Importance of Looking After the Poor and the Widow.
Narrated Safwan bin Salim, r.a. :
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "The one who looks after and
works for a widow and for a poor person, is like a warrior
fighting for Allah's Cause or like a person who fasts during
the day and prays all the night."
Pakistani Elections are Approaching by Qaiser Sharif
LAHORE, July 1; Jamaat e Islami Spokesman and MMA candidate
from NA 135, Amirul Azeem, has said that after the 25th of
July, no legislation would be possible in the country
without MMA's support.
Addressing corner meetings in his constituency on Sunday, he
said that the MMA would form its governments in Khyber PK
and Balochistan and would also be able to play an active
role in the centre.
He further said that the pro-US governments and the US
agenda had failed in the country as the US agents had given
nothing except worries to the nation. He said that at
present, the image and the respect of the country was at
stake.
He said the MMA would protect the Islamic provisions of the
constitution and also ensure their true implementation.
Amirul Azeem said that the former rulers had neither given
any attention to the people's problems nor had they
fulfilled their manifesto and election promises.
Nigeria
[Some Claim Boko Haram & Isis have arrived to Help
Muslims....Editor]
Plateau killings: Recurring Reprisal Conspiracy theories and Misinformation
by Kabir Oyemomi
It will make all seekers after truth draw a conclusive
inference if we look at the events leading to attacks and
reprisal attacks:
On the 8th of June 2018, four (4) young Fulani men coming
back from Kara cattle market in Buruku were shot immediately
after Kara Hill military check point, less than 2km from the
check point. On the 12th June, 2018 at around 8pm some
Fulani people of Quaripan LGA of Plateau State coming back
from Buruku, Kara market were shot at Kassa Hill before
Barikin Ladi LGA Secretariat. one of them lost his life.
Also on June 13th a minor by the name Jafaru Salihu herding
his parents' cows was killed at Nding village also at Kassa
Hill and his head was removed, obviously to ensure
difficulty in his identity. Another serious attack was
carried out on Fulani on 21st of June at about 6pm where
some Fulani men by the names Bala, Lawal and Ibrahim Kuwait
on their coming from same Kara market were shot killed and
their vehicle set ablaze at Heipan.
All these aforementioned attacks adjudged to be coordinated
did not get attention of Nigeria media but lies and
assumptions against Miyyeti Allah's chairman because they
felt that the carnage leading to the death of not less than
86 people must be reprisals; hence, the unprofessional and
unsupported claim credited to Danladi Ciroma that the
killing of 86 persons in Razat, Ruku and Gana-Ropp villages
of Gashish District in Bakin Ladi Local Government Area 1 of
Plateau State was in retaliation to the killing of over 300
cows in the last few weeks by the villagers.
Ciroma was quoted by the DAILY POST as saying "these attacks
are retaliatory." As much as I don't support the killing of
human beings, the truth must be told that those who carried
out attacks must be on a revenge mission.
"There have been recent reports of cows rustling and
destruction of farm between, Berom farmers and Fulani
herdsmen. The people carrying out these criminal activities
are well known to the communities but the communities are
hiding them".
But shockingly, Mal. Danladi Ciroma swifty responded to the
statement credited to him with fierce refutation. Ciroma
States on Channels TV that his comment about cows being
rustled and killed was referencing an event of about 3 weeks
before the popular killing of 86 people, the report which
was made to the police then. He pointed out he was in Abuja
when the carriage happened in Barkin Ladi last week, and
thus has no knowledge of the situation or what led up to the
event causing the carnage.
On his part, the head of the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC), Mr. Tony Ojukwu, said on Monday that the
unabated killings in some parts of the country, particularly
in Benue and Plateau States could be handiwork of Boko Haram
and not herdsmen as being widely speculated. Ojukwu said
this at his office in Abuja while addressing the concerns
about the commission's seeming inability to intervene in
stopping the killings.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian military has confirmed reports that
ISIS has been sending its members to train Boko Haram
terrorist members. The Director of Defence Information Brig.
General John Agim, in a statement said it was pertinent to
state categorically that there was concrete evidence on
ground to back their claim. He said that the Nigeria
military will continue to condemn all tactics by terrorist
groups. He added that proactive measures are currently being
taken to nip any such development in the bud.
