Whizdumb

Firefox or Internet Explorer?

2006-05-13T16:50:00.000-04:00

I redid my blog, as you can see, and now I'm in a quandry. I set the code to suit Firefox, which I don't even use. The layout looks perfect. But when I launch the page in MSN Explorer, which is my default browser, the whole page is messed!

I'm going back to IE because it's what I'm used to, but then those who use Firefox will get a messed view. Anyone know any tricks to make the page work in both browsers?

Firefox people, so much for being unique... come back to the fold, you're splitting blogdom.

You Are What You Eat... Be Proud!

2006-05-12T18:29:00.000-04:00

Main Entry: pig

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: eater

Synonyms: animal, beast, boor, brute, glutton, gormandizer, greedy guts, guzzler, hog, slob, swine

Source:
Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.2.1)Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Pop Culture in the Name of Islam

2006-05-03T09:42:00.000-04:00

YVONNE RIDLEY
Monday, April 24, 2006

I feel very uncomfortable about the pop culture which is growing around some so-called Nasheed artists. Of course I use the term ‘Nasheed artists' very lightly. Islamic ‘boy bands' and Muslim ‘popsters' would probably be more appropriate.

Eminent scholars throughout history have often opined that music is haram, and I don't recall reading anything about the Sahaba whooping it up to the sound of music. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for people letting off steam, but in a dignified manner and one which is appropriate to their surroundings.

The reason I am expressing concern is that just a few days ago at a venue in Central London, sisters went wild in the aisles as some form of pop-mania swept through the concert venue. And I'm not just talking about silly, little girls who don't know any better; I am talking about sisters in their 20's, 30's and 40's, who squealed, shouted, swayed and danced. Even the security guys who looked more like pipe cleaners than bulldozers were left looking dazed and confused as they tried to stop hijabi sisters from standing on their chairs. Of course the stage groupies did not help at all as they waved and encouraged the largely female Muslim crowd to "get up and sing along." (They're called ‘Fluffers' in lap-dancing circles!)

The source of all this adulation was British-born Sami Yusuf, who is so proud of his claret-colored passport that he wants us all to wave the Union Jacks. I'm amazed he didn't encourage his fans to sing "Land of Hope and Glory." Brother Sami asked his audience to cheer if they were proud to be British ,and when they responded loudly, he said he couldn't hear them and asked them to cheer again.

How can anyone be proud to be British? Britain is the third most hated country in the world. The Union Jack is drenched in the blood of our brothers and sisters across Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Our history is steeped in the blood of colonialism, rooted in slavery, brutality, torture, and oppression. And we haven't had a decent game of soccer since we lifted the World Cup in 1966.

Apparently Sami also said one of the selling points of Brand UK was having Muslims in the Metropolitan Police Force! Astafur'Allah! Dude, these are the same cops who have a shoot-to-kill policy and would have gunned down a Muslim last year if they could tell the difference between a Bangladeshi and a Brazilian. This is the same police force that has raided more than 3000 Muslim homes in Britain since 9/11. What sort of life is there on Planet Sami, I wonder? If he is so proud to be British, why is he living in the great Middle Eastern democracy of Egypt?

Apparently the sort of hysteria Sami helped encourage is also in America, and if it is happening on both sides of the Atlantic, then it must be creeping around the globe and poisoning the masses. Islamic boy bands like 786 and Mecca 2 Medina are also the subject of the sort of female adulation you expect to see on American Pop Idol or the X-Factor. Surely Islamic events should be promoting restrained and more sedate behavior.

Do we blame the out-of-control sisters? Or do we blame the organizers for allowing this sort of excessive behavior which demeans Islam? Or do we blame the artists themselves?

Abu Ali and Abu Abdul Malik, struggling for their Deen, would certainly not try to whip up this sort of hysteria. Neither would the anonymous heroic Nasheed artists who sing for freedom; check out Idhrib Ya Asad Fallujah, and you will know exactly what I mean.

Fallujah is now synonymous with the sort of heroic resistance that elevated the Palestinians of Jenin to the ranks of the resistance written about in the Paris Communeand the Siege of Leningrad. The US military has banned the playing of any Nasheeds about Fallujah because of the power and the passion it evokes.

If those Nasheeds had sisters running in the streets whooping and dancing, however, the Nasheeds may be encouraged because of haram activity surrounding them.

Quite frankly, I really don't know how anyone in the Ummah can really let go and scream and shout with joy at pleasure domes when there is so much brutality and suffering going on in the world today. The rivers of blood flow freely from the veins of our brothers and sisters from across the Muslim world. Screaming and shouting the names of musical heroes drown out the screams coming from the dungeons of Uzbekistan where brothers and sisters are boiled alive in vats of water. How many will jump up and down and wave their arms in the air, shouting wildly for justice for our kin in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, and Iraq? There are many more killing fields as well across the Asian and Arab world. Will you climb on theater chairs and express your rage over Guantanamo Bay and other gulags where our brothers and sisters are being tortured, raped, sodomized, beaten, and burned? Or will you just switch off this concerned sister and switch on to the likes of Sami Yusuf because he can sell you a pipe dream with his soothing words and melodic voice?

Oh, Muslims, wake up! The Ummah is not bleeding; it is hemorrhaging.
Listen not to what is haram. Listen to the pain of your global family.

www.DailyMuslims.com

Celebrities, activists rally for Darfur

2006-04-30T17:55:00.000-04:00

Demonstrators want U.S. action to end genocide
Sunday, April 30, 2006;
Posted: 4:20 p.m. EDT (20:20 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of people joined celebrities
and lawmakers at a rally Sunday urging the Bush administration
to use its political muscle to help end genocide in Sudan's Darfur
region.

Office of Homeland Predators

2006-04-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

Our borders may be safe, but are our children?

Homeland Security official arrested in sex sting
Tue Apr 4, 2006 11:22 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been arrested on sex charges stemming from a Florida-based Internet sting, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said on Tuesday.

Brian Doyle, 55, faces 23 charges in Polk County, Florida, related to use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful material to a minor, Judd said in a statement.

Doyle was taken into custody at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, outside Washington, on Tuesday evening while he was on the line with undercover detectives, Judd said.

"He was on his computer communicating with the undercover detective who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl at the time we knocked on his door in Maryland, took him into custody and served a search warrant," Judd said in an interview on CNN.

Details Released In Agent's Sex Case
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI
Published: Feb 14, 2006

TAMPA - When an Orlando mall security officer responded to a complaint about a man exposing himself to a girl in the food court, the suspect hurried out of the mall and ran through the parking lot.

The suspect was Frank Figueroa, then one of Florida's highest-ranking federal law enforcement officers and the former head of a national program formed to target child sex predators. Since his Oct. 25 arrest at The Mall at Millenia, Figueroa has been suspended from his post as the special agent in charge of the Tampa office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the law enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

Figueroa is charged with exposure of sexual organs and disorderly conduct, which carry a potential punishment of more than a year in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Details of Figueroa's arrest and the incident that led to it were made public Monday with the release of documents in Figueroa's prosecution. Mall security reports portray Figueroa trying to get away and even pulling out his badge when first approached. He didn't resist officers and drove himself in his government car to waiting Orlando police.

According to mall security reports, after Figueroa fled the scene, two more security officers approached him in the parking lot and asked why he was running. He said he was trying to find his car. Officer Kevin Williams offered to help him find the car, but he said Figueroa first needed to talk to security about an incident in the food court.

and last but not least:

From the Dateline NBC program, To Catch a Predator

And the federal agent can’t seem to stop talking to the cops.

Michael Burks: My father was a police officer. I was a policeofficer. I work for the Department of Homeland security. I understand you guys have a job to do and I’m not trying to tell anything else other than that. I swear to God, as God as my witness, I’m wearing a St. Michael’s medal right now, okay? I was not going to do anything with her.

But the detective doesn’t seem to be buying his story.

Police officer: I am telling you I don’t believe that you didn’t intend to have sex at some point with the girl.

Burks: Sir, I swear to God.

Police officer: It would have happened, I guarantee you, it would have happened.

And he has one more thing to say to the disgraced federal agent.

Police officer: In your position, you should have known better. You know the law. That’s even worse. You know what, that puts a bad mark on my job, on everybody. Every cop in this country you put a bad mark on.

Burks: I know, sir.

--------------------------------------------
With men like this in charge of safeguarding our borders and our citizens, I, for one, feel safer already.

