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(for the record)
MASJID Al-AQSA WAS VIOLATED ON OCT.4
The Muslim World Watched in Horrified Silence

Al-Jazeera website. 4 October 2002, 13.30 GMT. (Translated by Br. Eric Mueller.)

Israeli” occupation forces have invaded the haram of al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem after Jumaa prayers today, Friday. The Zionist soldiers fired percussion grenades and teargas canisters to break up Palestinian demonstrators.

A spokesman for the “Israeli” police claimed that the incursion into the mosque grounds was a response to Palestinian youths who were raining stones on extremist Jews at the Wailing Wall (Wall of al-Buraq) after Friday prayers. This, he said, is what drove the police to invade the precincts of the mosque.

Israeli radio reported that about 50 soldiers invaded al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif, the hottest point in the struggle between Palestinians and “Israelis”. It indicated that the soldiers later withdrew. Israeli police said that no one was injured and no harm was done to the contents of the Haram.

Eyewitnesses rejected the “Israeli” claims, however, and said that the raid came after about 30 Palestinian youths among those who had prayed threw stones at the “Israeli” soldiers deployed at the gates to the Haram. Palestinians who manage the Jerusalem mosque precinct hurried to calm the situation and to separate the Palestinian demonstrators from the Jewish worshippers, lest the scope of the confrontation grow larger.

Patriotic and Islamic Forces and popular and religious groups in Palestine had called in a statement for demonstrations in all parts of Palestinian territory after Friday prayers today in protest against the law passed by the US Congress concerning Jerusalem.

Palestinian forces also issued a statement in which they called on the Arabs and Muslims to totally boycott American goods and interests and urged the Arab and Islamic countries to recall their ambassadors from Washington “if this aggressive resolution is carried out.”
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Unknown Facts about Saddam Hussain and Iraq
by Buut Shika (idol breaker)

October 10. The U.S. Congress voted to support President Bush in his plans to wage war against Iraq. Bush has declared that there will be no negotiations with President Saddam Hussain. Many people want to know why Bush is determined to strike Iraq and they come up with a variety of answers, such as: Its's the oil. Saddam has weapons of WMD. Bush has a personal grudge.

Look at Saddam Hussain's record:
1. Not one American has died as a result of his actions since 1991 (That's 12 years.)
2. His troops are so pathetically weak in weaponry that in all these 12 years they have not succeeded in shooting down even one American manned aircraft. [The exceptions were a couple of drones.] U.S. planes attack Iraqi air defenses even if a radar is turned on to spot the intruders.
3. American and British planes patrol Iraqi "no fly" zones every day in clear violation of Iraq's sovereignty and even without pretense of a UN resolution (which after all is merely an instrument of European power diplomacy).

Look at the charges against Saddam Hussain:
1. He gassed the Kurds. [These are basically Iranian reports which have never been independently verified..] [Current charges of the gassing of the Kurds are based on an article by a Jewish writer in the New Yorker Magazine earlier this year which was acclaimed by V.President Cheyney. The article also originated the idea of the Al-Qaida-Saddam connection.]

1a. When the alleged gassing took place [in Halabja], the U.S. was supporting Saddam Hussain and made no fuss about the gassing. Now we repeatedly hear this charge that he "gassed his own people."

2. In his recent speech, President Bush accused President Hussain of "rapes." There is no basis, let alone any evidence, for these allegations.

3. A man named Khidr Hamza, supposedly defected from Saddam's WMD team, has been trotted out innumerable times on U.S. TV screens talking of Saddam's WMD program. He defected from Iraq in 1994 and has been thoroughly exposed by Scott Ritter and others as a fake with no insight into Iraqi programs.

4. The most absurd charge is that Saddam is a danger to the U.S. Saddam has never threatened the U.S. and does not have the military power to do any harm to the U.S. even to the extent of shooting down an attacking American plane.

DEMONIZATION
1. U.S. media repeatedly and without evidence claim that Saddam has killed thousands of Kurds and Shi'ites. The media fail to point out that Saddam has killed his enemies only when they rose up in armed revolt against him at Iranian and American instigation. There are tens of thousands of Shias and Kurds in Saddam's armed forces. [Any ruler would be suspicious and ruthless when his power is threatened by powerful and insidious enemies. The U.S. could not even tolerate Waco, Ruby Ridge and the MOVE House in Philadelphia.]
2. The media say that Saddam killed even his own relatives. Again they fail to point out that these were his two sons-in-law who had been 'turned' [into agents] by the CIA and were being used to provide 'evidence' for the continuation of the embargo and sanctions on Iraq.
3. Saddam has an army of spies. Is that a surprise considering that Iran and the U.S. have an army of spies trying to subvert Iraq? News have come out every now and then that the CIA allegedly printed so much fake Iraqi money that the Iraqi money lost almost all its value.
4. Saddam has these luxurious palaces (where funnily enough the U.S. claims he is hiding his WMD) where he feasts while the people starve. The fact is that most of these palaces were built by the last king of Iraq. These are part of the Iraqi heritage and history. During U.S's 42 day bombing of Iraq, many of these palaces were damaged. During the sanctions era, the Iraqis have had only one real industry and that is construction. [It requires no imports.] So Saddam went ahead and used Iraqi construction abilities to provide jobs. As a result ALL OF IRAQ'S HIGHWAYS and BRIDGES [which had been bombed] were rebuilt. Part of the reconstruction effort has been the repair and remodeling of many of the palaces.
WHAT THE MEDIA LEAVE OUT:
1. Saddam is immensely popular among his people. [He is more popular than the dictators America supports such as Egypt's Mubarak, or the Algerian generals or King Abdullah of Jordan.]
2. Before the bombing and the sanctions, Saddam used the country's oil wealth to create an industrial infrastructure, an educational grid across the country, and health facilities for all.
3. Women have more rights in Iraq than anywhere else in the Arab world.
4. There were several thousand Americans/Europeans working in Iraq before hostilities broke out. They were all allowed to leave the country.
5. The oil-for-food program is carefully orchestrated to humiliate Iraq and oil sales are used to pay the very powers which are bullying Iraq.