It is never out of order to conclude that there are criminal
elements amongst both Fulani and Berom people, but the
problem lingers when the media, CAN and military make things
appear as if the Fulanis do not deserve the right of justice
because they are Muslims in majority.
Dr. Tariq Ramadan:
Target of Anti-Islam Hatred
by Kaukab Siddique
Tariq Ramadan is being humiliated and being treated worse
than anyone facing such accusations.
France is taking revenge against this Islamic Philosopher
and Scholar.
On February 2, Tariq Ramadan came from England and
voluntarily turned himself in to French authorities after
two women brought wild allegations of rape against him.
He is so much respected that he probably thought he would be
treated with basic decency and due process of law.
The French put him in solitary confinement where he has been
now for 5 months. No one, not even his family members, are
permitted to visit him.
He suffers from multiple sclerosis and in prison it became
worse. His doctors appealed for bail. Not only was he not
given bail, the government's doctors declared
that though he does have MS, he should still be kept in
detention.
In the meantime a third woman also brought charges and now a
4th woman in Switzerland is threatening to do the same.
The French media are demonizing him though there has been no
trial and no conviction. The pro-Egyptian and pro-Saudi
media are also attacking him because he is the grandson of
the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood [Ikhwan] which always
opposed the tyrants of Egypt.
Charges of rape have become quite common in the West though
none of the prominent men charged with rape have been
imprisoned. So the hatred of Islam is quite evident in the
persecution of Tariq Ramadan.
Muslim men should beware not to come too close to non-Muslim
women. Stay within the rules of Islam. Any woman can accuse
you. If you are an imam or a scholar, special effort will be
made to tarnish your character.
Most Dangerous Country for Women
A survey conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation has
ranked India as the world's most dangerous country for
women, ahead of Afghanistan, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
The poll surveyed 548 experts on six different indices -
healthcare, discrimination, cultural traditions, sexual and
non-sexual violence, and human trafficking. They were first
asked to name the five most dangerous countries from the
list of 193 United Nations member states. And then they were
asked to name the worst country in each of the above
categories. India topped three - cultural traditions, sexual
violence and human trafficking.
[2 items by New Trend's Media Monitor]
South Sudan
June 30.
Only hours after a "permanent" ceasefire agreement had been
signed between the government and the rebels, the government
reported rebel attacks in 4 provinces. At first reports 15
people have veeb killed,
[Both sides are Christians.]
Cameroon
June 1 to June 30.
Serious conflict is reported between English speaking and
French speaking populations of Cameroon,
The clashes have been going on over a whole month but are
not reported in the major media.
Several English speaking villages have been burnt to the
ground by French speaking military. In turn French speaking
police and civilians when found alone have been killed by
the English speakers.
[Both sides are Christians.]
Mali
June 29
A human bomber from al-Qaida killed 6 G5 troops and injured
a dozen of them in an attack on Severa in central Mali.
The group had been accused by the UN of killing 25 civilians
sympathetic to al-Qaida.
Latest Khutba
Many of America's Muslims are ignoring the Sunnah, so no
Blessings are coming from Allah.
Rebuttal of Trump's Travel Ban on Incoming Muslims.
On June 29 Br. Kaukab Siddique gave the juma khutba and led
prayers at Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen in Baltimore,
Maryland.
The small masjid was crowded. Belated Eid gifts were
announced for three teenagers who fasted the long fasts of
Ramadan.
An appeal from a prisoner who has embraced Islam was
distributed. Also quantities of Br. Kaukab's article on moon
sighting was picked up.
Here are the main points of the khutba:
Islam is the way of life [deen] for the entire ummah, not
just for experts and specialists. The entire ummah has to be
involved except those who are helpless.
Most Muslims in America ignored the Sunnah of moon
sighting. Influenced by the kuffar they tried to make Eid
like Christmas.
Muslims are not against science and technology. We as
Muslims must follow the great blessings which come from
following the Sunnah. If 5 people out of
5 million claim to have seen the crescent, that is not
acceptable.
Some of the Muslims have become blatant in violating the
Sunnah and mark their calendars way before the starting and
ending of Ramadan. They think they
are advanced thinkers but actually they are looking for
comfort and convenience.
