Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief ---------------------------------------------------------
Safar 3, 1426/March 14, 2005 #21
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Scroll way down to inside report from Tsunami hit area in Sri Lanka, sent by Muslim woman doctor. It is scary, so recite these verses first: "We [Allah] have indeed created the human being in the best of moulds. Then do we abase him to be the lowest of the low." [The Qur'an 95:4-5]
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America: The Internal Sickness highlighted by Spurts of Extreme Violence

[Quick New Trend Profile]
  1. Atlanta: March 11. Brian Nichols, an African-American man, entered a court room and shot dead a superior court judge and his clerk. As he fled, he killed a police officer chasing him. Later, in the city he killed an immigration officer. Still later he changed his attitude and stopped fighting when a spiritual White woman named Ashley Smith, whom he had taken hostage, talked to him like one human being to another. Nichols had a sense of injustice and told Ashley Smith that he was a "soldier" for his people.
  2. Just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ratzner, a White man opened fire in a church service gathering, killing 7 and injuring 3 before killing himself. It appears that he was about to lose his job and was concerned with a sermon in the church. The idea that Jesus (pbuh) is going to return is a deadening doctrine which deprives Christianity of any positive God-oriented program for "this world." Many Christians try to "speed on" the coming of Jesus by indulging in extreme violence against others and themselves. [There is no verifiable original textual evidence in any religion that Jesus is going to return.] The shooter's outburst could also be connected to the fact that the church audience, in part, was Black, and he is White. [Race is a key issue in the U.S.]
  3. During the night of March 12-13, there were SIX murders in Philadelphia, including three children. The most poignant was that of a mother who killed her 11 year old son and 5 year old daughter before killing herself. [The tragic triple death did not make it to the national/cable news and was only on KWY AM radio, Philadelphia.]
Whenever such terror incidents take place, U.S. "experts" indulge in extensive psychological profiling of the perpetrators. They seldom note that the incidents should be seen in the context of a society without direction, following a religion which gives no guidance, other than "accept Jesus as your savior," and which glorifies immediate gratification, sanitizes extreme violence, provides no justice, and objectifies women.
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Montreal Perspectives
By Jalaluddin S. Hussain

Hate Mongering Against Sharia :Ms. Boyd Report Endorses Sharia while Ms.Houda-Pepin Opposes it
The Gazette's provocative headline

It is a provocative and hate-filled news headline. But then what can you expect from a pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist conservative newspaper? I am referring here to the only English daily of Montreal, The Gazette. In its March 11, 2005, issue, one of the front-page headings blares out: "Keep Islamic law out of Canada, Quebec politicians urge". The text of the news however does not refer to more than two Quebec politicians of importance: one a Morrocan Muslim Quebec's National Assembly member, Mrs. Fatima Houda Pepin and the other International Relations Minister of Quebec, Ms. Monique Gagnon-Tremblay. They have every right to express their personal opinion on any topic under the sun, but representing them as "Quebec politicians" as a collective, which this newspaper did, does not make much sense!

Marion Boyd's report generates discussion

The readers of "Montreal Perspectives" are already aware of the Marion Boyd's 190-page report, in which she has made recommendations about the applicability of Sharia, to resolve family disputes, within the Muslim community of Ontario. This Report, by Ms. Boyd, who was once the Director of a women's shelter organization and the Attorney-General of Ontario, has since been intensely discussed, by both Muslims and non-Muslims, with regard to its applicability. This Report has understandably generated a lot of discussion.

Sharia does not erodes women's rights

Ms. Marion Boyd, in her Report, specifically points out that she found no evidence of "an erosion of rights" in cases where Sharia has been implemented. However, it is unfortunate that critics within the Muslim community of Canada itself, like some members of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, are highly critical of the Report. They think that allowing implementation of Sharia may "open the door to polygamy and infringe on women's rights in a marriage relationship".