The Worst President in History?

2006-04-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

I found this article over at Seeker's Digest.

Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again

If I was a betting person, which I am not of course, (gambling is haraam!!!), I'd say America might be facing such a catastrophe soon enough. These things always manage to come at convenient times (politically convenient, mind you).

But then again, it might not be necessary. That movie, Flight 93, which releases in 3 days, might help to garner renewed fervor towards G Dubya and his plotting. Convenient, eh?

It's gotten really bad when my own father, who is not a Muslim, who voted for G Dubya in both elections, and not long ago believed G Dunya (***Dubya, freudian slip?) could do absolutely no wrong, is now saying that the Prez needs to be removed from office by any means possible.

While I'm on the subject, talk about convenience! A new bin Laden tape. They somehow manage to appear at the most convenient times. Now I am not a conspiracy buff, and I am not given to paranoias. I don't see dangers around every bend, but come on, some of it is a bit obvious.

Have any of you seen the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight? I recommend it. There are some very interesting and thought provoking parallels. A warning though, it is rated R for strong bloody violence and strong language.
Those before them did also plot (against Allah's Way): but Allah took their structures from their foundations, and the roof fell down on them from above; and the Wrath seized them from directions they did not perceive. (Quran 16:26)

Rant Time

2006-04-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

I am so angry I could just spit! I always read Sunnipath's posts from the hanafi fiqh mail list. I actually rely quite heavily on Sunnipath's answers to fiqh questions. I have found that the team of people who write the answers are knowledgeable, well-informed, and respond with wisdom, caring, compassion and understanding.

Until today. I am utterly stupified.

This is the question that was on one of the mailings I recieved today:

Husband and pornography
Answered by Wajihah Gregor

Question:
I fear that my husband may have a porno problem. While I was searching for lost files on the computer, I found some disturbing pornographic pictures in the recent documents. I talked to him about it and he got very embarrassed. He said that everything was fine with our sexual relations, but he still went on the internet twice and pleasured himself at the same time. I even think that once I woke up and saw him. He said that mornings are high peaks for him, but that he does not want to wake me. We talked about it but then a month later, I find some more pornographic files.
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Dear Sister,
Asalaamu 'Alaikum wa Rahmatu Llahi wa Barakatuhu -
The characters in pornographic shows stimulate the feeling in the casual or compulsive viewer that they are keenly desired and wanted. Although this is perverted atmosphere, the intrinsic need for men to feel desired and wanted can be a totally wholesome feeling in the confines of marriage. If these emotional and physical needs are not being met by their spouse, this may be the initial reason that leads them to watch pornography.

It is a good sign that your husband felt embarrassed and bad when you addressed him about his behavior. This means his heart is still alive with the notions of right and wrong, so remain committed and steadfast to him in helping him overcome this trial.

Instead of expecting your husband to wake you in the morning, make the effort to rise before him, preparing yourself beautifully for him and scenting the room with beautiful smells. Wake him lovingly, and tell him how much you need and desire him.

Moreover, ask him what are his secret sexual fantasies and do your best to accommodate them. Assure him that you are eager to fulfill his fantasies, so that embarrassment does not prevent him from telling you.

This may feel awkward for you at first, but by satisfying his emotions and fantasies you will stunt his negative behavior and will fulfill his needs lawfully.

Your loving effort, and your satisfying commitment, should encourage your husband to stop viewing pornography.

Remember, that by these efforts of yours, you are not only forbidding the wrong, but also commanding the right. This will impact society for the better, and your reward is with Allah Most High.

And Allah Knows Best

Wajihah Gregor

When I read this response I was totally flabbergasted. It was definitely not a response I expected from anyone at Sunnipath. The response is more in line with the answers I would expect to see from some of the hardcore salafi sites. Salafis always blame the woman. And that is exactly what the responder did here.

The husband has a problem, and now it's the wife's fault. She hasn't been doing enough. "If these emotional and physical needs are not being met by their spouse, this may be the initial reason that leads them to watch pornography." Astigfurallah!

The wife stated in her question that her husband has already said that their sexual relations were fine. And somehow this has been turned around on the woman and now she's at fault. She's not doing enough.

We're back in the dark ages. And I want to puke. Actually... if Wajihah Gregor were within arms length of me, I'd be inclined to backhand him/her. What next? Painting over the windows and burqa even inside the home? No driving for women?

Porn problems do not stem from inadequacies in marriages. A lot of men are more inclined sexually in the mornings, it's a scientific fact that testosterone levels are highest then. It's his problem, and also his compassion that he chose not to approach her if it's early and she's tired. But by giving this chastisement, I can only feel sorry for the poor woman, who before this thought she probably had a good marriage and a caring husband and now probably feels like a whipped dog.

"Make the effort to rise before him, preparing yourself beautifully for him and scenting the room with beautiful smells. Wake him lovingly, and tell him how much you need and desire him." It's not so easy playing the coquette at 6 am. Perhaps W. Gregor should try then get back to us with the results.

"Ask him what are his secret sexual fantasies and do your best to accommodate them." Make sure the skimpy nurses uniform, catholic schoolgirl outfit, or maid uniform is pressed and ready to go.

Where is the understanding and compassion and wisdom that I have come to respect from Sunnipath? This woman is not some sexual slave. It's the husband's sin, he's the one masturbating to porn on the web. Where's the admonishments for him????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so angry I can't even form coherent thoughts. I have to go before I puke all over my computer.

Capitalism is Alive and Thriving in Afghanistan

2006-04-13T11:58:00.000-04:00

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Following a newspaper’s discovery of stolen U.S. military computer drives showing up for sale at local bazaars outside the large base here, the military announced a crackdown but merchants were still selling the digital wares — including what appeared to be information about Afghan spies informing on al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The Los Angeles Times, which first reported the sales on Monday, said that it was still able to find computer drives two days later — the same day that five military investigators, surrounded by heavily armed plainclothes U.S. soldiers, searched many of the two-dozen rundown shops outside the sprawling base.

One flash memory drive, the Times reported Thursday, holds the names, photos and phone numbers of people described as Afghan spies working for the military. The data indicates payments of $50 bounties for each Taliban or al-Qaida fighter caught based on the source’s intelligence.

The drive, which a teenager sold for $40, also holds scores of military documents marked “secret” and which describe intelligence-gathering methods and information.

The Times said that while the documents appeared to be authentic, it had not been able to verify the accuracy of the information independently.

Other shopkeepers on Wednesday were selling memory drives as well — including one with the Social Security numbers of four American generals.

The surfacing of the stolen computer devices has sparked an urgent American military probe for the source of the embarrassing security breach, which has led to disks with the personal letters and biographies of soldiers and lists of troops who completed nuclear, chemical and biological warfare training going on sale for $20 to $50.

read the full article here...

I have just one thing to say... EBAY!!!!

Lost Gospel Revealed; Says Jesus Asked Judas to Betray Him

2006-04-13T09:41:00.000-04:00

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
April 6, 2006

He is one of the most reviled men in history.

But was Judas only obeying his master's wishes when he betrayed Jesus with a kiss?

That's what a newly revealed ancient Christian text says.

After being lost for nearly 1,700 years, the Gospel of Judas was recently restored, authenticated, and translated.

The Coptic, or Egyptian Christian, manuscripts were unveiled today at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

What Does It Mean?

Some biblical scholars are calling the Gospel of Judas the most significant archaeological discovery in 60 years.

The only known surviving copy of the gospel was found in a codex, or ancient book, that dates back to the third or fourth century A.D.

The newly revealed gospel document, written in Coptic script, is believed to be a translation of the original, a Greek text written by an early Christian sect sometime before A.D. 180.

read full article...

Sexy media a siren call to promiscuity?

2006-04-03T18:36:00.000-04:00

Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said Monday.

"This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report.

read more...

Golly gee! How sad.

Apostasy and Religious Freedom

2006-04-01T09:25:00.000-05:00

By: Dr. Louay M. Safi

The issue of apostasy under Islamic Law (shari'ah), brought recently to public attention in the widely publicized case of the conversion of an Afghani citizen, raises troubling questions regarding freedom of religion and interfaith relations.[1] The Afghan State's persecution of an Afgani man who converted to Christianity in 1990 while working for a Christian non-governmental raises in the mind of many the question of the compatibility of Islam with plural democracy and freedom of religion. Although the state court dropped the case under intense outside pressure, the compatibility issue has not been resolved as the judge invoked insanity as the basis for dismissing the case.[2]

read more...

