Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief ---------------------------------------------------------
Zulqi'dah 25, 1425/January 6, 2005 #2
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Jamaat al-Muslimeen [this item only]
P.O. Box 10881
Baltimore, MD 21234

ISLAMIC SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING OF TSUNAMI CATACLYSM: What the Qur'an Teaches

Imam Badi Ali, peace activist from Greensboro, NC, points out the guidance from Qur'an and Hadith about tsunami cataclysm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ISLAMIC WORKERS WAY AHEAD OF OTHERS in TSUNAMI RELIEF: Aceh, Indonesia: CBS Admits

January 6, 2005. CBS nightly news admitted that a relief camp run by ISLAMIC MILITANTS is active in the "INACCESSIBLE" area of Aceh, Indonesia, bringing relief to the stricken people. CBS tried to surmise that the 200 militants working in the camp might be Al-Qaida and that the U.S. forces are keeping an eye on them.
[The area is far from the capital city of Banda Aceh where some U.S. relief has arrived.]
[TWO HUNDRED RELIEF WORKERS! WOW! How many has America sent?]
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PAKISTANI CONTRIBUTION

Without much fanfare, Pakistan is setting up a 50 bed field hospital in the Aceh area of Indonesia. Two C130 Pakistani planes filled with medicines, food and clothing arrived earlier.
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Historic Trial Nears Conclusion
by Kaukab Siddique

Lynne Stewart, Mohommed Yusry, Ahmed 'Abdel Sattar.
Issues of attorney rights, faculty freedom, free speech.
Suffering of Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman and the Plight of the Egyptian People is the Background

January 4 and 5, 2004. New York City. New Trend's editor attended the most important trial concerning the Muslims of America. It was also an opportunity for the editor to talk to the three defendants enormously famous in the human rights communities.

The issues here are central to civil society in America, in general, and to the rights of America's Muslims in particular.

With the prosecution of Ms. Lynne Stewart, famous human rights activist and Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman's attorney, the U.S. government crossed the rubicon of civilization and started behaving in a way not very different from that of the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt. In her arrest, though she was released on bail, the U.S. government was signalling to attorneys standing up for the rights of political prisoners that they themselves could be targeted.

When Lynne Stewart visited her client Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman, buried alive in solitary confinement, she was accompanied by Mohammad Yusry, a professor at a New York university, as translator
[because the blind Shaikh, Dr. Omar, does not speak English].
He too was arrested and released on bail. Following the news of his arrest, he was dismissed summarily from his faculty position without proper procedure. The faculty of his school supported him and have published an extensive report which rejects the action taken against him. The dismissal of Prof. Yusry brings up the entire issue of academic freedom and the rights of faculty.

Central to the case is Ahmed 'Abdel Sattar, an Egyptian-American Muslim, whose solid Islamic faith caused him to stand up for the rights of the blind Shaikh, Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman. In the process of helping the Shaikh during his stay in America, 'Abdel Sattar, Ahmed to his friends, became acutely aware of the situation in his home country Egypt.

The blind Shaikh, Dr. Omar, was convicted and sentenced in a bogus trial to life imprisonment. During and after the trial Ahmed was involved in an ongoing effort first to defend the name of the Shaikh and then to keep it alive in the media. As his capable attorney, Mr. Paul, pointed out on January 5, Ahmed worked with the Committee to Free Shaikh Omar 'Abdel Rahman. Efforts were made to get the support of American leaders, in particular Minister Louis Farrakhan.

The U.S. government kept tightening the restrictions on the blind Shaikh, trying to cut him off from all human contact other than those of his captors. The more the Shaikh sank into the shadows of the American gulag, the more active Ahmed became in his efforts to keep the Shaikh's name alive.

As his publicity efforts were published in the Arabic media, specially in England, Egyptian dissidents, including militants from Gamaa al-Islamia [the Islamic group in Egypt] started calling him from various parts of the world.

For these opponents of the Egyptian regime, the key issue was a Peace Initiative by which there would be a cease fire in Egypt and the Egyptian dictator, Mubarak, would be persuaded to release the thousands of Egyptians he holds without trial.

For the peace to take place, it was essential that the blind Shaikh, spiritual leader of Gamaa al-Islamiyya, give his support to the Peace Initiative. To complicate things further, the Gamaa was divided on the issue. Those Gamaa leaders in Mubarak's prisons favored peace while those outside, in particular a leading militant named Taha, who was in Afghanistan called to oppose it.

Ahmed started receiving all these call with the callers pressing him to take their viewpoints to the Shaikh through his attorney, Lynne Stewart. Attorneys are permitted to keep their clients informed of the situation related to their issues and the world situation in general.