ISRAEL: THE REAL PLAYER IN THIS WHOLE GAME:

After Qaddafi stopped playing the hero, the only real leader left in the Middle East who can stand up to Israel is Saddam Hussain. Hence the entire Israeli-Jewish establishment from university professors to media men to politicians is beating the drums of war. According to Israeli news reports (Oct. 8), Israeli leaders are expressing so much joy over the impending American attack on Iraq that Sharon had to tell them to tone it down.

Saddam is the biggest benefactor of the Palestinian people and Palestinians know this. The Palestinians supported him one hundred per cent during the first Gulf war. [These supporters included thousands of Palestinians living in Kuwait who were consequently deported.]

On Oct. 7, Israel announced that it has raided a Palestinian town and arrested a Palestinian representative of Saddam Hussain who was distributing funds to the families of martyrs. [Help for the families of martyrs is one of the most meritorious acts in Islam according to the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, pbuh). Saddam has donated $30 million to the families of these revered sons and daughters who sacrificed themselves to hit the Jewish occupiers of Palestine. (A street in Baghdad is named after Sis. Wafa, the Palestinian martyr who sacrificed herself.)

During the first Gulf war, Saddam hit Israel with missiles. It was merely a symbolic gesture and more Jews died in this attack from heart failure than from actual missile hits. However, it was a gesture which the Arab world and the Muslim world will never forget. Saddam became the new Saladin who could hit the Jewish tyranny which hurts and humiliates and murders the Palestinian people almost every day. The Jews too never forget or forgive (although they want Palestinians to forget that Israel is the land usurped from its rightful owners).

If Saddam is removed, as the Israelis see it, the Middle East will become the happy hunting grounds of the Jews. The Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian rulers already have "CIA-regulated" relations with the Israelis. With a puppet "democratic" Karzai-type state in Iraq, the Israelis will rule the region for America.

SADDAM and ISLAM

It is true that Saddam Hussain came out of Ba'athist ideology. He oppressed Muslims during the formative years of his regime. His war with Iran further solidified his anti-Islam image. However, people change and in many ways, Saddam too has changed.

We have been used to looking at Saddam from Iran's point of view which was the correct Islamic viewpoint while Iran was defending itself. However, when Iran went over to the offensive, it made the mistake of entering Iraqi territory. Then Iran went further and switched its message. Instead of calling for an uprising of Islam or of the oppressed, as it used to from 1979 to 1983, it started calling on the Iraqi Shias to rise up. However, this aroused Iraqi nationalism and the Iranian tide was stemmed at Basra. The Iraqi shias refused to listen to Iran. [Ayatollah Khui, leader of Iraq's Shias, refused to call for rebellion against Saddam.]

If the Iranians had broken through at Basra, today there would have been a sectarian empire comprising Iran, Iraq, Syria, parts of Lebanon, Bahrain and parts of Saudi Arabia. The sectarians actually wanted to take over the Hijaz.

Many people do not know that once the Iranians entered Iraqi territory, Saddam started invoking Islamic symbolism. In fact his battle against Iran was called Al-Qadesia in memory of the famous Islamic battle which overthrew the Persian empire in the days of ‘Umar (r.a.).

The Shias suffered at Saddam's hand again when they were instigated by Bush I to rise up. However since then Saddam has tried hard to placate them. The entire Kerbala and Najaf infrastructure has been beautifully redone. For the last 5 years, there have been special trips for Shias from Baghdad to the Shia holy places which have been enjoyed by thousands of Shia visitors from overseas.

ISLAMIC MOVEMENTS

Saddam does not permit organized Islamic movements within Iraq because of his fear that they will try to overthrow him. However, ever since he put the words ALLAHU AKBAR on the Iraqi flag, he has softened his attitude. Khutbas in Iraqi mosques are for jihad and the khateebs can say what they want as long as they do not preach against Saddam.

Islamic movements which have been oppressed in other Arab countries find a safe haven in Iraq, among them the Ikhwan who rose up against the Syrian Alawite regime in 1982. There is an Islamic university in Baghdad which offers free education to Muslims from various countries even now. [Numerous Pakistani and Indian Muslims study in Baghdad's universities.]

In recent years Saddam has ordered his Ba'athist party officials to study Islam. He himself goes to the mausoleum of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani and the tomb of Imam Abu Hanifa and has helped to decorate and beautify them.

As part of the reconstruction projects initiated by Saddam after the 42-day bombing, numerous, beautiful new mosques have been constructed in Iraq, and the BIGGEST MOSQUE IN THE WORLD is being constructed in Baghdad.
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2002-10-11 Fri 12:35ct