Arsenal Supporting Israeli Apartheid

2006-03-21T14:24:00.000-05:00

IHRC calls upon all campaigners to contact Arsenal FC to protest against their decision to sign a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination. The campaign is supported by the Palestinian Return Centre, Innovative Minds, Friends of al Aqsa, The British Muslim Initiative, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and the Scottish-Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. Arsenal Football Club has just signed a sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination from next season. The £350,000 agreement makes Israel Arsenal's "official and exclusive travel destination." Below are just some of the benefits Israel will receive from this deal:

Israel will be featured on digital perimeter boards and 450 high-definition LCD screens at the stadium on game days; Israel will feature on the team's website, Arsenal.com; and in its magazine. The televised ads will reach audiences in an estimated 198 countries. The Israeli Tourism Ministry will receive intellectual property rights, the use of the team logo and the right to use photos of the team and its players in ads.

The Israeli Tourism Minister will be allowed use the stadium banqueting hall twice a year and organize an exhibition at the end of the playing season The stadium will hold permanent sale tables for Israel t-shirts.

The financial advisers Ernst & Young were employed to draft this proposal with the aim of bringing an extra 2 million tourists to Israel annually. Israel is a racist apartheid state built upon the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine. It has been so recognized by none other than anti-apartheid campaigners such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has called for a complete boycott of Israel similar to that which ultimately resulted in the toppling of the apartheid South African regime.

Israel's apartheid policies include the segregation of West Bank roads by the military and the construction of a vast steel and concrete barrier through the West Bank and Jerusalem. Dubbed the "apartheid wall" by human rights activists, because it forces communities apart and grabs land, it has been held to be in violation of international law by the International Court of Justice. Critics of Ariel Sharon's plan to carve up the West Bank, apportioning pieces of territory to the Palestinians, draw comparisons with South Africa's "bantustans" - the nominally independent homelands into which millions of black men and women were herded.

Israel's racial discrimination is daily life for most Palestinians, accruing special rights for Israeli Jews which are not available to non-Jews. Palestinian Arabs have no place in this "Jewish" state. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law and has, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children.

For a full detailed analysis of the apartheid in Israel and its parallels with apartheid South Africa, please read Chris McGreal's excellent 2-part report in the Guardian at the links below: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/St...1703245,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/St...1704037,00.html

For Arsenal to sign a deal to promote such a state is to go against the very principles of 'Kicking Racism out of Football'. Amazingly, Arsenal's Managing Director who signed the deal, Keith Edelman stated after the deal was signed, "We are in the forefront of the anti-racism campaign in England". This deal will no doubt put this reputation into serious question.

Suggested Action IHRC urges all campaigners to:

a) Contact Arsenal Football Club reminding them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; and that such a deal endangers Arsenal's anti-racist reputation:

Commercial and Marketing Department
Arsenal Football Club
Arsenal Stadium
Avenell Road
Highbury
London N5 1BU
Email: marketing@arsenal.co.uk
Tel. 020 7704 4170
Fax. 020 7704 4171

b) Contact the Football Association's 'Kick Racism out of Football' Campaign reminding them that Israel is a racist apartheid state which is consistently in breach of international law in its human rights abuses; and that such a deal endangers the FA's anti-racist reputation and the Kick it Out campaign itself. Ask the FA to use its influence to prevent the deal going ahead:

Kick It Out
PO Box 29544
London
EC2A 4WR

T: 020 7684 4884
F: 020 7684 4885
Email: info@kickitout.org
Sample letters can be found below for your convenience. Please CC Islamic Human Rights Commission on all correspondence so we can track the number of letters sent.

Sample Letter 1

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Date]

Mr Keith Edelman

Commercial and Marketing Department
Arsenal Football Club
Arsenal Stadium
Avenell Road
Highbury
London N5 1BU

Dear Mr Edelman
RE: Sponsorship deal with Israel

I am writing to express my deep concern about Arsenal FC's recent sponsorship deal to promote Israel as a tourist destination. Arsenal FC has hitherto enjoyed an excellent reputation for fighting racism and this deal will seriously put this reputation at risk.

Israel is a racist apartheid state built upon the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine. It has been so recognized by none other than anti-apartheid campaigners such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Both have called for a complete boycott of Israel similar to that which ultimately resulted in the toppling of the apartheid South African regime.

Israel is currently constructing a vast steel and concrete barrier through the West Bank and Jerusalem. Dubbed the "apartheid wall" by human rights activists, because it forces communities apart and grabs land, it has been held to be in violation of international law by the International Court of Justice. Israel's carving up of the West Bank and apportioning pieces of territory to the Palestinians are also comparable to South Africa's "bantustans" - the nominally independent homelands into which millions of black men and women were herded. Even an Israeli human rights organisation has described segregation of West Bank roads by the military as apartheid.

Israel's racial discrimination is daily life of most Palestinians. Since Israel is a Jewish state, Israeli Jews are able to accrue special rights which non-Jews cannot do. Palestinian Arabs have no place in a "Jewish" state. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children.

For Arsenal to sign a deal to promote such apartheid state as Israel is to go against the very principles of the 'Let's Kick Racism out of Football' campaign. I urge you to pull out of this deal as only economic pressure, similar to that which toppled the apartheid South African regime, will end apartheid in Israel.

I look forward to hearing from you soon on this urgent matter.

Yours Sincerely,

[Your Sign]
[Your Name]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample Letter 2

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Date]

Kick It Out
PO Box 29544
London
EC2A 4WR

Dear Sir/Madam:

RE: Arsenal's Sponsorship deal with Israel

I am writing to express my deep concern about the recent sponsorship deal made between Arsenal FC and Israel to promote Israel as a tourist destination.

Israel is a racist apartheid state built upon the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Arab population from Palestine. It has been so recognized by none other than anti-apartheid campaigners such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Both have called for a complete boycott of Israel similar to that which ultimately resulted in the toppling of the apartheid South African regime.

Israel is currently constructing a vast steel and concrete barrier through the West Bank and Jerusalem. Dubbed the "apartheid wall" by human rights activists, because it forces communities apart and grabs land, it has been held to be in violation of international law by the International Court of Justice. Israel's carving up of the West Bank and apportioning pieces of territory to the Palestinians are also comparable to South Africa's "bantustans" - the nominally independent homelands into which millions of black men and women were herded. Even an Israeli human rights organisation has described segregation of West Bank roads by the military as apartheid.

Israel's racial discrimination is daily life of most Palestinians. Since Israel is a Jewish state, Israeli Jews are able to accrue special rights which non-Jews cannot do. Palestinian Arabs have no place in a "Jewish" state. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children.

For Arsenal to sign a deal to promote such apartheid state as Israel is to go against the very principles of the 'Let's Kick Racism out of Football' campaign. I urge you to use your influence over Arsenal FC to persuade them to pull out of this deal as only economic pressure, similar to that which toppled the apartheid South African regime, will end apartheid in Israel.

I look forward to hearing from you soon about this urgent matter.

Yours Sincerely,

[Your Sign]
[Your Name]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And what reason have you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.

" Holy Qur'an: Chapter 4, Verse 75

Join the Struggle for Justice. Join IHRC.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email: info@ihrc.org
Web: www.ihrc.org

A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds

2006-03-07T11:28:00.000-05:00

The imam begins his trek before dawn, his long robe billowing like a ghost through empty streets. In this dark, quiet hour, his thoughts sometimes drift back to the Egyptian farming village where he was born.

But as the sun rises over Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Sheik Reda Shata's new world comes to life. The R train rattles beneath a littered stretch of sidewalk, where Mexican workers huddle in the cold. An electric Santa dances in a doughnut shop window. Neon signs beckon. Gypsy cabs blare their horns.

The imam slips into a plain brick building, nothing like the golden-domed mosque of his youth. He stops to pray, and then climbs the cracked linoleum steps to his cluttered office. The answering machine blinks frantically, a portent of the endless questions to come.

A teenage girl wants to know: Is it halal, or lawful, to eat a Big Mac? Can alcohol be served, a waiter wonders, if it is prohibited by the Koran? Is it wrong to take out a mortgage, young Muslim professionals ask, when Islam frowns upon monetary interest?

