Scroll down for report on "Food Scandal: Meatpacking Giants
Fixed Prices" by Sr. Aisha
and "Beggars of a Different Kind" by Sr. Yasmin
Qur'an and Hadith Studies with Dr. Kaukab Siddique
"If it were not for the Grace of Allah and His Mercy to you
[Prophet], a party of them would have tried to lead you
astray; they only lead themselves astray, and cannot harm
you in any way since Allah has sent down the Scripture and
Wisdom to you, and taught you what you did not know."
Source: Qur'an 4:113
Editorial
Palestine for the Palestinians
By Dr. Kaukab Siddique
According to President Trump, the people of Gaza should be
relocated to Egypt, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia. He claims
this should be done because Gaza looks like a demolition
site, and is not habitable. Why would the Palestinians want
to return there, he asks. Most outlandishly, he wants to
turn Gaza into a resort due to its amenable waterfront
climate.
In all of this, he does not consider even remotely the
wishes of the Palestinians. One would expect that they, like
most people, would prefer to stay in their homeland. The
Palestinians fought for over a year, and sacrificed tens of
thousands of martyrs for their homeland. They—and only
they—have the right to determine the fate of
Palestine.
Trump and Israel have no more right than did the British
Lord Balfour to determine ownership of Palestine. Giving
away Palestine did not work when the British attempted it in
1948. That gave rise to a colonial settler entity reliant
entirely on terror and mass incarceration to maintain a
semblance of control over Palestinian land, and on U.S. tax
dollars to prop up an artificial, inflation-ridden economy.
And it will not work now.
Trump seems to have adapted these new ideas for genocide
from his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kushner, a former
property dealer, said in an interview in March 2024, before
the President assumed office, that "Gaza's waterfront
property could be very valuable." (The Guardian, March 19,
2024)
Through 20 years of economic strangulation in the form of
Israel's blockade of Gaza, the Palestinians survived.
Despite immense hardship, they cooked delicious Palestinian
cuisine, celebrated Muslim and Christian holidays, danced
traditional Palestinian dabke, set up hospitals and medical
clinics (however under-equipped and underfunded), and
attended universities and colleges. And incredibly, given
the blockade they lived under, they built a vast network of
underground tunnels to resist the brutal Israeli
occupation.
In the course of the 2023 Gaza genocide, Palestinians
civilians faced repeated forced relocation within their
country, under threat of death at the hands of the Israeli
military. Gaza's roads were lined with people on foot, their
meager belongings on their backs, their children crying and
traumatized.
Their homes were turned to rubble by the Israeli Airforce.
The hospitals, in whose hallways they sought refuge, were
attacked and burned. Aid convoys and offices, the
Palestinians' last hope for food, were strafed.
Despondent, exhausted, and at times demoralized, they yet
helped each other to the extent they could. And still they
had dreams of returning to their homes.
For the US, which is directly responsible for the condition
in which Gaza finds itself, to say that Gazans cannot return
to their homes because their homes are uninhabitable is the
most vicious manifestation of circular reasoning.
The idea that one country can, in this day and age, simply
annex another, sets a very dangerous precedent. It says
international rules and norms mean nothing, the ICC
indictment of the Israeli Prime Minister and former Minister
of Defense means nothing, that the ICC and the UN General
Assembly have no authority, and that murder and mayhem are
to be rewarded with further permanent theft of the victims'
lands and their expulsion. It means that the Geneva
Convention, which categorically states that refugees have a
right to return to their homes and to which the U.S. is a
signatory, is null and void for everyone.
Even more problematic is the US proposal to relocate the
Palestinians to third countries which have not agreed to
take them in. Trump's proposal would violate the sovereignty
not just of the Palestinians, but also of Egypt, Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, or any other country he coerces into taking on
the Palestinian refugee population. It is incredible hubris
to behave as if these countries have no economy and no
geo-political considerations of their own, and are merely
standing by to take on refugee populations created as a
result of US and Israeli terrorism. And, in any case, the
countries in question have thus far rejected the US
proposal.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza emphatically rejected the
idea, using harsh words for Trump. One, named Muhammad Abdel
Majeed, who had recently returned to his home in Northern
Gaza, said, "Trump's statements are a continuation of the
systematic war crimes against the Palestinian people. He
wants to harm them and pass on the historical injustice by
displacing them." Majeed accused the US president of having
"a thief's mentality." (Middle East Eye, February 7,
2025)
Riyad Mansour, Palestinian ambassador to the UN said, "We do
not have a homeland other than Palestine. There is no power
on earth that can remove the Palestinian people from our
ancestral land."
And Hamas said in a statement over the social media platform
X, "Our Palestinian people, with their great support for the
resistance and challenge to the occupation, confirm their
REJECTION of all Trump's displacement and occupation
projects, and their FIRM determination to thwart them!"