Allah describes Islam as the UPHILL task [sura 90]. There
is no easy way out if you want al-Jannah. USA Muslims in
many cases ignore the Sunnah. No wonder they are despised
and ignored.
Look at the example of Bilal, r,a, He suffered so much
but his faith and his example, even without his presence,
brought Africa into Islam. Even today there are entire
countries in West Africa which are 100% Muslim.
Part 2.
Trump issued a travel ban on incoming Muslims. Now the
Supreme Court has validated the ban. This is a huge blunder
by Mr. Trump.
Someone should inform Trump that the Soviet Union tried
to destroy Islam. It is a lesson for all humanity that the
"weakest," poorest country in the Muslim
world forced the Soviet giant to retreat unilaterally which
led to the liberation of eastern Europe. Today there is no
Soviet Union.
Someone should tell Trump that we have the greatest
miracle of Allah, the Quran, which is in the minds and souls
of millions of Muslims globally.. No ban can
stop the Qur'an. In fact bans are absurd in the age of the
Internet and social media.
We have the Sharia and the Sunnah of Muhammad, pbuh,
which shapes the lives of millions of Muslims around the
world though the westernized Muslim cliques in America are
ignoring it.
Another absurdity of the travel ban is that the Muslim
countries with the largest populations are not included in
it: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and even
India.
Within America, people are embracing Islam. Think of
Malcolm X [al-Hajj Malik Shabazz]. He was repeatedly
imprisoned. When he went to Africa, Lebanon and "Saudi"
Arabia, he discovered authentic Islam, Sunni Islam. Thru him
and Imam Jamil al-Amin and many others, Sunni Islam has a
presence in America with Sunni mosques in all the major
cities,
Du'a: O Allah, give the Muslims of America unity based on
the Qur'an and authentic hadith. O Allah help us to study
and understand the Qur'an and Hadith. O Allah give us
spouses and children who will stand with us for Islam.
Ameen.
War News
Pakistan
Mujahid Leader killed in US air strike.
On the last day of Ramadan, a US air strike
killed Maulvi Fazlullah in the Afghanistan border area with
Pakistan. Four of his close companions were also killed.
The deep expressions of gratitude and glee expressed by the
Pakistani regime and secularist groups indicate that
Pakistan had a role to play in this killing.
Pakistan has been clamoring for months that the Afghan
regime and USA should help Pakistan by killing Fazlullah.
When USA informed Pakistan that the deed had been done,
Pakistani propagandists let loose a barrage of smear stories
to demonize the martyr.
Hence it is in order to note that Maulvi Fazlullah opposed
the Pakistani regime by implementing Sharia in the region
known as Swat. He received unequalled support from the
people of Swat.
When support for him reached Buner, USA complained to
Pakistan that Buner is only 75 miles from Islamabad and more
or less ordered the Pakistani military to attack.
Fazlullah and the mujahideen put up an epic resistance in
pitched battles with the Pakistani army, killing more than
3000 Pakistani troops. Pakistan hit the mujahideen hard with
jet fighters, long range artillery and tanks. The regime
forced the ENTIRE population of Swat to leave [several
million people] and turned Swat into a free fire zone.
Paratroopers were dropped behind mujahideen lines and
Fazlullah had to retreat all the way into Afghanistan where
Taliban allowed him to stay.
America and Pakistan had jointly attacked Islamic schools
[medressas] and mosques. In one attack 80 Islamic students
were killed. Earlier the military attacked the Red Mosque
and the women's seminary [Jamia al-Hafsa] in Islamabad
itself, killing hundreds of students, including hijabi
female students. Years later, Fazlullah ordered an attack on
an army training school for young people in Pakistan. The
terrifying slaughter which followed was used by the US army
media to demonize the mujahideen, completely blocking
information about the attacks on Islamic schools.
Only days after the US air strike which killed Fazlullah,
the mujahideen chose a new leader which indicates that they
have not been defeated by the assassination of their
leader.
[Report from our Pakistan monitor.]
Syria
Cataclysmic Suffering in eastern Deraa.
120000 flee as Assad's forces approach.
400 killed in Russian-Iranian Bombing/Shelling
July 1
Mujahideen groups using drones with explosives attached
attacked the Russian air base in Hmeimim, southern Latakia
province . Explosions shook the area. Russia has not
revealed its losses yet.