The questions are only a piece of the daily puzzle Mr. Shata must solve as the imam of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a thriving New York mosque where several thousand Muslims worship.
To his congregants, Mr. Shata is far more than the leader of daily prayers and giver of the Friday sermon. Many of them now live in a land without their parents, who typically assist with finding a spouse. There are fewer uncles and cousins to help resolve personal disputes. There is no local House of Fatwa to issue rulings on ethical questions.

Sheik Reda, as he is called, arrived in Brooklyn one year after Sept. 11. Virtually overnight, he became an Islamic judge and nursery school principal, a matchmaker and marriage counselor, a 24-hour hot line on all things Islamic.

Day after day, he must find ways to reconcile Muslim tradition with American life. Little in his rural Egyptian upbringing or years of Islamic scholarship prepared him for the challenge of leading a mosque in America.

The job has worn him down and opened his mind. It has landed him, exhausted, in the hospital and earned him a following far beyond Brooklyn.

"America transformed me from a person of rigidity to flexibility," said Mr. Shata, speaking through an Arabic translator. "I went from a country where a sheik would speak and the people listened to one where the sheik talks and the people talk back."

This is the story of Mr. Shata's journey west: the making of an American imam.

Over the last half-century, the Muslim population in the United States has risen significantly. Immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa have settled across the country, establishing mosques from Boston to Los Angeles, and turning Islam into one of the nation's fastest growing religions. By some estimates, as many as six million Muslims now live in America.

Leading this flock calls for improvisation. Imams must unify diverse congregations with often-clashing Islamic traditions. They must grapple with the threat of terrorism, answering to law enforcement agents without losing the trust of their fellow Muslims. Sometimes they must set aside conservative beliefs that prevail in the Middle East, the birthplace of Islam.

Islam is a legalistic faith: Muslims believe in a divine law that guides their daily lives, including what they should eat, drink and wear. In countries where the religion reigns, this is largely the accepted way.

But in the West, what Islamic law prohibits is everywhere. Alcohol fills chocolates. Women jog in sports bras. For many Muslims in America, life is a daily clash between Islamic mores and material temptation. At the center of this clash stands the imam.

In America, imams evoke a simplistic caricature — of robed, bearded clerics issuing fatwas in foreign lands. Hundreds of imams live in the United States, but their portrait remains flatly one-dimensional. Either they are symbols of diversity, breaking the Ramadan fast with smiling politicians, or zealots, hurrying into their storefront mosques.

Mr. Shata, 37, is neither a firebrand nor a ready advocate of progressive Islam. Some of his views would offend conservative Muslims; other beliefs would repel American liberals. He is in many ways a work in progress, mapping his own middle ground between two different worlds.

The imam's cramped, curtained office can hardly contain the dramas that unfold inside. Women cry. Husbands storm off. Friendships end. Every day brings soap opera plots and pitch.

A Moroccan woman falls to her knees near the imam's Hewlett-Packard printer. "Have mercy on me!" she wails to a friend who has accused her of theft. Another day, it is a man whose Lebanese wife has concealed their marriage and newborn son from her strict father. "I will tell him everything!" the husband screams.

Mr. Shata settles dowries, confronts wife abusers, brokers business deals and tries to arrange marriages. He approaches each problem with an almost scientific certainty that it can be solved. "I try to be more of a doctor than a judge," said Mr. Shata. "A judge sentences. A doctor tries to remedy."

Imams in the United States now serve an estimated 1,200 mosques. Some of their congregants have lived here for generations, assimilating socially and succeeding professionally. But others are recent immigrants, still struggling to find their place in America. Demographers expect their numbers to rise in the coming decades, possibly surpassing those of American Jews.

Like many of their faithful, most imams in the United States come from abroad. They are recruited primarily for their knowledge of the Koran and the language in which it was revealed, Arabic.

But few are prepared for the test that awaits. Like the parish priests who came generations before, imams are called on to lead a community on the margins of American civic life. They are conduits to and arbiters of an exhilarating, if sometimes hostile world, filled with promise and peril.

An Invitation to Islam

More than 5,000 miles lie between Brooklyn and Kafr al Battikh, Mr. Shata's birthplace in northeastern Egypt. Situated where the Nile Delta meets the Suez Canal, it was a village of dirt roads and watermelon vines when Mr. Shata was born in 1968.

Egypt was in the throes of change. The country had just suffered a staggering defeat in the Six Day War with Israel, and protests against the government followed. Hoping to counter growing radicalism, a new president, Anwar Sadat, allowed a long-repressed Islamic movement to flourish.

The son of a farmer and fertilizer salesman, Mr. Shata belonged to the lowest rung of Egypt's rural middle class. His house had no electricity. He did not see a television until he was 15.

Islam came to him softly, in the rhythms of his grandmother's voice. At bedtime, she would tell him the story of the Prophet Muhammad, the seventh-century founder of Islam. The boy heard much that was familiar. Like the prophet, he had lost his mother at a young age.

"She told me the same story maybe a thousand times," he said.

At the age of 5, he began memorizing the Koran. Like thousands of children in the Egyptian countryside, he attended a Sunni religious school subsidized by the government and connected to Al Azhar University, a bastion of Islamic scholarship.

Too poor to buy books, the young Mr. Shata hand-copied from hundreds at the town library. The bound volumes now line the shelves of his Bay Ridge apartment. When he graduated, he enrolled at Al Azhar and headed to Cairo by train. There, he sat on a bench for hours, marveling at the sights.

"I was like a lost child," he said. "Cars. We didn't have them. People of different colors. Foreigners. Women almost naked. It was like an imaginary world."

At 18, Mr. Shata thought of becoming a judge. But at his father's urging, he joined the college of imams, the Dawah.

The word means invitation. It refers to the duty of Muslims to invite, or call, others to the faith. Unlike Catholicism or Judaism, Islam has no ordained clergy. The Prophet Muhammad was the religion's first imam, or prayer leader, Islam's closest corollary to a rabbi or priest; schools like the Dawah are its version of a seminary or rabbinate.

After four years, Mr. Shata graduated with honors, seventh in a class of 3,400.

The next decade brought lessons in adaptation. In need of money, Mr. Shata took a job teaching sharia, or Islamic law, to children in Saudi Arabia, a country guided by Wahhabism, a puritan strain of Sunni Islam. He found his Saudi colleagues' interpretation of the Koran overly literal at times, and the treatment of women, who were not allowed to vote or drive, troubling.

Five years later, he returned to a different form of religious control in Egypt, where most imams are appointed by the government and monitored for signs of radicalism or political dissent.

"They are not allowed to deviate from the curriculum that the government sets for them," said Khaled Abou El Fadl, an Egyptian law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mr. Shata craved greater independence, and opened a furniture business. But he missed the life of dawah and eventually returned to it as the imam of his hometown mosque, which drew 4,000 worshipers on Fridays alone.

His duties were clear: He led the five daily prayers and delivered the khutba, or Friday sermon. His mosque, like most in Egypt, was financed and managed by the government. He spent his free time giving lectures, conducting marriage ceremonies and offering occasional religious guidance.

In 2000, Mr. Shata left to work as an imam in the gritty industrial city of Stuttgart, Germany. Europe brought a fresh new freedom. "I saw a wider world," he said. "Anyone with an opinion could express it."

Then came Sept. 11.

Soon after, Mr. Shata's mosque was defiled with graffiti and smeared with feces.

The next summer, Mr. Shata took a call from an imam in Brooklyn. The man, Mohamed Moussa, was leaving his mosque, exhausted by the troubles of his congregants following the terrorist attacks. The mosque was looking for a replacement, and Mr. Shata had come highly recommended by a professor at Al Azhar.

Most imams are recruited to American mosques on the recommendation of other imams or trusted scholars abroad, and are usually offered an annual contract. Some include health benefits and subsidized housing; others are painfully spare. The pay can range from $20,000 to $50,000.

Mr. Shata had heard stories of Muslim hardship in America. The salary at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge was less than what he was earning in Germany. But foremost on his mind were his wife and three small daughters, whom he had not seen in months. Germany had refused them entry.

He agreed to take the job if he could bring his family to America. In October 2002, the American Embassy in Cairo granted visas to the Shatas and they boarded a plane for New York.

A Mosque, a Magnet

A facade of plain white brick rises up from Fifth Avenue just south of 68th Street in Bay Ridge. Two sets of words, one in Arabic and another in English, announce the mosque's dual identity from a marquee above its gray metal doors.