All these calls which Ahmed received over the years were taped by the FBI. The government had them translated and for the last few months these translations were read in court to build a case against Ahmed.

Ahmed's attorney systematically showed that the phone conversations did not imply in any way that Ahmed is a "terrorist" or part of a "terrorist" organization. He was simply exercising his right to listen to opposition viewpoints and to keep the Shaikh informed. THERE IS NO PROSECUTION WITNESS, NOT ONE, WHO COULD SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT STORY. It is a prosecution without witnesses.
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Ahmed's trial is central to the freedom and rights of America's Muslims. Attorney Paul took hours to go through the taped phone calls
[in particular on January 4]
to show that Ahmed NEVER advocated or supported violence of any kind and certainly not against his family's country, America.

If listening to dissidents and passing on their viewpoints to a man who can make peace between them and his country's government is to be a crime in America, it could undermine the First Amendment rights on which freedom on America is based.
[to be continued, inshallah.]
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U.S. No Longer Able to Stand Opposing ViewPoint . BANNED AL MANAR TV. Arab American says, same rule should apply to Fox TV.

[New Trend does not support all or most of Al-Manar's content, but by banning it, the U.S. has shown that it is losing the battle of ideas and finds recourse in Censorship. This news is excerpted from December 12, Washington Post, but though late should not be ignored by those who support independent and free media.]

Al-Manar has been removed from U.S. airwaves after the State Department designated it a supporter of terrorism. State Department officials placed the satellite television network, run by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, on its Terrorist Exclusion List on Friday because of what they described as its incitement of terrorist activity. The designation means foreign nationals who work for the network or provide it any support can be barred from the United States, officials said.

"It's not a question of freedom of speech," State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said. "It's a question of incitement of violence. We don't see why, here or anywhere else, a terrorist organization should be allowed to spread its hatred and incitement through the television airwaves."

Al-Manar is protesting the designation, saying on its Web site that banning it was an attempt "to terrorize and silence thoughts that are not in line with U.S. and Israeli policies."

The U.S. action had the effect of banning al-Manar in the United States, where its programming had been beamed via GlobeCast, a company that sells access to foreign television programs by satellite. "As of Friday last week, that channel is no longer on the satellite," GlobeCast spokesman Robert Marking said.

Some Arabic-speaking Americans expressed frustration with the State Department's action. Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, a newspaper in Dearborn, Mich., said al-Manar is popular in this country in part because of its strong support for "resistance against Israeli occupation."

"I disagree with the State Department that it incites violence," he said. "By that standard, they should shut Fox News for inciting violence against Muslims."
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WAR NEWS: [Collected by New Trend's Media Monitor.]

IRAQ:

January 6: In Baghdad, the mujahideen blew up a 35 ton U.S. Bradley tank, one of the heaviest vehicles in the U.S. arsenal. All 7 U.S. troops in it were killed. [Source ABC TV.] Another 2 U.S. troops were killed in the Fallujah area.

From January 1 onwards, the mujahideen have wrought havoc with the Iraqi collaborator forces armed by the U.S. The Governor of Baghdad was killed along with his 6 bodyguards. Observers say that killing of collaborators is accepted in all civilizations when a country is occupied by outside forces.

[New Tend's observers point out that the attacks are not aimed at all Shi'ites marking them as collaborators. Only those Shi'ites who work with American forces and are armed and funded by them are under attack. Shi'ites with Moqteda al-Sadr are not under attack.]
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KASHMIR:

Indian occupation forces are sending out hit squads to terrorize the occupied Muslim nation. One hit squad in Chatrag kidnaped and murdered a mosque Imam on January 3. India sees Imams as the motivators of resistance. People in the area came out to protest the atrocity.

In Jammu,on January 4, a hit squad kidnaped and murdered a Muslim woman. The Indian government claimed that she committed suicide.

In Shopian an Indian hit squad kidnapped and murdered a young man named Shakil Ahmed.
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On January 5, Kashmiris in Muzaffarabad and all the small towns of AZAD [free] Kashmir held rallies to remind the U.N. and the world that on January 5, 1949 the United Nations had passed a resolution recognizing the Kashmiri people's right of self-determination. Since then most of Kashmir has been under Indian occupation.
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AFGHANISTAN

The new year, 2005, began with Taliban attacks on U.S. troops and its mercenary Afghans. In one attack near Shindand, western Afghanistan, a soldier from the intelligence wing of U.S. Special Forces was killed.