Her recommendation not applicable in Quebec

While Ms. Marion Boyd report's recommendations are not applicable in Quebec, where provincial family legal provisions reign supreme, recently, in an hour-long presentation, Quebec's Liberal Member of National Assembly, Ms. Fatima Houda-Pepin, has opined that, Islamic law would infringe on women's rights. Some other members of the Quebec Liberal Party and of Parti-Quebecois (a separatist party) have also warned that using Sharia provisions would lead to blatant violations of women's rights. Specifically, the International Relations Minister of Quebec, Monique Gagnon-Tremblay has been more outspoken than most and recently suggested that, "I think all the political parties in Quebec must say loud and clear that not only do we not want it (Sharia) in Quebec, but we also do not want it in Ontario or in Canada".

Saner elements need to explain applicable Sharia provisions

The Sharia controversy may grow intense with time. Hopefully, saner elements will prevail, within the Muslim community of Canada and explain the pros and cons of Sharia implementation to the general populace.

Informative websites

If "Montreal Perspectives" readers are interested in following this discussion in greater detail they are well-advised to visit the following Canadian Council of Muslim Women website: www.ccmw.com and Montreal Muslims website: www.montrealmuslims.ca. They can also follow the links suggested therein.

No hate mongering please!

There is no doubt in my mind that if the Jewish and the Catholic family codes can be used to resolve those communities' family matters, there is no reason why Islamic Sharia can also not be used to decide on Muslim family law matters. At least there is no harm in discussing them. Raising a red flag at this stage of discussion simply tantamounts to scare and hate mongering!
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Afghanistan

News of Mullah Zaeef: Refuses to Cooperate with U.S. Plan for "moderate Taliban."
Hikmatyar's Son-in-Law Dr. Ghairat Also rejects Offer.

According to Pakistan's Urdu language newspapers, Mullah Abdus Salaam Zaeef is alive in America's prison colony in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Mullah Zaeef was the last ambassador of the Taliban government in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In one of the most shameful episodes in Muslim history, General Musharraf, the CIA agent who rules Pakistan, handed over Mullah Zaeef to the CIA. He is reported to have been tortured at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and then in 2002 transported to the U.S. prison cages in Cuba. [Such transportation across international frontiers is a violation of international and a war crime.]

In February 2005, the U.S. reportedly offered to ease Mullah Zaeef's prison conditions and speed up his release if he agreed to be a "moderate Taliban" and would work with the Karzai "government" in Kabul. Zaeef is reported to have categorically rejected the U.S. offer.

A similar offer was made in February to Dr. Ghairat, mujahideen leader Hikmatyar's son-in-law who is being held at the Bagram air force base just outside Kabul. He too rejected the offer.

Pakistani newspapers have published a statement by Mullah 'Umar, the legendary Taliban leader, in which he says that no Taliban leader is willing to cooperate with the U.S. He ridiculed the U.S. claim that "moderate Taliban" were talking to the U.S. He challenged the U.S. to state the name of even one such Taliban. Jihad, he said, is the only Islamic response to the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.
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PAKISTAN and SUNAMI VICTIMS
Sri Lanka Acknowledges Significant Help received from Jamaat ad-Da'wa

The following statement appeared in the prominent Sri Lankan newspaper Daily News of February 19: "Maulana Amir Hamza of Jamaat ad-Dawa social welfare organisation distributed cash and relief goods to tsunami-affected people in Sri Lanka. The organisation has handed over 16 truck loads of relief goods to Sri Lankan High Commission in Islamabad." [New Trend has retained the British style spelling.]

Altogether, according to Pakistani newspapers, Jamaat ad-Da'wa has provided Rs. 10,000,000 of relief goods to Sri Lanka. [$1 = Rs. 58]. Its leader, Maulana Hamza was invited to Sri Lanka by the Sri Lanka government.

[Strange irony, that Jamaat ad-Da'wa, which supports Jihad in Kashmir, is labeled a "terrorist" organization by the Bush administration. Several U.S. Muslims, labeled the "Virginia Jihad Network" whom New Trend calls the "Virginia Innocents," have been given unbelievably high sentences by the Bush administration for alleged contacts with Jamaat ad-Da'wa.]
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In Contrast to W.D. Muhammad

MALCOLM X KNEW : Islam Means no Messenger After Muhammad of Arabia [pbuh]
W.D. is Friend of Jews while Malcolm Knew them as exploiters of the Oppressed

[A New Trend reader has asked us to open The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1999 edition, and read from the last but one paragraph starting on page 379 and on to page 380. Our reader says this will bring out the difference between Malcolm and "imam' W.D. The segment begins where Malcolm X challenges a U.S. intelligence agent who was shadowing him in Africa. Emphasis added].