To the mosque's base — Palestinian, Egyptian, Yemeni, Moroccan and Algerian immigrants — it is known as Masjid Moussab, named after one of the prophet's companions, Moussab Ibn Omair. To the mosque's English-speaking neighbors, descendants of the Italians, Irish and Norwegians who once filled the neighborhood, it is the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge.

Mosques across America are commonly named centers or societies, in part because they provide so many services. Some 140 mosques serve New York City, where an estimated 600,000 Muslims live, roughly 20 percent of them African-American, said Louis Abdellatif Cristillo, an anthropologist at Teachers College who has canvassed the city's mosques.

The Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, like other American mosques, is run by a board of directors, mostly Muslim professionals from the Palestinian territories. What began in 1984 as a small storefront on Bay Ridge Avenue, with no name and no imam, has grown into one of the city's vital Muslim centers, a magnet for new immigrants.

Its four floors pulse with life: a nursery school, an Islamic bookstore, Koran classes and daily lectures. Some 1,500 Muslims worship at the mosque on Fridays, often crouched in prayer on the sidewalk. Albanians, Pakistanis and others who speak little Arabic listen to live English translations of the sermons through headsets. It is these congregants' crumpled dollar bills, collected in a cardboard box, that enable the mosque to survive.

Among the city's imams, Bay Ridge is seen as a humbling challenge.

"It's the first station for immigrants," said Mr. Moussa, Mr. Shata's predecessor. "And immigrants have a lot of problems."

Skip 911. Call the Imam.

Mr. Shata landed at Kennedy International Airport wearing a crimson felt hat and a long gray jilbab that fell from his neck to his sandaled toes, the proud dress of an Al Azhar scholar. He spoke no English. But already, he carried some of the West inside. He could quote liberally from Voltaire, Shaw and Kant. For an Egyptian, he often jokes, he was inexplicably punctual.

The first thing Mr. Shata loved about America, like Germany, was the order.

"In Egypt, if a person passes through a red light, that means he's smart," he said. "In America, he's very disrespected."

Americans stood in line. They tended their yards. One could call the police and hear a rap at the door minutes later. That fact impressed not only Mr. Shata, but also the women of his new mosque.

They had gained a reputation for odd calls to 911. One woman called because a relative abroad had threatened to take her inheritance. "The officers left and didn't write anything," Mr. Shata said, howling with laughter. "There was nothing for them to write."

Another woman called, angry because her husband had agreed to let a daughter from a previous marriage spend the night.

To Mr. Shata, the calls made sense. The women's parents, uncles and brothers — figures of authority in family conflict — were overseas. Instead, they dialed 911, hoping for a local substitute. Soon they would learn to call the imam.

A bearish man with a soft, bearded face, Mr. Shata struck his congregants as an odd blend of things. He was erudite yet funny; authoritative at the mosque's wooden pulpit and boyishly charming between prayers.

Homemakers, doctors, cabdrivers and sheiks stopped by to assess the new imam. He regaled them with Dunkin' Donuts coffee, fetched by the Algerian keeper of the mosque, and then told long, poetic stories that left his visitors silent, their coffee cold.

"You just absorb every word he says," said Linda Sarsour, 25, a Muslim activist in Brooklyn.

The imam, too, was taking note. Things worked differently in America, where mosques were run as nonprofit organizations and congregants had a decidedly democratic air. Mr. Shata was shocked when a tone-deaf man insisted on giving the call to prayer. Such a man would be ridiculed in Egypt, where the callers, or muezzinin, have voices so beautiful they sometimes record top-selling CD's.

But in the land of equal opportunity, a man with a mediocre voice could claim discrimination. Mr. Shata relented. He shudders when the voice periodically sounds.

No sooner had Mr. Shata started his new job than all manner of problems arrived at his worn wooden desk: rebellious teenagers, marital strife, confessions of philandering, accusations of theft.

The imam responded creatively. Much of the drama involved hot dog vendors. There was the pair who shared a stand, but could not stand each other. They came to the imam, who helped them divide the business.

The most notorious hot dog seller stood accused of stealing thousands of dollars in donations he had raised for the children of his deceased best friend. But there was no proof. The donations had been in cash. The solution, the imam decided, was to have the man swear an oath on the Koran.

"Whoever lies while taking an oath on the Koran goes blind afterward," said Mr. Shata, stating a belief that has proved useful in cases of theft. A group of men lured the vendor to the mosque, where he confessed to stealing $11,400. His admission was recorded in a waraqa, or document, penned in Arabic and signed by four witnesses. He returned the money in full.

Dozens of waraqas sit in the locked bottom drawer of the imam's desk. In one, a Brooklyn man who burned his wife with an iron vows, in nervous Arabic scrawl, never to do it again. If he fails, he will owe her a $10,000 "disciplinary fine." The police had intervened before, but the woman felt that she needed the imam's help.

For hundreds of Muslims, the Bay Ridge mosque has become a courthouse more welcoming than the one downtown, a police precinct more effective than the brick station blocks away. Even the police have used the imam's influence to their advantage, warning disorderly teenagers that they will be taken to the mosque rather than the station.

"They say: 'No, not the imam! He'll tell my parents,' " said Russell Kain, a recently retired officer of the 68th Precinct.

Marriage, Mortgage, McDonald's

Soon after arriving in Brooklyn, Mr. Shata observed a subtle rift among the women of his mosque. Those who were new to America remained quietly grounded in the traditions of their homelands. But some who had assimilated began to question those strictures. Concepts like shame held less weight. Actions like divorce, abhorred by Mr. Shata, were surprisingly popular.

"The woman who comes from overseas, she's like someone who comes from darkness to a very well-lit place," he said.

In early July, an Egyptian karate teacher shuffled into Mr. Shata's office and sank into a donated couch. He smiled meekly and began to talk. His new wife showed him no affection. She complained about his salary and said he lacked ambition.

The imam urged him to be patient.

Two weeks later, in came the wife. She wanted a divorce.

"We don't understand each other," the woman said. She was 32 and had come from Alexandria, Egypt, to work as an Arabic teacher. She had met her husband through a friend in Bay Ridge. Her parents, still in Egypt, had approved cautiously from afar.

"I think you should be patient," said the imam.

"I cannot," she said firmly. "He loves me, but I have to love him, too."

Mr. Shata shifted uncomfortably in his chair. There was nothing he loathed more than granting a divorce.
"It's very hard for me to let him divorce you," he said. "How can I meet God on Judgment Day?"

"It's God's law also to have divorce," she shot back. The debate continued.

Finally, Mr. Shata asked for her parents' phone number in Egypt. Over the speakerphone, they anxiously urged the imam to relent. Their daughter was clearly miserable, and they were too far away to intervene.

With a sigh, Mr. Shata asked his executive secretary, Mohamed, to print a divorce certificate. In the rare instance when the imam agrees to issue one, it is after a couple has filed for divorce with the city.

"Since you're the one demanding divorce, you can never get back together with him," the imam warned. "Ever."

The woman smiled politely.

"What matters for us is the religion," she said later. "Our law is our religion."

The religion's fiqh, or jurisprudence, is built on 14 centuries of scholarship, but imams in Europe and America often find this body of law insufficient to address life in the West. The quandaries of America were foreign to Mr. Shata.

Pornography was rampant, prompting a question Mr. Shata had never heard in Egypt: Is oral sex lawful? Pork and alcohol are forbidden in Islam, raising questions about whether Muslims could sell beer or bacon. Tired of the menacing stares in the subway, women wanted to know if they could remove their headscarves.

Muslims were navigating their way through problems Mr. Shata had never fathomed.

For a while, the imam called his fellow sheiks in Egypt with requests for fatwas, or nonbinding legal rulings. But their views carried little relevance to life in America. Some issues, like oral sex, he dared not raise. Over time, he began to find his own answers and became, as he put it, flexible.

Is a Big Mac permissible? Yes, the imam says, but not a bacon cheeseburger.

It is a woman's right, Mr. Shata believes, to remove her hijab if she feels threatened. Muslims can take jobs serving alcohol and pork, he says, but only if other work cannot be found. Oral sex is acceptable, but only between married couples. Mortgages, he says, are necessary to move forward in America.

"Islam is supposed to make a person's life easier, not harder," Mr. Shata explained.

In some ways, the imam has resisted change. He has learned little English, and interviews with Mr. Shata over the course of six months required the use of a translator.

Some imams in the United States make a point of shaking hands with women, distancing themselves from the view that such contact is improper. Mr. Shata offers women only a nod.

