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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NEWS FROM KASHMIR:

Wire service reports, mentioned marginally on major U.S. TV channels on June 28, indicate that two mujahideen (perhaps from Lashkare Taiba), launched an audacious attack on an INDIAN ARMY CAMP in occupied Kashmir. The Indian troops seem to have suffered heavily at the hands of the two freedom fighters:
Reuters is reporting 13 Indian troops killed. The liberators used grenades and automatic rifles.
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Allegations of Support for Lashkare Taiba's Jihad Against India:
Listened to Tapes and Lectures on Jihad, Played a Game Called "Paintball" with Fake Guns
Eight American Muslims Arrested on the Flimsiest of Charges

Hammad Abdur-Raheem is an outstanding citizen of the United States. When New Trend spoke to his wife on June 27 (evening), she wept as she stated what had happened. At six in the morning "law enforcement" had entered their apartment and arrested Hammad. "You are a terrorist" they told him as they arrested him. His wife, a Muslimah from Indonesia, is left without an income and with two children, one year old and two year old.

Why would Hammad be arrested when he has never broken the law and there is absolutely no proof (even an allegation) from the prosecution that he planned to break the law? It appears that he used to go with some other Muslims to the Virginia countryside to play a game called "paintball" in which players shoot colored water at each other with fake guns. The government is bringing this up as if it was preparation for Jihad because one of the participants in the games went to Pakistan to help Lashkare Taiba set up its web site. Although, this was before Lashkare Taiba was declared "terrorist" by President Bush to please India, the government is trying to use the ruling retroactively to hunt those who oppose India's occupation of Kashmir.

Muslims arrested in the FBI raids on June 27 are:
Randall Todd Royer, 30, of Falls Church, Virginia
Masoud Ahmad Khan, 31, of Gaithersburg, Maryland
Yong Ki Kwon, 27, of Fairfax, Virginia (Muslim from Korea, naturalized citizen)
Hammad Abdur-Raheem, 35, Falls Church, Virginia.
Mohammad Aatique, 30, of Norristown, Pennsyvania (Pakistani national)
Donald Surrat, 30, of Suitland, Maryland
Caliph Basha, 29, of Arlington, Virginia
Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, of Alexandria, Virginia (Yemeni citizen)

It appears from the report on the arrests in the Washington Times, that the U.S. government wants to invoke an obscure Neutrality Act against those arrested. The act forbids people from leaving the U.S. to fight against a country with which the U.S. is at peace.

According to the Washington Post report on the arrests, part of the "crime" these Muslims committed was as follows:
"The men also are accused of gathering at the Dar el Arkum mosque on South Washington street in Falls Church 'to hear lectures on the righteousness of violent jihad in Kashmir, Chechnya and other places and to watch videotapes of mujahideen engaged in jihad.'"

Thus the government story seems to be that if a person listens to lectures on jihad, he can be arrested as a potential threat to the U.S.!

As far as helping Lashkare Taiba, Royer appears to have acknowledged that he used to write news releases in 1999 or 2000 for the Lashkar. Yong Ki Kwon visited the Lashkar after September 2001 but before the group was labeled "terrorist" by the State Department.

Thus Jihad against India, even by writing a press release for the mujahideen, has been made into an indictable offense against the United States. Why is Lashkare Taiba a problem for the U.S.? The answer lies in the description of the Lashkar in the Washington Times of June 28:

"Lashkar-e-Taiba, which means 'army of the righteous,' is the armed wing of the Pakistan-based religious organization Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad, a Sunni anti-U.S. missionary organization formed in 1989 and led by Abdul Wahid Kashmiri. It is one of the three largest and best-trained groups fighting in Kashmir against Indian rule."

In plain language, the Lashkar is an effective Jihad movement which India cannot defeat. The U.S. policy now seems to be to help India suppress the Lashkar.

[Before his arrest, Br. Hammad told New Trend, in summary: They want us to "cooperate" with them, to become snitches (spies) for the FBI in the Muslim community. All these raids and arrests are meant to intimidate us for this purpose.]

Along with the arrests, "law enforcement" raided the home of Islamic scholar Ali Timimi in Fairfax (originally from Iraq). He was not arrested but his life has been turned upside down. He is the scholar who used to preach at the mosque mentioned in the report above. He is alleged to have told these Muslims to travel overseas because America was going to increase its oppression of Muslims after 9.11.
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Please volunteer to visit and help the family of Br. Hammad and others arrested. If you can give a little time, email: ksidd37398@aol.com
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2003-06-28 Sat 17:07ct