Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief Rabi' al-Awwal 2, 1425/ April 23, 2004 #50
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WOMEN IN ISLAM:

Key verses of the Qur'an were revealed in answer to women's questions:
"From the Mother of the believers, Umm Salama, r.a.: She said to the Prophet, pbuh, O Messenger of Allah, did Allah most Exalted not mention anything about the role of women in hijrah? At this (question) Allah revealed this verse (Sura Al-I-Imran, 195)." [Hadith, Sunan of Tirmidhi.]
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Israel and the Jewish Holocaust Story
What Muslims Don't Know Could Harm Them

by Buut Shikan

Israel commemorated the Jewish Holocaust [or the "shoa" as it is called there] on April 18, 2004. The ceremonies brought out the inextricable connection between the Jewish entity known as Israel and the story of the Holocaust. The political relevance of the Holocaust to the Washington-Tel Aviv axis becomes clear when one realizes that there is a Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC, funded to the tune of $5 million annually by public funds although there has NEVER been any persecution of Jews in America. Children from all over America are given tours of the Holocaust Memorial and there is a systematic program underway to ensure that American children, even from elementary school, remember the Jews as victims and people who deserve our particular compassion. [One might ask, why is there no memorial in Washington for the BLACK or AFRICAN HOLOCAUST which is directly connected to the basis of America?]
Israel regularly MILKS GERMANY for funds, weapons and Holocaust publicity although since 1945 Germany has done nothing against the Jews. In fact Germany, defanged and brainwashed by the victors of the Second World War, is second only to the U.S. in support for Israel and International Jewry.
Muslims should be aware that second only to the military and economic aid America provides, the Holocaust story is the TOP SOURCE OF INCOME for the Israeli occupiers of Palestine.

LET BOTH SIDES BE HEARD

As the Holocaust story is the source of heavy funding for Israel and International Jewry, Muslims should investigate the propaganda put out to support and legitimize the victim status of the Jews.

One does not become Nazi or antisemitic by subjecting the holocaust story to critical scrutiny. In fact Muslims are semitic themselves, cousins of the Jews, as Abraham had two sons, Isaac (the progenitor of the Jews) and Ismail (the ancestor of the Muslims).

The Jews have had it their way for too long. They have exploited America's compassion by using Hollywood, TV, New York's book publishing monopoly and news media in general to create the impression that their version of the Second World War is true and not to be questioned..
WELL-DOCUMENTED and SCHOLARLY works are available which show that the Jewish version is probably heavily exaggerated and one sided. American dupes of the Holocaust story should consider the following:
* Auschwitz where the biggest Nazi atrocities are alleged to have taken place is NOT IN GERMANY. Most Americans do not know that AUSCHWITZ is in POLAND. In 1945, the Soviet armies captured Auschwitz from the Germans. For a few months they did not make any claims of atrocities but then gradually and steadily started publicizing the atrocity claims, of which the biggest is that Auschwitz had gas chambers in which FOUR MILLION JEWS were gassed.

The Soviets had a Jewish propaganda mastermind, Ilya Ehrenburg, who poured out a steady stream of fabricated atrocity stories against Germany. It was war time propaganda but provided the basis on which the Holocaust story was later built.

Serious investigators of the Holocaust story should read:
AUSCHWITZ: A Judge Looks at the Evidence by Wilhelm Staeglich, 393 pages. [Available from: Institute for Historical Review, P.O. Box 1306, Torrance, CA 90505.]

The book looks at the original attempts to pin the Holocaust atrocity on the Germans. It is thorough, heavily documented and shattering. Anyone who manages to read through the book will forever be inoculated against the Jewish victim status theory.