Daily, he passes the cinema next to his mosque but has never seen a movie in a theater. He says music should be forbidden if it "encourages sexual desire." He won't convert a non-Muslim when it seems more a matter of convenience than true belief.

"Religion is not a piece of clothing that you change," he said after turning away an Ecuadorean immigrant who sought to convert for her Syrian husband. "I don't want someone coming to Islam tonight and leaving it in the morning."

Trust in God's Plan

Ten months after he came to America, Mr. Shata collapsed.

It was Friday. The mosque was full. Hundreds of men sat pressed together, their shirts damp with summer. Their wives and daughters huddled in the women's section, one floor below. Word of the imam's sermons had spread, drawing Muslims from Albany and Hartford.

"Praise be to Allah," began Mr. Shata, his voice slowly rising.

Minutes later, the imam recalled, the room began to spin. He fell to the carpet, lost consciousness and spent a week in the hospital, plagued by several symptoms. A social worker and a counselor who treated the imam both said he suffered from exhaustion. The counselor, Ali Gheith, called it "compassion fatigue," an ailment that commonly affects disaster-relief workers.

It was not just the long hours, the new culture and the ceaseless demands that weighed on the imam. Most troubling were the psychological woes of his congregants, which seemed endless.

Sept. 11 had wrought depression and anxiety among Muslims. But unlike many priests or rabbis, imams lacked pastoral training in mental health and knew little about the social services available.

At heart was another complicated truth: Imams often approach mental illness from a strictly Islamic perspective. Hardship is viewed as a test of faith, and the answer can be found in tawwakul, trusting in God's plan. The remedy typically suggested by imams is a spiritual one, sought through fasting, prayer and reflection.

Muslim immigrants also limit themselves to religious solutions because of the stigma surrounding mental illness, said Hamada Hamid, a resident psychiatrist at New York University who founded The Journal of Muslim Mental Health. "If somebody says, 'You need this medication,' someone may respond, 'I have tawwakul,' " he said.

Mr. Gheith, a Palestinian immigrant who works in disaster preparedness for the city's health department, began meeting with the imam regularly after his collapse. Mr. Shata needed to learn to disconnect from his congregants, Mr. Gheith said. It was a concept that confounded the imam.

"I did not permit these problems to enter my heart," said Mr. Shata, "nor can I permit them to leave."

The conversations eventually led to a citywide training program for imams, blending Islam with psychology. Mr. Shata learned to identify the symptoms of mental illness and began referring people to treatment.

His congregants often refuse help, blaming black magic or the evil eye for their problems. The evil eye is believed to be a curse driven by envy, confirmed in the bad things that happen to people.

One Palestinian couple in California insisted that their erratic 18-year-old son had the evil eye. He was brought to the imam's attention after winding up on the streets of New York, and eventually received a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Mr. Shata had less success with a man who worshiped at the mosque. He had become paranoid, certain his wife was cursing him with witchcraft. But he refused treatment, insisting divorce was the only cure.

Time and again, Mr. Shata's new country has called for creativity and patience, for a careful negotiation between tradition and modernity.

"Here you don't know what will solve a problem," he said. "It's about looking for a key."

March 5, 2006
An Imam in America
A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds
By ANDREA ELLIOTT
New York Times

To Lead the Faithful in a Faith Under Fire

2006-03-07T10:56:00.000-05:00

The F.B.I. agent and the imam sat across a long wooden table at a Brooklyn youth center last August.

Would the imam, the agent asked, report anyone who seemed prone to terrorism?

Sheik Reda Shata leaned back in his chair and studied the agent. Nearly a year had passed since the authorities had charged two young men, one of whom prayed at Mr. Shata's mosque, with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan.

The mosque had come under siege. Television news trucks circled the block. Threats were made. The imam's congregants became angry themselves after learning that a police informer had spent months in their midst.

At the meeting, the imam chose his words carefully. It is not only the F.B.I. that wants to stop terrorism, he answered; Muslims also care about keeping the country safe.

"I would turn him in to you," Mr. Shata finally said, pointing his finger at the agent, Mark J. Mershon, the top F.B.I. official in New York City. "But not because I am afraid of you."

The moment captured one of the enduring challenges for an imam in America: living at the center of a religion under watch.

Mr. Shata is under steady pressure to help the authorities. At the same time, he must keep the trust of his congregants, who feel unfairly singled out by law enforcement.

The balance is delicate. It requires a willingness to cooperate, but not to be trampled on; pride in one's fellow Muslims, yet recognition that threats may lurk among them.

"It's like walking a tightrope," said Mr. Shata, 37, speaking through an Arabic translator. "You have to give Muslims the feeling that the police are not monsters. And you have to give the police the feeling that Muslims are respectful and clean."

Months spent with Mr. Shata, both around the city and in his mosque, the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, revealed the vastly complex calling of imams in the United States.

In the Islamic world, imams are defined as prayer leaders. But here, they become community leaders, essential intermediaries between their immigrant flocks and a new, Western land. When Islamic traditions clash with American culture, it is imams who step forward with improvised answers. Outside the mosque, many assume the public roles of other clergy, becoming diplomats for their faith.

But in the years since Sept. 11, diplomacy has given way to defensiveness. For American imams, no subject is more charged than terrorism. While under scrutiny themselves, imams are often called upon to usher the authorities past the barriers of fear that surround their communities. Many are reluctant. They worry that their assistance will backfire in unwarranted investigations, or a loss of credibility at the pulpit.

At Mr. Shata's mosque, people can recite a list of dubious cases as easily as popular verses of the Koran: The three Moroccan men in Detroit who were falsely accused of operating a terrorist sleeper cell; the Muslim lawyer Brandon Mayfield, who was mistakenly linked to bombings in Madrid; the two teenage girls from New York City who were held for weeks but never charged after the F.B.I. identified them as potential suicide bombers.

At the same time, imams must contend with their own mixed reputation, which is marked by a few high-profile cases, like that of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up New York landmarks.

Imams like Mr. Shata — men who embrace American freedom and condemn the radicals they feel have tainted their faith — rarely make the news.

The authorities are well acquainted with Mr. Shata, and speak highly of him. The officers of Mr. Shata's local police precinct often turn to him for help when Muslims in Bay Ridge refuse to be questioned. The senior F.B.I. counterterrorism official in New York, Charles E. Frahm, described his interaction with Mr. Shata as "very positive."

Mr. Frahm was in the room last August when Mr. Mershon challenged the imam. Mr. Shata and other Muslim leaders had agreed to meet the agents at the Muslim Youth Center in Bensonhurst in an effort to improve relations between the two camps.

"I have been impressed with his desire, as he's expressed it to me, to do good and do right," Mr. Frahm said.
Yet for Mr. Shata, cooperation brings conflicting emotions. He can charm a class of rookies at the 68th Precinct in Brooklyn, turning a perfunctory cultural sensitivity seminar into a comedy hour. But he is quietly outraged that an unmarked car shadows a respected Palestinian board member of his mosque.

The imam is saddened to see so many Muslims leave America, pushed out by new immigration policies, intimidation or despair. He also fears for those who have remained: for the teenage boy in his mosque who is suddenly praying at dawn, having drifted from a high school that left him alienated.

Still, Mr. Shata said, the anger and fear, no matter how deeply felt, are tempered by something greater: the devastating impact of Sept. 11 on non-Muslim Americans.

"It will take them a while to come to terms with us," he said.

A Necessary Dialogue

The competing demands on Mr. Shata became plain when he arrived in Bay Ridge about a year after Sept. 11.
Crisis gripped the city's Muslim neighborhoods. Law enforcement agents searched businesses and homes, and held hundreds of men for questioning. Women were harassed in the subway. Elementary schools lost Muslim children as their families packed up and left.

Mr. Shata's predecessor, Mohamed Moussa, was drained. "I needed a change or I would destroy myself," said Mr. Moussa, who now works as one of three imams at a well-funded mosque in Union City, N.J.

Like many mosques in struggling immigrant neighborhoods, the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge had little choice but to search abroad for a replacement. America produces few imams with the qualities sought by foreign-born Muslims: fluency in Arabic, and a superior command of the Koran and the laws that codify Islamic life.

Mr. Shata was an enticing candidate. Like Mr. Moussa, he had trained at Al Azhar University in Cairo, a citadel of Islamic scholarship. Through an Azhar professor, Mr. Moussa found Mr. Shata in Germany, where he had been working as an imam.