June 30-July 1. Islamic fighters clashed with Assad's forces
[Iranians, Hizb etc] in the middle of Quneitra province
[approaching Israeli occupied areas]. Losses on both
sides.
Same time Assad's forces advancing north of Aleppo clashed
with Islamic fighters there. No details.
June 25 to July 1. More than 100,000 civilians fled as
Russian bombing, Iranian artillery and Hizb/Assad tank
forces pummeled eastern Deraa province.
The civilian death toll is near 400 including scores of
children. 8 small towns have been destroyed by the Russians
and the Iranians.
The Islamic fighters have put up impressive resistance. 96
regime fighters and 59 Islamic fighters have been killed,
[The opposition here is from FSA, Free Syrian army.]
Latest: July 1. Russia is now talking to the fighting groups
that if they withdraw from Deraa province, Russia will stop
the bombing, the Assad regime will be re-instated in the
province but civilians will be under Russian protection.
["Leave otherwise we will bomb your population" has become a
regular Russian tactic.]
Russia and the regime are also raiding northern Hama
province and northern Latakia..
In Suwaida area, ISIS is holding a large tract.
In Western Deraa, Palestinian group affiliated to ISIS
[Jaysh Khalid bin Waleed] is holding on to 250 sqr km.
On the banks of the Euphrates way down south in Deir ez Zor
province,
USA forces let loose 20 missiles on the ISIS town of Hajin.
Numbers of ISIS have been killed in US bombing.
In eastern Idlib province, expert killers are assassinating
al-Nusra commanders and allies on a daily basis. People
there blame opposing Islamic groups. The result is study
increase in chaos.
Iraq
Executions.
Iraq, on June 29, executed 20 Islamic State prisoners. In
the meantime, it has also sentenced to death 20 Islamic
women and Life imprisonment for another 20 women.
Islamic State captured 17 regime soldiers and said they
would be executed if the women were not released. When the
regime answered with executions, IS executed 8 of the 17.
The current conditions of the remaining 9 are not known. In
the meantime, the Shia media has been urging the government
to execute many more IS prisoners.
Scattered fighting continues in various parts of Iraq,
particularly around Kirkuk and Mosul. In the Erbil area,
the US and the Kurds coordinated an airstrike to kill a
prominent IS commander.
News Within the U.S.
Black women have both beauty
and brains but 42% of them have
never been married.
by Sis. Ayesha [in Virginia]
Sis. Ayesha is a jamaat al-Muslimeen activist in Virginia,
hijabi and married. She
wants us to see the plight of Black women in America. The
women in this video are non-Muslims. The plight of Muslim
Black women is even more difficult because Islam does not
allow marriage
with non-Muslim men.
Marriage with more than one woman is allowed in Islam if
based on justice and spiritual values. That's probably the
only solution.
Sis. Ayesha writes:
If you don't want to watch the whole thing but in the
beginning the numbers were shocking to me....also the black
woman are "uncovered.".. Basically we are the race whose
women, cannot get married... The numbers are amazing .
Unfortunately a lot of the black men are dead, incarcerated,
unemployed... Inshallah I hope the black men will change
their lives.
Gain the Ability to stop Excessive Use of Force by the Police
by Dr. Mustafa Ansari
Every time a Black Man or Woman is unlawfully killed by a
policeman it affects us all. The police, D.A, Judges will
continue to enable these killings in violation of their
oaths until we do something to stop it. Become a part of the
solution. If you want to be a community activist to stop
police violence in your city.
Classes Start July 23, 2018
Apply at www.aihrights.com
The American Institute of Human Rights is pleased to offer a
Police Academy level course:
Course Outcomes
You will be able to:
Monitor the police
Investigate the police
Interview witnesses
Make reports to the District Attorney and Community
Organizations
Lobby the City and State Councils and Legislature
Appear as Expert Witnesses in a court
Articulate the results to the Community
Make reports to the UN Commission on Torture and Civil and
Political Rights, the UN Working Group on African
Descendants
Assist in litigation against the United States for the Right
to life and Convention on Torture and degrading and inhumane
Treatment Violations.