"....This super-sleuth then got off on my 'Black Muslim' religious beliefs. I asked him hadn't his headquarters bothered to brief him - that my attitudes and beliefs were changed? I told him that the Islam I believed in now was the Islam which was taught in Mecca - that there was no God but Allah, and that Muhammad ibn Abdullah who lived in the Holy City of Mecca fourteen hundred years ago was the LAST MESSENGER of ALLAH."

"...From the consistent subjectivity in just about everything he asked and said, I had deduced something, and I told him, 'You know, I think you're a Jew with an anglicized name,' His involuntary expression told me I'd hit the button. He asked me how I knew. I told him I'd had so much experience with how Jews would attack me that I usually could identify them. I told him all I had against the Jew was that so many Jews actually were hypocrites in their claim to be friends of the American black man, and it burned me up to be so often called 'anti-semitic' when I spoke things I knew to be the absolute TRUTH ABOUT JEWS. I told him that, yes, I gave the Jew credit for being among all other whites the most active, and the most vocal, financier, 'leader' and 'liberal' in the Negro civil rights movement. But I said at the same time I knew that the Jew played these roles for a very careful strategic reason: the more prejudice in America could be focused upon the Negro, then the more white Gentiles' prejudice would keep diverted off the Jew. I said that to me, one proof that all the civil rights posturing of so many Jews wasn't sincere was that so often in the North the quickest segregationists were Jews themselves. Look at practically everything the black man is trying to 'integrate' into for instance; if Jews are not the actual owners, or are not in controlling positions, then they have major stockholdings or they are otherwise in powerful leverage positions ...."

"...And an even clearer proof for me of how Jews regard Negroes, I said, was what invariably happened wherever a Negro moved into any white residential neighborhood that was thickly Jewish. Who would always lead the whites' exodus? The Jews! Generally in these situations, some whites stay put - you just notice who they are: they're Irish Catholics, they're Italians; they're rarely ever any Jews. And, ironically, the Jews themselves often still have trouble being 'accepted.' "

"Saying this, I know I'll hear 'anti-Semitic' from every direction again. Oh, yes! But truth is truth."

COMPARE WITH 'imam' W.D. Muhammad: He claims after all these years that Muhammad (pbuh) is not the last messenger of Allah. Thus W.D. still does not know what the martyr knew 40 years bank.

While the Jews have been funding Israel to kill the Palestinians and to occupy Palestinian land, W.D. befriended the most powerful and the richest Jewish organizations in the Chicago area [this was before 9.11] and published with pride in his own paper how much these funding sources for Israel love 'imam' W.D.
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Muslim Woman Doctor Sees Horrors of Tsunami Aftermath at Close Up: The Inhumanity of Rich Humans to Poor Humans

"My visit to Ampara"
by Dr. Reffai
[The author is founder of the Al-Muslimath, women's organization in Sri Lanka]

Assalamu alaikum warahmathullahi wabarakathuhu.

I visited Kalmunai, Saintha maruthu and maruthamunai on the 21st . I have been constantly in touch with the relief work right round the island day in day out from day one - or even before that, when the floods came, and by the requests we got I knew that the situation was bad.

But none of those sleepless nights or the tiring days prepared me for what I saw.

My heart bleeds when I think of what I saw. My heart trembles at what Allah will ask of us, the rest of the Muslims, for the way we have left these poor souls suffering and carrying on with our life. Isn't there anyone out there to mete out justice to these Muslim brethren? Are we so weak that the Muslim girls of our society still have no proper clothes to pray in?