The men who sit on the mosque's board were pleased to find charisma in their new imam. The white brick mosque on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge survives largely on the donations of its congregants. Only a riveting speaker can draw them.

But soon after Mr. Shata arrived, he became aware of another, less visible audience. In mosques around the city, informers were hidden among the praying masses, listening for what officials call "double talk" — one voice of extremism inside the mosque, and another of tolerance outside.

The attention did not worry Mr. Shata, he said, because he had nothing to hide. "My page is clean," he said.
But when the authorities came seeking his help, he faced a choice. He could welcome them and improve the mosque's public standing, or he could rebuff their inquiries at the risk of seeming obstructionist.

"There's a wall of silence around these mosques," said Representative Peter T. King, a Long Island Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "It's not necessarily the imam himself who is actively engaged, but he looks the other way or allows activities in his mosque that could be dangerous."

Mr. Shata viewed cooperation as his Islamic duty. "Whoever is afraid of dialogue is hiding something," he said.

Mosque Under a Microscope

The greatest test of Mr. Shata's relationship with the authorities came with the arrest of a young Muslim congregant who was accused of plotting terrorism.

Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, was a chatty Pakistani immigrant who worked in the Islamic bookstore next to the mosque. On the job, he was sometimes seen talking to James Elshafay, 21, a soft-spoken Muslim American from Staten Island. In August 2004, both were charged in Brooklyn federal court with conspiring to blow up the 34th Street subway station at Herald Square.

The men had been videotaped discussing the plot and scouting the subway station with a paid police informer who told them he belonged to an Islamic "brotherhood."

In the days after the arrests, reporters swarmed into Bay Ridge. Anonymous threats were called in to the bookstore, Islamic Books & Tapes. One letter to the store read, "You're all dead meat."

The imam and others at the mosque soon realized they knew the informer: a gray-haired Egyptian who called himself Osama Daoudi and said he lived in Staten Island.

"He used to say, 'My name is Osama, like Osama bin Laden,' " Mr. Shata recalled.

Mr. Daoudi had surfaced at the mosque a year earlier, said Mr. Shata. He tried to interest the imam in a real estate deal, proposing that Mr. Shata use his influence over Muslims to collect money owed to Mr. Daoudi in exchange for a secret cash commission, Mr. Shata recalled.

The imam wanted nothing to do with the scheme, he said, and kept his distance. He found Mr. Daoudi off-putting. He claimed to be the son of a famous Egyptian sheik and was known at the mosque for weeping when he prayed. But he also smoked.

"Piety in Islam forbids smoking," Mr. Shata observed.

Most striking was the anti-American sentiment that Mr. Daoudi espoused, Mr. Shata said. During visits with the imam, Mr. Daoudi complained that Americans might fear him because he had a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering. He also said that the F.B.I. wanted to search his home, the imam recalled.

"I told him, 'As long as you do nothing wrong, open your house and your heart to people,' " said Mr. Shata.

The imam said he believed that after Mr. Daoudi found him uninterested, he turned his focus to Mr. Siraj and Mr. Elshafay.

Starting in September 2003, the informer spent months drawing Mr. Siraj into the plot, teaching him about violent jihad, said Mr. Siraj's lawyer, Martin R. Stolar.

The authorities would say little about the case, which is set for trial next month. Efforts to locate Mr. Daoudi, whose name was provided by Mr. Stolar, were unsuccessful.

The Police Department's chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, dismissed Mr. Stolar's claim that the police had manufactured the plot. "We didn't propose that," he said. "We took action to stop it and there's a big difference."

Mr. Siraj had an "interest in violence" that was known to the authorities prior to an informer's involvement, Mr. Browne added.

For the imam, the informer's supposed maneuvering was not surprising. Mr. Shata shares a view common among Muslims in Bay Ridge that confidential informers are untrustworthy because some have criminal records or work for pay.

This perception irks Mr. Frahm, the F.B.I. official. Informers' reports are closely vetted, he said, and their motives are irrelevant if they provide correct information.

Mr. Frahm devotes much time to building trust among Muslim leaders. But he also warns them not to turn a blind eye to questionable activity. "You can't play part-time American," he said.

'From the Stones of Insults'

Anger at the authorities came easily at the mosque. But a quiet, if disturbing, question soon followed: Entrapped or not, what had caused these young men to entertain thoughts of terrorism?

The imam looks for answers on the crowded sidewalk outside the mosque.

The worn cement slabs along Fifth Avenue have long been divided into two social camps. After the Friday prayer, the section in front of the mosque fills with the neighborhood's Arab pioneers, gray-haired and balding Palestinians and Egyptians.

Several feet south, under the marquee of a movie theater, the neighborhood's Arab teenagers gather. Before Sept. 11, the groups rarely mingled. But in the years since, many of the younger set have returned to their faith.

The imam now rises to deliver his Friday khutba, or sermon, before rows of young men, some in low-hanging jeans and baseball caps turned backward. Many have come to learn more about their religion so they can defend it at work or at school. Others no longer feel at home elsewhere. They have been passed over for jobs, or stopped and questioned by the authorities too many times.

It is these men, and their sense of alienation, that most worry Mr. Shata. The mosque is not their only refuge. A new crop of sheesha cafes opened along the avenue after Sept. 11, filling with male chatter and the sweet smoke of water pipes.

"I once read a Spanish proverb," Mr. Shata said one evening. "The wall of hatred was asked, 'How were you built?' And the reply was, 'From the stones of insults.' "

Over the last three decades, the European immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge has given way to Gazan barbers, halal butchers and Egyptian jewelers. But the newest settlers have not always been welcome.

"It became, 'This ain't Bay Ridge anymore, it's Beirut,' " said Russell Kain, a retired community affairs officer from the 68th Precinct.

America has brought the imam his own share of taunts. A woman on a plane once asked him if he was Muslim and then demanded to change seats. Mr. Shata grew up wearing the long robes of his Egyptian homeland. He now travels in a suit.

But in Bay Ridge, he fights alienation with an open heart. He is increasingly a blend of East and West, proudly walking to the mosque in a robe and sandals, while warding off the cold with a wool Yankees hat. "I feel like I'm living in my country," he said.

It is a message he repeats everywhere he goes, one he says is the antidote to hatred. He meets with Muslim youth groups at mosques around the city, telling them not to wait for an invitation to embrace America. Even if Muslims feel singled out, Mr. Shata often says, America is still the freest country in the world.

The imam plans to stay for "as long as God wills it," he said. He got his green card in November.

Mr. Shata knows most of his congregants by face, and the 400 who pray daily by name. If he sees a young person taken by sudden devotion, his impulse is to probe. Is the person driven by faith or isolation? He can't always be sure.

The imam's concerns are shared by the F.B.I. Several officials said the bureau had recently focused its surveillance on the city's Muslim youth after learning that the London bombings last July were mostly carried out by South Asians raised in Britain. Mr. Shata and the authorities agree that young Muslims are most captive to the messages of militant sheiks.

"Islam is a religion based on intellect," he tells his young listeners. "Islam says to you: 'Think. Don't close your eyes and just follow your emotions. Don't follow the sheik. Perhaps you have a better mind than his.' "

"If you do wrong," he says, "you do wrong to the whole Islamic world."

One Imam, Many Audiences

One evening in July, Mr. Shata sat in the neat, air-conditioned living room of a brick row house in Queens. An Egyptian family had invited him over to bless their newest member, a 5-week-old girl.

The infant, swathed in soft pink cotton, slept in a car seat on the floor as her mother and grandmother offered tea and pastries. On a wide-screen television, Al Jazeera flashed news that two Algerian diplomats had been killed in Iraq.

Mr. Shata was bothered by the killers' description of the victims as "infidels." The world, he said, needed to agree on a definition of terrorism. "What I may see as terrorism, you may not see that way," he said.

Few subjects pose a more complicated test of loyalties for Mr. Shata than the struggle between Arabs and Israelis. Many Palestinians attend his mosque. When he discusses the conflict, one gets the sense that he is, again, speaking to several audiences.

Like Arabs around the world, Mr. Shata disagrees profoundly with the United States' steadfast support of Israel, and views the militant group Hamas as a powerful symbol of resistance.

When Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, was killed by Israelis in March 2004, Mr. Shata told hundreds who gathered at a memorial service in Brooklyn that the "lion of Palestine has been martyred."