A comprehensive solution to halt Excessive Force
violations
Thought....
Germany and America: The darkness of intense Censorship. The
light is breaking through by way of impressive
revisionism.
New Trend report.
Germar Rudolf, a shy, soft spoken German scientist has
carried out research on the most highly and ferociously
defended Israeli
holy of holies. A reading of this book would completely
change any scholarly person's view of the world which has
sanctified
the existence and legitimacy of Israel. This 587 page book
has decimated the Israeli view of what happened to one race
in the Second World War. Remember that Rudolf is not an
admirer of Hitler nor a Nazi in any sense of the word. He is
a scientist who
researches his subject with the highest standards of
scholarship according to which all statements have to be
supported by
evidence which can be authenticated and checked for proof by
third parties, including the most hostile ones.
Japan
The 'Sleeping Muslims' of Japan
[With thanks to Sis. Kristi.]
Sitting in the fourth-floor library of his place of worship,
Yoshi Date recounts the story of his spiritual becoming. It
is not unlike what you might hear from an eager Westerner
gone East to find meaning. Except for Yoshi, it has gone the
other way: the Japanese 24-year-old, raised in a nominally
Buddhist family, became fascinated by the Abrahamic
traditions during college in Western-minded Australia. While
seeking, he turned to the Bible. Not fully satisfied, he
turned next to the Quran.
Date, who works in a shop selling internet contracts,
recalls, "I didn't know what Islam was all about —
just knew about some bombings and all of that." One night,
he had a dream: Bombs were going off, guns were firing, and
he was crouched behind a car. Suddenly, from behind him, he
heard a voice calling, Allahu akbar. The voices swelled:
Allahu akbar. Date woke up and Googled the phrase; he
doesn't recall ever hearing it before. He began living as a
Muslim, cutting out pork and alcohol, studying the Quran.
When he returned to Tokyo after college, he took the Shahada
— the ceremony declaring Allah to be the only God, and
Muhammad his prophet.
Today, we're in the Otsuka Masjid, a mosque in a residential
neighborhood in Tokyo. Afternoon prayers have ended but the
mosque thrums with sundry types: a white American stops at
the library sink to wash his face and hair before eating
lunch. Outside, a woman in full burqa speaks Japanese into
her cellphone. A gaggle of Pakistani immigrants chat in Urdu
and English. Better known as a homogenous nation where
Buddhist and Shinto traditions have mixed syncretically for
centuries, Japan is also home to this slice of faith: a
small but growing group of Muslims, consisting of converts
like Date and migrants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh,
Pakistan and elsewhere.
It's difficult to say how many Muslims reside in Japan,
because the government never asks its citizens to declare a
spiritual affinity. Here's what we do know: Their ranks are
growing — a 2006 paper by researcher Hiroshi Kojima
put the total Muslim population at 5,300 in 1984; 30,000 in
1995; and 56,300 in 2003. Current estimates vary; a 2008
paper from the Seattle-based National Bureau of Asian
Research calculated the total number of immigrant Muslims at
70,000 to 80,000.
Why the growth? Japan is slowly and bumpily coming to terms
with its need for foreign workers as its labor force
shrinks; emigrants from across Asia and the Middle East may
work as laborers or as unskilled workers. They also arrive
to take advantage of higher-skilled business opportunities,
perhaps enrolling in the country's universities (often more
prestigious than the schools in their home countries). In
the latest sign of change, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe —
as part of his eponymous "Abenomics" program designed to
revitalize the nation — promised in June to butter the
path for more foreigners to join the island nation's
economy.Haroon Qureshi, a Pakistani businessman, came to
Tokyo in 1991 as a student. Active in the city's Muslim
scene, Qureshi is known for organizing, educating and
generally centering immigrants who arrive feeling lonely and
stateless. He is grateful for his home in Japan, his
Japanese wife and his son, a chubby schoolboy who looks
distinctly East Asian while conferring with his father in
fluent Urdu. Like his peers who left Pakistan, Qureshi
considered going west to America or Canada. He is happy he
didn't. "What if I had been in the U.S. on 9/11?" he asks.
"Definitely, I would have been in jail."