Also read GRUESOME HARVEST: The Allies' Postwar War Against the German People by Ralph Franklin Keeling, 151 pages, same address. The German people, not soldiers but ordinary men, women and children were subjected to genocide by the allies. Millions of German CIVILIANS were killed in allied actions AFTER the war through bombing, ethnic cleansing and starvation. Almost all German women were raped by the conquerors or simply sold themselves to the victors to feed their children.
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Media Monitor

The Making and Unmaking of a CIA Agent: Canadian Family Torn Asunder by Conflict Between Islam and America

On April 22, 2004 the story of the Khadr family finally came to the USA in the form of a PBS TV Frontline documentary titled "Son of Al-Qaida." Here are the main points of the TV report: There is a big debate on in Canada about the fate of the Khadr family. The Zionists, supported by secularist Muslims, are demanding that the family be deprived of its Canadian citizenship. The Muslims of Canada, those who want to follow Islam, treat Abdur Rahman as a pariah owing to his sell-out to the CIA.
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Al Jazeera Deletes Captured U.S. Soldier's Comments

Rumours that Al Jazeera has fallen under American occupation were fuelled the other day when the satellite TV broadcast images of a captured US soldier in Iraq.

During the first broadcasts, captive Keith Maupin said he'd come to Iraq to liberate it, but actually hadn't wanted to come at all, that he was married and had a 10-year-old daughter.

The exclusive report was snapped up by the world's media, including the TV's troubled, english language website and duly reported. Palestinian Ahmad Sheikh, who has somehow fallen on his feet and into the job of the Arabic TV chief editor, appears to have been called by his US masters and told to edit the PoW's inflammatory comments.

That evening, Sheikh, known in Jazeera circles as the Armchair Jihadi, telephoned the english newsroom and, without bothering to ask for any supervising editor, instructed Jordanian journalist Natasha Twal to pull the soldier's comments from the news items. He then ordered the Arabic website to do the same. The next Al Jazeera television broadcast had also deleted Maupin's personal comments which the White House found so offensive.

As a result, everyone else was quoting the original Al Jazeera report in full, while Ahmad Sheikh had gagged and censored his own team, even though the soldier's comments were already aired and public knowledge! Rivals, BBC online produced a more substantial article than both of Al Jazeera's websites did based on the original Al Jazeera exclusive!

Still George W Bush and his chickenhawks can always take comfort from the fact they have a friend in Al Jazeera they can rely on - well done Ahmad Sheikh.

This is the same man, you will remember, who sacked sisters Yvonne Ridley and Shaista Aziz when he headed the english website because their exclusive news stories upset the Americans and Israelis.

Aah, now the reasons for his promotion are becoming clear.
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VIEWPOINT

TRYING TO EDUCATE SOME WOMEN WHO THINK MEN ARE SUPERIOR TO WOMEN!

Shafeeqah I. Abdullah
Atlanta, Georgia

As-Salaamu Alaikum!

Several months ago, I was communicating with a sister on another women's e-mail group which I no longer belong to. When I made it clear that I supported gender equity in Islam, the sister wasn't very pleased with that. She was adamant that men and women are not the same; therefore, they're not equal. In other words, men are inherently superior to women.

A sister friend of mine not only sent her Gender Equity in Islam by Dr. Jamal A. Badawi; she (my friend) also sent the sister her views concerning gender equity in Islam. It didn't surprise me to learn later on that the sister didn't think too highly of Dr. Badawi's views, more than likely because he doesn't support men being inherently superior to women. According to this sister, ". . .that just because we can claim rights on our husbands similar to the rights they can claim on us, this doesn't mean we can jump on the Women's Liberation band wagon and rule our husbands or behave in a domineering fashion, dragging them through the mud for every little personality conflict or overly enthusiastic rule on us. Flowery and apologetic explainations such as what Brother Jamal has stated in paragraph 6 (I believe it was numbered 6) about the husband not having superiority over his wife is how we get into this kind of trouble in the first place."

As for my friend's views on Dr. Badawi's article, she wrote: ". . . I found nothing there that would encourage women to become brazen in their behavior towards their husbands. On the contrary, I found understanding, and clarity about some of the misinterpreted ideas about the status of women. By clarifying the status of women, Brother Jamal does not take away anything from the status of men. I truly believe that his article encourages the proper balance in the relationship between husbands and wives.

"It is extremely disheartening for women to be given the impression that men are somehow superior merely by being men (even if, and especially if they are not good men). It feels as though we (women) are being told that we should forfeit our rights to our (often underserving) husbands. It feels as though we are being told that we are inferior simply because we were born females.

