportion; probably in order to buy propaganda time and intimidate other Hispanics from seeking Islam.

Attorney General Joh Ashcrfoft announced during a recent trip to Russia that authorities had foiled Padilla's plan to detonate a radiological bomb in the United States. But like many political prisoners now in US Federal Prisons, the plot never advanced beyond the talking stage and was never an actual conspiracy. Ashcroft said in June that the government had "multiple, independent and corroborativing sources" that Padilla was closely associated with Al Qaeda and was "involved in planning future terrorist attacks" on innocent American civilians in the United States. I find this hard to believe. The man/brother should be released from solitary confinement since there are no charges against him.
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2002-08-17 Sat 08:54ct