Religion in the traditional Western sense does not tint the
identities of most Japanese. Certainly, Japan is home to Zen
and Pure Land Buddhism and pre-Buddhist Shintoism, but
around half its citizens identify as "not very religious,"
according to surveys by the Japanese broadcasting company
NHK. Those people are likely to practice Shintoism, which
aligns with Americans' notion of atheism. Qureshi says this
lack of spiritual identity makes Japanese ripe for
conversion, like "sleeping Muslims." But University of San
Francisco anthropologist John Nelson, an expert in
contemporary Japanese religious practices, warns us not to
mistake an absence of belief for a dearth of practice. He
says many Japanese view religion as "something you can put
down and pick up as you need it." Japanese often turn to
Buddhism, with a cosmology referencing an afterlife, when
dealing with death; Shintoism, which addresses the material
world, comes up at birth. A wedding might mingle the
two.
Which explains why monotheistic traditions have rarely
succeeded in attracting followers here. Nelson's summary:
"Why would somebody become a Christian or a Muslim and limit
themselves to only one brand name?" he asks. Indeed,
Christianity at one point looked poised to take off as Japan
opened up — reluctantly and belatedly responding to
global shifts in trade and advancing technology —
toward the end of the 19th century. Christians set up
universities, which elites and intellectuals attended. "Many
times, those were the only show in town," Nelson says. "Yet
even with their position of power and influence, Christians
were still not able to create a mass movement or make people
see what was in it for them." Experts estimate that fewer
than 1 percent of Japanese identify as Christian.
Today, Nelson notes declining numbers of traditional
templegoers and Shinto-shrine attendees — blame it on
the modern attitudes of young people, who can find community
outside parochial institutions. But temples are responding,
he says, and won't go down easily. Then there are a few
fringe belief systems, like the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo,
which drew from Indian and Tibetan Buddhism and gained
notoriety for its 1995 sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo
subway.
So while Islam may not go mainstream, curiosity and even
love have broken down traditional barriers for some 10,000
converts — many of whom are Japanese women who take
the Shahada in order to marry foreign men. Their stories are
a twist in the postwar history of local women marrying white
gaijin (foreigners). Take Qureshi's wife, Fatima Ijima. They
wed in 2000, two years after Ijima converted to Islam. On
this day, Ijima is teaching a class of small children in the
tall, cramped building that is the Otsuka Masjid. She is
shy, almost defensive, when Qureshi and I knock on the door
to ask for her time.
Here, the women keep to themselves, and yet Ijima's path to
embracing Islam was paved by progressivism, and mirrors
Date's. Having grown up irreligious — with a father
that she says "believed he himself was God, and that is all"
— she was studying in New York and searching, dogged
by a feeling that "there is one God, who created us and who
manages everything, controls everything." She read, flirting
with most religious traditions she says, and upon returning
to Japan turned to Islam. Today, her husband is a citizen,
and most of their friends are Muslim. Ijima's parents, whom
she lives near and cares for, aren't exactly happy with
Islam; they don't like any religion but find Islam
particularly irksome because of her clothing — a
loose-fitting, enveloping hijab — and its association
with terrorism. Nevertheless, when she visits their house,
she says her father sometimes tells her she looks nice in
her headscarf.
At a time when Islam is often linked with its most extremist
factions, might the religion's quiet entrance into Japan
offer a model for peaceful integration? Perhaps, but the
country may instead demonstrate the inverse of what cities
such as London and Paris have seen — things may be
harmonious because of a lack of integration: Japanese
culture, not exactly known for welcoming foreigners, tends
to encourage minority communities to keep to themselves.
Indeed, writes Chandra Muzaffar, a Muslim Malaysian activist
who works on global peace and Islam, Muslims' extremely
small presence in Japan "limits how much Muslims in Japan
can learn from Muslims and the practice of Islam in
Malaysia." The core lesson, he says? Something like the
Golden Rule ... "be accommodative and inclusive in one's
outlook." Most immigrants I spoke with insisted they've
never faced discrimination. Qureshi generalizes that
Japanese people are inherently unprovoking. Ahmad Almansour,
a Syrian professor of Middle East-Japanese relations,
agrees. "The Japanese are very peaceful. They won't even
kill a cat," he says.