On Jan 3 a couple of Taliban jumped a U.S. patrol in Paktia. In hand to hand fighting, one U.S. soldier, 2 Afghan mercenaries and one Taliban were killed. Four Afghan mercenaries were wounded.

On January 5, in Zabul province, Taliban attacked three posts held by Afghan mercenaries armed by the U.S. They killed 7 mercenaries and wounded 9 and set their trucks on fire. In a U.S. counter attack three Taliban were killed.

[Most of southern, southeastern and southwestern Afghanistan, which are Pashtun and hard core Islamic are under Taliban control at night.]

PAKISTANI TROOPS CLASH WITH Pro-U.S. AFGHANS

On January 2, Taliban inside Afghanistan shot down a pilotless U.S. plane which crashed inside Pakistani territory. From January 3 to 5, Afghan mercenaries working for the U.S. indulged in fire fights with Pakistani troops in their attempts to retrieve the wreckage of the plane. In one such exchange a Pakistani soldier was killed. Pakistani troops then opened HEAVY ARTILLERY FIRE on the pro-U.S. Afghans killing 5 of them and stopping further attempts.
[The Pakistani government is working hard to do damage control but obviously some local Pakistan commanders consider the pro-U.S. forces their enemies.]
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Interesting Light on Jesus' Crucifixion from the Bible itself: Proof it did not happen to Jesus (pbuh)

[This interpretation is from an eminent reader of New Trend in Louisiana, a sister who was a Christian and accepted Islam many years back- Ed.]

According to the Gospels, Jesus Barabbas (Barabbas means the son of the father - Bar (son of) Abbas (father)) was set free (see Mark 14:14, Matthew 27:26, Luke 23:25). Barabbas' first name, Jesus, has been deleted in many translations of the Gospels allegedly because the translators did not want the reader to get Jesus the Galilean who was crucified mixed up with Jesus the son of the father who was set free by Pontius Pilate.

Josephus, an ancient historian, reported Jesus' full name as Jesus Barabbas. The Oxford Study Bible has retained the original text which says according to Matt 27:17: When the people assembled Pilate said to them, 'Which would you like me to release to you -JESUS BARABBAS or Jesus called the Messiah..." The Jesus "called the Messiah" in this verse refers to Jesus the Galilean (Matt 26:69).

Galilea was a part of Samaria whose people were descendants of the Assyrians and not of Abraham (as).

"When the Assyrians conquered all the northern tribes in 722, the leaders of Samaria were deported and other Assyrian captives were resettled in the city. This mixing of peoples in Samaria led to greater mingling of religious traditions. In 538 the Persians conquered the Babylonians and allowed the leaders of Judah, who had been taken into exile by the Babylonian Empire in 587, to return to Jerusalem. Samaritans offered to help these returning Judeans rebuild the temple destroyed by the Babylonians and proposed that the two peoples worship there together. When the Judeans refused their offer, the Samaritans tried to prevent the rebuilding of the temple. After the Judeans fought them off and constructed their temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerezim."

Galilea was also the home of the Zealots and the Sicarii, two groups that assassinated the Romans and Roman collaborators.Another Galilean rebel called Judas the Galilean was executed around 40 AD by the Romans and he is also referred to as a messiah. It is highly likely that the crucifixion of Jesus the Galilean was fused with the story of Jesus the Prophet who was set free.

Jesus the Galilean was probably a Samaritan who was descended from the Assyrians. His name may not have been Jesus at all but Judas, the Galilean messiah who died at the hands of the Romans in 40 AD. Judas was later made into an evil person probably when Rome became the headquarters of Christianity. The Romans would not have favored a person who was famous for executing their countrymen in Palestine.

As for Jesus Barabbas, he was called the son of the father because his earthly father was unknown since Allah (swt) created him without a father. If his father were known, he would have been referred to by his father's name as Jesus Bar Yusuf. Instead, he was known by his mother's name Jesus Bar Miriam-(see Mark 6:3).

So again the Quran is absolutely correct. Jesus (as) was not crucified but it was made to appear to the Jews that he had been crucified. The false impression of Jesus' death at the hands of the Romans was created by the Romans and the Jews who wanted to halt the spread of his followers. Between the Roman interpolated Gospels and the Jewish Talmudic stories, the impression was created that the Prophet of Allah and the Galilean who was killed were the same person.
They were actually two separate people.
Jesus Barabbas was the Prophet and descendant of Abraham and Jesus (aka Judas) the Galilean was a Judaized descendant of Assyrians who fought the Roman occupation as a Zealot.

Yours Sister in Islam
Um Esma
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2005-01-08 Sat 09:33ct
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