New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

[Biggest Islamic web site in the U.S.]
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087.
Phone: 410-435-5000.

Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily shared by editorial committee.
Responses (positive or negative) up to 250 words are welcome.
Names will be withheld on request.
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BURQA vs RAPE

[Half of our mailing list, which is quite extensive now, received the third letter on BURQA vs RAPE without the writer's name. So here it is again along with correction of typos. Our mail goes out in driblets and we noticed the error halfway through. - Editor]

(from Dr. Edward Miller, San Rafael, California)

Kaukab: What you have described in Germany and Vietnam regarding women's response to an occupying army has been written in the history of all great empires.. When I was a battalion surgeon in Japan waiting to be sent to Korea...our Division camp on the side of Mount Fugi was surrounded almost overnight by clusters of small bars with "mamma-sans" and their young prostitutes awaiting the marines as they came and went. The marked rise in veneral disease and its treatment occupied much of my time..as well as the time of the very-cooperative Japanese physicians...

On Another topic...President Bush in exhalting the political, murder of the two Hussein sons ( and they could very easily have been taken alive) tells us something about Bush and his god, with whom he says he converses. The Christian god, as described by the Prophet Jesus, taught forgiveness...unlike Yaweh, the old Testament Hebrew God of revenge (An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth)...Bush, surrrounded by the so-called "Christian Right",..who are neither Christian nor rIight...has simply adopted their Hebrew God of revenge...

Political assassination, and that's what happened to the Hussein sons, was effectively banned as a tool of the United States by President Gerald Ford in 1976 in response to the detailed report from a congresssional committee assigned to study the history and results of such actiions.

Keep writing
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UNUSUAL LETTER FROM KABUL ABOUT THE BURQA

I have just read one of your articles about the Burqa under the Title
"Unrecognized Role In Afghanistan."
it is really very interesting and for the first time I am seeing some one from the west writing the truth. As from the time I am remembering all the westerners, no matter even if he or she is Muslim, are against Burqa without knowing in depth about the depth and its roots in the Islamic history and culture of Afghanistan. People were thinking that it is some thing that has been imposed on Afghans by the Taliban where as the reality is something else. This is a part of our religion and our rich culture that we have inherited from the past hundreds of years. I just wanted to thank you for the interesting and beautiful article that you have written. I just want your permission, if you would allow, I want to publish it in our only English newspaper The Kabul Times that has for the moment an international replication. However it has some mistakes especially regarding the Khalq and Parcham parties and their leadership. If needed I will write you the minute mistakes also. Thank you very much
and best Regards,
Sayed Sirajuddin Khalid
From Kabul
Afghanistan
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BOYCOTT COCA-COLA
[Report sent by Br. Abu Talib, Jamaat al-Muslimeen's Boycott Committee representative in Brooklyn, New York]

Coca-Cola in Kerala, India, accused of leaving farms parched and land poisoned
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Thursday July 24 2003
The Guardian
[Excerpts]

The largest Coca-Cola plant in India is being accused of putting thousands of farmers out of work by draining the water that feeds their wells, and poisoning the land with waste sludge that the company claims is fertiliser.

The plant in the southern state of Kerala is designed to satisfy the demand for Coke in what has become the multinational company's fastest growing market.

But its huge demand for water is causing such damage to the local economy that the village council which had granted the company a licence to operate is now demanding the plant's closure.

So desperate have the nearest villagers become for water since their wells dried up that Coca-Cola sends water tankers round every morning to supply minimum needs.

The company denies the shortages have anything to do with its use of up to 1m litres of water a day from the underground aquifer that used to keep the wells topped up.

The charity ActionAid says the crisis facing the once prosperous farming area is an example of the worst kind of inward investment by multinational companies in developing countries.

In a report to the World Trade Organisation's meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September the charity says this kind of abuse must be controlled.

The report says Plachimada was a thriving agricultural community until Coca-Cola set up the bottling plant in 1998. Coconut groves and vegetable crops have had to be abandoned because of the lack of water.
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2003-07-28 Mon 17:36ct