The stories we heard of the day 12.26 was enough to make our hairs turn grey with despair at the state of our society. While there were poor people - who were ridiculed by the same victims earlier- fed them and housed them day in day out, there were rich people who closed their doors to half naked girls, running away form tsunami, saying ' I don't want my tiled floors wetted'. Still there were more who shut the doors to the crowd lest they will ask for clothes. There was a mother who saw her child being thrown back into the water by a man after plucking the ear rings. The inhumanity of it all!

Even now the outsiders, Muslims and non Muslims try to help the people in the camps and other's homes but the local people's participation has much to be desired.

The rubble lies for miles and miles. when will they be cleared? When will these people return to normalcy? What with the 200 meter rule and the lethargy of the government wheel there seems to be very little hope that anything constructive can happen for another ten years - unless of course we, the rest of the umma decide to do something about it.

The main problems seem to be
  1. food -still there are people without food but it is not dry rations. They get some parcels from us and the government but it's all rice, sugar , dhal and milk. What about the vegetables, the spices, the meat and fish? They have to sell the dry rations to get these.
  2. The housing - SOME MUSLIM MINISTERS HAVE PUT UP HOUSES MADE OF TIN SHEETS RIGHT ROUND AND ROOF AND CEMENT FLOOR. THEY ARE 8'X8' SHEDS AND IN EACH OF THESE TWO OR THREE FAMILIES LIVE. THEY SEGREGATE THEMSELVES WITH SAREES HUNG ON STRINGS IF POSSIBLE. THEY HAVE NO SPACE EVEN TO STRETCH AND SLEEP.
    I SINCERELY WISH THE SO CALLED LEADERS WILL GO AND LIVE FOR SOME DAYS WITH THEIR FAMILIES INSIDE THESE 'KOLI KOODUS'.
  3. THESE SAME LEADERS HAVE VISITED THESE CAMPS WITH PROVISIONS AND WITHIN 50 YARDS THERE IS ANOTHER CAMP. WHEN THE LATTER ASKED FOR THE PROVISIONS THEY HAVE SAID "YOU DON'T BELONG TO US" THE PEOPLE ARE ANGRY. They ask "how come we belonged to them when they came asking for votes?" Some of the politicians have never come to see them within the last two months. I tried to make the pain less by suggesting that they cannot come to see all the people. they ask "if they can come to see every one of us into each of our huts when the election came, Why not now?"
    What can I say?
  4. The bureaucratic bungling is hopeless. Some politician has come with 150 parcels to a camp where there are 500 families. when the number was told they have taken the parcels back saying they cannot distribute to all.
    Some GS offices are sealed by the police since there has been complaints of fraud. some GS cannot be contacted at all since if they are contacted they have to work.
  5. Some schools are totally destroyed so they conduct the school in another school as afternoon session. One such school cannot have all the children since the space is not enough. Some sent the children back as they are sleepy without enough food. Still children are without books and uniforms. some schools have refugees on one side the school on the other. We are receiving appeals daily.
  6. The young girls in the camps told me they have no hijabs and abayas and no dresses to pray in. We are in the process of making them and sending them but each set costs minimum 800 rupees and we need thousands.
  7. To top it all we cannot release our containers. First the government said there is no duty and then when the containers arrived they are charging duty which is not a small amount - comes to 100-150,000 per container depending on the contents. where are we to go for this money? There are more than 500 containers sent to the government itself - but the contents are literally rotting in the port. None of our politician can do anything about it.
  8. Most of these people do not know how to pray or recite the Quran but once we spoke to them about asking dua they were very keen to start turning to Allah in any way they can. We need a lot of da'wa material and personnel to put them on the right path. This cannot be done by visiting them once in while and have to be a long term process.
The only silver lining in this pathetic situation seems to be the unity among the Muslim organizations. They are all working together as one and trying to help these people in whatever way they can. Watching the brothers working round the clock I wish we can go and live among the camp people and give them some solace but it is not practical.
We intend to bring some local girls to Colombo and train them on counseling and da'wa for short period. We are in the process of renting out a house for at least three months for this purpose. We have found a furnished house near our office, alhamdulillah, and have negotiated for renting for 25,000 per month. We intend to bring the girls down form the 1st of March insha Allah.

May Allah always bless and guide all of us in the straight path.
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2005-03-14 Mon 18:24ct
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