"One of the most beautiful descriptions of the relationship between a husband and a wife is the aya that says that the wife and the husband are garments for each other. I read that aya, and I understand that there is MUTUALITY in it. I understand that there is EQUALITY in it. When I say, "equality", I don't mean identicalness. I mean I believe it affirms that men and women are of equal value, and they are equally important in a marriage. As I said before, men are incomplete without women, and women are incomplete without men. We must respect each other, we must care for each other. This is what I believe Allah intends for married people. There is nothing positive that can come from ugliness on the part of either spouse.

"I believe that when men are allowed to believe that they are superior, and that women must "obey" them in the same manner that a child obeys a parent; it encourages them to abuse their "power". I believe it encourages them to abuse their wives. This is not a blanket observation of all men. But, unfortunately, there are too many men who fit into this ideology."

Too many foolish and misguided Muslim men conclude that because they're male (that is, the "chosen gender"), they have some special God-like powers which they're convinced they have a "right" to lord over women; therefore, women must do "the female thing"--"respectfully obey" without protest or argument, even if the men did anything against the Qur'an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Allah's Peace be upon him). This sick superiority complex infuriates a lot of women, including myself. I really can understand why a lot of women have serious problems with obeying husbands.

It cannot be emphasized enough that women/wives are individuals, persons, and, above all, believers in their own right. Like men/husbands, we are to follow the Qur'an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Allah's Peace be upon him)--not "our sunnah" or "their sunnah"--the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Allah's Peace be upon him). We are not, and never have been, second-class believers just because we happen to be female; and men simply have to cease being insecure and immature and come to grips with that if they expect to have happy, successful Islamic marriages. Nowhere in the Qur'an does Allah state that men are "superior believers" with "superior taqwa" because they're male. Nowhere in the Qur'an does Allah state that women were created from some "base matter." The men who firmly believe that know good and well that Prophet Muhammad (Allah's Peace be upon him) didn't sanction that garbage. And these same men have the gall to call themselves Muslims! (Allah forbid!!)

As sisters in faith, we must keep in mind that although Rasoolullah (Allah's Peace be upon him) was brought up in an anti-female climate, he remained undaunted, irrespective of the opposition of many men during that time, in defending the human rights of all females. He's well known for this in the Muslim world. We cannot thank Allah enough for this outstanding leader and teacher whose exemplary character was beyond reproach. It angers me to think that a lot of men during that time were arrogant enough to think they had the "absolute right" to pass a death sentence on females and spare the lives of males. I mean, where did they get off doing that? That's just downright despicable and conniving.

Obedience to Allah is gender neutral. In dealing with each other, neither spouse is allowed to take heed of, say, or do anything which is against the Qur'an and the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (Allah's Peace be upon him). The way I see it, sincere, God-conscious husbands and wives obey each other in obedience to Allah and must never interfere in each other's worship of Him.

In her book Women, Muslim Society, and Islam, Dr. Lois Lamya' al Faruqi says it well on gender equity in Islam: "Islam brought women from the position of chattel in marriage to that of equal partners. In the matter of divorce, she changed from a completely impotent bystander, to one who could initiate divorce proceedings and claim her rights of dowry and inheritance. From a position of legal nonetity, she became a legal personality in the full sense of the term, able to hold property, entitled ot a just share of her husband's and family's inheritance property. Socially, with education equally required of her as well as of every man by Islam, she rose to a position of social and cultural influence and service. Even in religio-cultic practices and duties, woman was asked and expected to play a role equal to that of man, insofar as her special physical characteristics and maternal duties allowed. Her position in early Islam was really an exemplary one, one that should be studied and known by every woman as well as every liberationist in the twentieth century--in America as well as in the Muslim World. The Muslim woman, if she is true to the principles of her religion, has lessons in equality to teach the Westerner, and her descendants in the East have to learn anew the role demanded of them by their religion. Orientalists and orientals zealous for modernization should cease to put the blame on Islam, a blame which instead deserves to fall on their own ignorance of the faith and on the political and social decline which their nations suffered in the past."

May Allah bless all of us to remain strong in faith and on the Straight Path!
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2004-04-25 Sun 08:23ct