Multiculturalism here, if you want to call it that, shows
its face mostly in the form of business opportunities. Near
urban centers, you can find halal-certified restaurants,
serving food permitted under Islamic dietary guidelines; in
fact, there are around 200 in Tokyo, many offering bento or
other Japanese fare, according to HalalInJapan.com. Plus, a
few exporters have seized the chance to ship halal wares
abroad, supplying the Southeast Asian market. Musa Mohammad
Omer, a board member of the Islamic Center of Japan, gets
called to inspect the facilities of companies seeking the
halal label. Another ICJ member, Yousry Elhamzawi, teaches
Arabic to older Japanese students. An Egyptian immigrant who
has lived in Japan for 10 years, Elhamzawi says most of his
students register for the class out of curiosity, or to
conduct business with the Middle East.
Elhamzawi's classes are held in the shadow of the Tokyo
Camii, the city's main mosque built in the Turkish style,
all elegant patterns and muted worship. Women can, but are
not required to, sit on the second level apart from men. A
handful of middle-aged ladies, half hijab-wearing, are
squatting there today, speaking in hushed voices and
fiddling with iPhones between meditative pauses. I think of
something Ahmad said when I'd asked about discrimination:
The Japanese authorities are always watching the Muslims.
The difference, he noted, is that they don't treat Muslims
as Westerners do. "They come around mosques like the Tokyo
Camii, but they are very peaceful," he said. "They mostly
just arrange things, helping us park our cars."
It's a narrative that can serve the Islamic community well,
one of easy, amicable trust between those who would
persecute and those who would be persecuted. Is there
sufficient desire to keep that narrative alive? Too soon to
say, but if you believe nations aspire to live up to their
own fictions, you might have faith that this story of
coexistence is enough to maintain the peace.
Article by: Sanjena Sathian, ozy.com
Immigrants from Guatemala, Hondurus, El Salvador
Their 9-11's
By Nadrat Siddique
The majority of those in immigration detention are from El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. What those in
power—from the Trump administration to the liberal
Left—fail to discuss or recognize is that starting
from the 1980s (many would argue much earlier), the U.S.
played a highly pernicious role in subverting the
governments and economies of these countries. Their
countries rendered effectively unlivable, it should come as
no surprise that Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans
make the dangerous and risky journey north, seeking asylum
in the U.S. and other places. Far from incarcerating these
indigents, the U.S. should be paying them reparations.
In Guatemala, the democratically-elected government of
Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown by a CIA coup in 1954, and the
country was plunged into turmoil. That turmoil resulted in a
string of U.S.-supported military dictators, the most
prominent of whom were Efrain Rios Montt and Oscar Humberto
Mejia Victores.
The U.S. actively supported Efrain Rios Montt, who came to
power through a 1982 military coup. He learned
counterinsurgency techniques from his U.S. handlers at Fort
Gulick (Panama Canal Zone) and Fort Bragg (North Carolina).
Under Rios Montt, the Guatemalan army with U.S. support,
went on a rampage to wipe out rural support for left wing
guerrillas. Rios Montt is widely believed to be responsible
for the brutal murders up to 70,000 indigenous Mayans in
what was known as a "scorched earth policy," and was
eventually put on trial in Guatemala and Spain.
In 2013, Rios Montt received an 80-year sentence for the
crimes which included massacres in fifteen Ixil Maya
villages in which 1,771 unarmed men, women, and children
were killed. However, the conviction was overturned.
Rios Montt's successor, Brigadier General Oscar Humberto
Mejia Victores, came to power in 1983, and was also
supported by the United States, He continued Rios Montt's
policies. In 2011, Mejia Victores was put to trial in
Guatemala on war crimes charges stemming from the killings
of thousands of indigenous Guatemalans. But—he was
declared unfit to stand trial as the result of a stroke.
All told, 200,000 Guatemalans, the majority of them Mayan
Indians, were killed between 1960-1996. According to
exhaustive investigations by the U.N. and the Catholic
Church—most of the dead were civilians who were killed
by the Guatemalan Army. Of these, 132,000 of these died
between 1978-1983, a period of undeniable U.S. involvement
in Guatemala. The U.S. role in the destruction of Guatemalan
society was never brought to bear.
In Honduras, a literal banana republic existed for decades.