The bottom line is that the Palestinians are fighters, and
they will not succumb to occupation and subjugation,
regardless of the evil designs of Trump and others.
Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, from the river to the
sea!
Amidst Trump Threats to Deport Pro-Palestine Activists,
Netanyahu Visit Draws Vibrant Protests
By Nadrat Siddique
Trump is promulgating the deportation of pro-Palestine
demonstrators. If he succeeds, it would be the end of the
First Amendment. And the US would lose all moral standing to
lecture countries like North Korea or China about civil
liberties.
Meanwhile, indicted war criminal Benjamen Netanyahu has been
in Washington, DC since February 3. He was to meet with U.S.
Special Envoy to the Middle East Steven Witkoff on Monday.
Witkoff is a billionaire real estate investor and developer.
He is Jewish.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu met with Trump at the White House.
Then, on Wednesday, he was slated to meet with Pentagon
officials. Finally, on Thursday, he was to head over to
Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress.
Pro-Palestine activists, including many Palestinians, caught
up with him as he went to and from Congress. Clearly
undeterred by the threatened clamp down on free speech, they
greeted him with banners, fake "blood" and chants, their
Palestinian flags blowing in the wind.
The activists intercepted Netanyahu as he was enroute to his
hotel, DC's exclusive Williard Hotel. They egged his car.
They made their way into the hotel lobby holding Palestinian
flags and banners saying "Free Palestine," and loudly
announced to other hotel guests the presence of the war
criminal. Each of the six nights Netanyahu was staying
there, activists held "noise demonstrations" ensuring the
war criminal got no rest. Many of the activists are young
Muslim women.
On Friday, pro-Palestine activists staged street theater
around the U.S. State Department and George Washington
University, in an effort to educate the public and Congress
on the Israeli Army's treatment of Palestinians. Some of the
activists, dressed up as IDF soldiers, verbally, physically,
and psychologically assaulted other activists, who were
dressed up as Palestinians.
Photos and a video of the street theatre are here:
Clearly, there is always a way to stand up for truth and
justice.
World News
India
Indian Deportees Returned Home Shackled
Reuters reported on February 5, that 104 Indian deportees
were transported to India by the US in a military plane.
They were dropped in North India, although they were not
necessarily from that region. India is a huge country, and
for a deportee to get home, if dropped off in the wrong
province, can be difficult, if not impossible.
Over a thousand more were returned on commercial jets.
There is a great hue and cry in India over the deportees.
The deportees were shackled for the duration of the 40-hour
flight to India. This included during bathroom breaks. This
caused many in India to see the US in a different light.
Palestine
When Are Hostages Not Hostages?
As part of the Gaza Ceasefire, Israel and Hamas have
exchanged prisoners. As part of the Double Speak prevalent
in the US corporate media, those released by Hamas are
considered "hostages," with the connation that they were
unjustly seized, while those released by Israel are
necessarily "prisoners," meaning they must certainly have
committed a crime.
One key point largely overlooked in the public discourse
about the exchange of prisoners is the fact that it is
Israel which is the occupier—and not Hamas. And under
international law, it is the right of the occupied to fight
back by all means available to them.
No one blamed the Russians for fighting back against Germany
in World War II. And no one was concerned when the Russians
were overly aggressive in beat back the German occupiers in
that conflict.
So, the question arises: Why, in every discussion of the
Ceasefire-brokered "hostage for prisoners" exchange, is the
Palestinian side censured, and never the Israelis? Why is
the Palestinians' international law-conferred right to
resist never affirmed? Why is the emphasis always on the
fact that some of the Palestinians being released engaged in
armed resistance, or even killed some Israelis—but it
is never discussed that they did so to resist brutal
occupation, including often times, the demolition or seizure
of their homes, and the torture and/or murders of their
families? The only possible explanation is that some lives
are considered worthless, while others are invaluable. In
other words: racism and White supremacy.
Iran
Israel: Where Does Iran Really Stand?
It can be said that Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei was wise in
not entering into a war with the US and Israel which might
caused great harm to his nation, and for which Iran might
have lacked the resources to sustain. He is well aware that
the US is behind Israel. The Israelis attempted to provoke
him, but he did not take the bait.
Despite his inaction, it's quite clear where Khamenei stands
when it comes to the Palestine issue: Khamenei said over X:
"The people of Gaza prevailed over the Zionist regime. In
fact, they prevailed over the United States, and by God's
grace, they didn't allow the US to attain any of its goals."
He further said, "The ultimate result of all the sufferings
of the people of Gaza was the victory of truth over
falsehood, and they became a role model for all those
devoted to the cause of the Resistance."
He reiterated that "the issue of Palestine for us is a main
issue, and Palestine's victory is for us a definitive
matter."
In turn, Hamas leaders congratulated Khamenei on the
upcoming anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Islamic
Revolution.