Starting in the late 19th century, Cuyamel Fruit Company (an
American company later bought out by United Fruit), United
Fruit, and Standard Fruit (which later become Dole) ran the
country. They were granted land and exemptions from tax
liability and other legal obligations by the Honduran
government. During this period, the U.S. repeatedly sent
troops to Honduras, presumably to protect the interests of
U.S. fruit corporations. U.S. troops landed in the banana
republic in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925.
Following two decades of military rule, a populist physician
named José Ramón Adolfo Villeda Morales came to power. He
ruled from 1957 - 1963, and instrumented agrarian reform
which included the transfer of land to poor peasants. He
modernized Honduras, and established the country's public
education, public health, and social security systems.
Villeda Morales announced plans to expropriate lands from
United Fruit. But before he could do this, he was deposed in
a 1963 military coup which returned the country to military
rule. That military rule lasted for another two decades.
Honduras has long been used as a launch pad by the U.S. for
military incursions and interventions in the region. For
instance, the deposing of the democratically-elected
Guatemalan government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 was conducted
from Honduran soil. The Nicaraguan Contras
(counterrevolutionaries fighting the democratically-elected
Nicaraguan government) received support from the U.S.
military headquartered in Honduras. The Contras then
launched a campaign of terror in the Nicaraguan countryside,
subjecting Nicaraguan peasants to arson, rape, murder, and
other crimes meant to deflate their support for the
Nicaraguan government. In the course of the Contra
war—a war effectively fueled and funded by the
U.S.—30,000 Nicaraguans were killed. The economies of
both Nicaragua and Honduras were severely damaged as a
result of the U.S. intervention.
Similarly, Honduras was used to send U.S. support to the
Salvadoran military dictatorship in the 1980s.
The U.S. built Soto Cano Air Base in the Honduran town of
Palmerola in the early 1980s to facilitate these operations
and others. Approximately 500 - 600 U.S. troops are housed
there. The U.S. military's Joint Task Force Bravo is
headquartered at Soto Cano.
In El Salvador, the U.S. supported a repressive right-wing
regime which was being challenged by leftist guerrillas.
Under Reagan, the U.S. sent hundreds of millions of dollars
of military and economic aid to El Salvador--more than to
any other country except Israel and Egypt. At the time, the
Salvadoran government frequently used death squads and
paramilitaries to carry out their repression.
These death squads killed a popular Archbishop, Oscar
Romero. They raped, then murdered four American nuns who
were in El Salvador. In the tiny mountain town of El Mozote,
a U.S.-trained Salvadoran army unit, called the Atlacatl
Battalion, conducted a massacre of Salvadoran peasants,
murdering around 1,200 men, women, and children.
The U.S. not only continued to fund the Salvadoran regime,
but actively assisted in the cover-up of these atrocities.
By the time the civil war ended in 1992, 75,000 Salvadorans,
mostly civilians, had been killed with the help of U.S. tax
dollars.
And yet, the U.S. has the gall to incarcerate and prosecute
the people fleeing from the fallout of these dirty wars. And
to take their children from them when they seek asylum here.
If that is not hubris, I don't know what is.
The Keys of the Unseen
[From Sis. Yasmin]
Narrated Ibn Umar {Allah be pleased with him} .. *PROPHET*~
(SALLALLAHU 'ALAIHI WA SALLAM) SAID... 'The keys of the
unseen are Five~{5} and none knows them but Allah~{!}
(1) None knows what is in the womb,but Allah.
(2) None knows what will happen tomorrow... but Allah.
(3) None knows when it will rain,...but Allah.
(4) None knows where he will Die,...but Allah .
(5) and none knows when the Hour will be established ...but
Allah.
{ SOURCE: "BUKHARI"- Volume 9~ Book # 93, Hadith # 476 }
*****************
Narrated Abu Huraira: [Allah be pleased with him]... I heard
Prophet~ SALLALLAHU 'ALAIHI WA SALLAM ) saying:
"Before Allah created the creations, He wrote a Book
(wherein He has written): ' My Mercy has preceded my Anger'.
and that (Book) is written with Him over the Throne.
'[Source:"Bukhari"~Volume 9, Book 93~ Hadith # 643]:
MY 'SALAAMS' TO ALL
Y a s m i n.