So it would seem that Ayatollah Khamenei knows when to
engage in conflict, and when to hold back. It may be that
the time will come when Ayatollah Khamenei will hit the
Israelis very hard, and they will not be able to recover.
Many in the Ummah pray that Allah will help Khamenei to find
the right moment to hit the Israelis hard enough to topple
them and force them to leave Palestine.
Food Scandal: Meatpacking Giants Fixed Prices
By Sis. 'Aisha
Jamaat al-Muslimeen New York City
"Ye shall have therein abundance of fruit, from which ye
shall have satisfaction." (43:73)
An Imam once said that Allah created everything in abundance
for all of His creation to enjoy, so if there is famine,
then humanity has a hand in it.
A More Perfect Union YouTube video revealed that Agri Stats,
a data company, colluded with meatpacking clients like
Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Hormel to manipulate the food
industry. The companies shared secret data with Agri Stats,
which helped them gain an unfair advantage by eliminating
competition. This collusion violates the Sherman Antitrust
Act of 1890.
Agri Stats also services companies like Perdue, Jenni-O,
Sanderson Farms, Pilgrim Pride, Kraft Heinz, Smithfield,
JBS, and Clemons. Federal and state governments allege that
these clients manipulated prices and operated in ways
harmful to consumers and farmers.
Reporter Eric Gardner noted that Agri Stats has data on
everything in the meatpacking industry, from livestock costs
to worker wages. They compiled secret data into reports that
meatpacker clients purchased to learn about each other's
business operations, allowing them to create food shortages
and manipulate prices. Remember the chicken wings shortage?
Agri Stats allegedly notified companies like Cargill of
opportunities to raise prices at certain retailers.
Antitrust lawsuits claim this practice lasted from 2010 to
2017. In 2024, Cargill paid a $100 million settlement for
violations, including decreasing farmers' pay. Tyson paid a
$221 million settlement in 2021 for its role in a chicken
price-fixing lawsuit. However, these settlements do not
acknowledge any guilt.
The federal government and several states have sued Agri
Stats to prevent it from issuing reports. An Illinois Judge
ruled in Agri Stats' favor, stating that collecting and
compiling information does not mean they supported antitrust
activities. This ruling highlights issues with Agri Stats
collecting and distributing its information and concerns
with the Sherman Antitrust Act, an 1890 law.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stated that
although the Sherman Antitrust Act is potent enough to use
in today's cases, it could still use updates for modern
business practices.
Former Whole Foods Vice President Earl Schweizer said that
more companies would be penalized if the FTC rigorously
enforced antitrust laws. Those engaging in greedy practices
should face prison time for robbing Americans and forcing
them to buy less food.
Source: "This is The Biggest Food Scandal in History."
YouTube, More Perfect Union, 8/20/2024; and
AgricultureDive
YouTu.be/ycEczZKYLW8
9:17
Guidance from Sis. Yasmin
Beggars of a Different Kind
Last week after finishing my 'Fajr' Salah I spotted a man in
a corner of the 'Masjid', supplicating to Allah.
The man was in a very simple dress and was literally weeping.
That aroused my interest as I have discovered
many potential chances to help the needy from people
who don't beg before men but
they approach only Allah...!
This man had a pity face and a huge body,
I would say obese. I sat little far from him and waited
for him to finish his duas.
Meanwhile his phone rang and he spoke in a painful tone.
I could sense the immense pain in his words.
he was saying to someone on the phone:
'Right now I am sitting in the Masjid before Allah
and He is the only hope'.
I was more curious about his sorrows so I waited to talk to him.
Finally he finished and got up to leave.
I hurried to him and greeted him.
as he was still wiping his tears.
I asked him: Akhee ! Is everything okay ?
he replied: 'My niece is serious in Hospital'.
I responded him: 'Do you need some money' ?
(though I am not wealthy but I love to be a response for
someone's Dua)
Suddenly he looked up at me and hugged me then he wiped his
tears and we walked out of the Masjid.
He was still not in a position to talk
so I put my hands on his shoulder and whispered:
'I have some savings with me in case it's your
emergency'.
We had reached in the parking of Ajman's
big masjid and he was still quiet.
Then he put his hand in his pocket and I saw a car key
hanging on a beautiful key chain. The man got emotional
and this time he patted my shoulders and said---
'That's how we should hand over our matters to Allah
even if you can afford'.
Before or while using our sources Allah should be our first option.
That is my Super Market and we are very rich Alhamdulillah
but nothing works like an earnest Dua'.
saying this, the rich man thanked me
and walked away towards his car.
He lived in a huge villa nearby but was a beggar before Allah.
I stood there stunned to discover
one more common man leaving a huge impact
of both 'Tauhid' and 'Tawaqqal'on me...!
He was right, Allah should always be our first option.
I went back to the 'Masjid' and started
making my own Duas to Allah.
Surely some people breeze into our lives
but work like a storm ...!!!