Mr. Shata is also acutely aware that the United States classifies Hamas as a terrorist group. In the same speech, he condemned all violence. "We don't hate Jews," he recalled saying. "To kill one man is to kill all mankind."

Yet in another sermon, the imam exalted a young Palestinian mother, Reem Al-Reyashi, who blew herself up in 2004 at a crossing point between Gaza and Israel, killing four Israelis. Mr. Shata described the woman as a martyr.

When asked about the speech, Mr. Shata seemed unusually conflicted. He has forged friendships with rabbis in New York — something he never imagined in Egypt. Engaging in a discussion about the Arab-Israeli struggle would invite controversy, he said, both within his mosque and outside it. "I worry this will cause trouble with my Jewish brothers," he said. He rarely broaches the topic in sermons and addressed it only reluctantly in interviews.

"I do not accept suicide operations that target civilians at any time or place," Mr. Shata said. But striking Israeli soldiers "as a means of defense" was justifiable.

The Israelis, he said, have "killed Palestinian women, destroyed their homes, taken their land and materials and made them into refugees," while Palestinians lack the military means to fight back. Islamic law forbids suicide, he said, but the Koran says Muslims can defend themselves if attacked. Ms. Al-Reyashi killed two soldiers, a border police officer and a security guard, though Palestinian and Israeli civilians were hurt.

Mr. Shata acknowledged that his opinion, while common among Arabs, is strongly opposed not only by many non-Muslims, but even by some of his congregants. "Some Muslims, if they hear this, would make me out to be a nonbeliever because they see that all these suicide operations are a must," he said. "And there are other Muslims who feel that all of these operations are forbidden.

"My nature is always to be in the middle," he said. "It's always the person in the middle who ends up being the enemy of the right and the left. I don't want to open up two fronts against me."

Mr. Shata is forceful in his condemnation of terrorism in the West, a message he feels is rarely heard. After the suicide bombings in London last year, he and other Muslims called a news conference in Brooklyn to denounce the violence. Nobody came.

In his sermons, Mr. Shata repeatedly makes the point that terrorism violates the tenets of Islam. "I feel that I breathe underwater, or that I cry in a desert," he said recently. "That nobody responds."

It was part of Mr. Shata's annual Sept. 11 speech, a tradition he began in 2003. Recordings of the sermon, titled "What Muslims Want From America," sold out at the mosque overnight.

The three Sept. 11 speeches echo the imam's journey in America. His first speech was conciliatory in tone; a treatise on the peaceful nature of Islam. In 2004, he urged Muslims to respect the law, and trust that America is not "the enemy." Last September, his message hardened.

"We want the U.S. to be just in dealing with our issues," Mr. Shata declared. A man "should not feel that he is under surveillance for every word he says, every move he makes and every piece of paper he signs."

Muslims feel isolated, yet crave acceptance, he said, likening them to their ancestors 14 centuries ago, who sought refuge from the king of Abyssinia.

"O king, we have come to thy country having chosen thee above all others," he said, reciting the words of the group's leader, Jafar Ibn Abi Talib.

"It is our hope, o king, that here, with thee, we shall not suffer wrong."

March 6, 2006
An Imam in America
To Lead the Faithful in a Faith Under Fire
By ANDREA ELLIOTT
New York Times

Tending to Muslim Hearts and Islam's Future

2006-03-07T08:41:00.000-05:00

The young Egyptian professional could pass for any New York bachelor.

Dressed in a crisp polo shirt and swathed in cologne, he races his Nissan Maxima through the rain-slicked streets of Manhattan, late for a date with a tall brunette. At red lights, he fusses with his hair.

What sets the bachelor apart from other young men on the make is the chaperon sitting next to him — a tall, bearded man in a white robe and stiff embroidered hat.

"I pray that Allah will bring this couple together," the man, Sheik Reda Shata, says, clutching his seat belt and urging the bachelor to slow down.

Christian singles have coffee hour. Young Jews have JDate. But many Muslims believe that it is forbidden for an unmarried man and woman to meet in private. In predominantly Muslim countries, the job of making introductions and even arranging marriages typically falls to a vast network of family and friends.

In Brooklyn, there is Mr. Shata.

Week after week, Muslims embark on dates with him in tow. Mr. Shata, the imam of a Bay Ridge mosque, juggles some 550 "marriage candidates," from a gold-toothed electrician to a professor at Columbia University. The meetings often unfold on the green velour couch of his office, or over a meal at his favorite Yemeni restaurant on Atlantic Avenue.

The bookish Egyptian came to America in 2002 to lead prayers, not to dabble in matchmaking. He was far more conversant in Islamic jurisprudence than in matters of the heart. But American imams must wear many hats, none of which come tailor-made.

Whether issuing American-inspired fatwas or counseling the homesick, fielding questions from the F.B.I. or mediating neighborhood spats, Mr. Shata walks an endless labyrinth of problems.

If anything seems conquerable, it is the solitude of Muslim singles. Nothing brings the imam more joy than guiding them to marriage. It is his way of fashioning a future for his faith. It is his most heartfelt effort — by turns graceful and comedic, vexing and hopeful — to make Islam work in America.

Word of the imam's talents has traveled far, eliciting lonely calls from Muslims in Chicago and Los Angeles, or from meddlesome parents in Cairo and Damascus.

From an estimated 250 chaperoned dates, Mr. Shata has produced 10 marriages.

"The prophet said whoever brings a man and woman together, it is as if he has worshiped for an entire year," said Mr. Shata, 37, speaking through an Arabic translator.

The task is not easy. In a country of plentiful options, Muslim immigrants can become picky, even rude, the imam complains.

During one date, a woman studied the red-circled eyes of a prospective husband and asked, "Have you brought me an alcoholic?"

On another occasion, an Egyptian man stared at the flat chest of a pleasant young Moroccan woman and announced, "She looks like a log!" the imam recalled.

"This would never happen in Egypt," said Mr. Shata, turning red at the memory. "Never, never. If I knew this boy had no manners I never would have let him into my office."

The Imam's Little Black Book

The concept of proper courtship in Islam, like much about the faith, is open to interpretation.

Islamic law specifies that a man and woman who are unmarried may not be alone in closed quarters. Some Muslims reject any mingling before marriage. Others freely date. Many fall somewhere in between, meeting in groups, getting engaged and spending time alone before the wedding, while their parents look the other way.

For one Syrian in New York, a date at Starbucks is acceptable if it begins and ends on the premises: The public is his chaperon.

Mr. Shata is a traditionalist. There were few strangers in his rural town of birth, Kafr al Battikh, in northeastern Egypt. Men and women often agreed to marry the day they met, and a few made the deal sight unseen. It was rare to meet anyone from a distant province, let alone another country.

New York is not only the capital of the world, imams often joke, but also the crossroads of Islam, a human sampling more diverse than anywhere save Mecca during the annual pilgrimage known as the Hajj. Beyond the city's five boroughs, Muslim immigrants have formed Islamic hubs in California, Illinois, Michigan and Texas.

At the center of these hubs stands a familiar sight in a foreign land, the mosque. What was a place of worship in Pakistan or Algeria becomes, in Houston or Detroit, a social haven. But inside, the sexes remain largely apart.

A growing number of Muslim Web sites advertise marriage candidates, and housewives often double as matchmakers. One mosque in Princeton, N.J., plays host to a closely supervised version of speed dating. And so many singles worship at the Islamic Society of Boston that a committee was formed to match them up.

Fearing a potential surplus of single Muslim women, one Brooklyn imam reportedly urged his wealthier male congregants during a Ramadan sermon last year to take two wives. When a woman complained about the sermon to Mr. Shata, he laughed.

"You know that preacher who said Hugo Chávez should be shot?" he asked. "We have our idiots, too."

More than a matchmaker, Mr. Shata sees himself as a surrogate elder to young Muslims, many of whom live far from their parents. In America, only an imam is thought to have the connections, wisdom and respect to step into the role.

Mr. Shata began the service three months after arriving in Brooklyn in 2002, recruited to lead the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a mosque on Fifth Avenue.

Dates chaperoned by Mr. Shata — or "meetings between candidates," as the imam prefers to call them — often take place in his distinctly unromantic office, amid rows of Islamic texts. As a couple get acquainted, the imam sits quietly at his desk, writing a sermon or surfing the Arabic Web sites of CNN and the BBC.

If there is an awkward silence, the imam perks up and asks a question ("So tell me, Ilham, how many siblings do you have?") and the conversation is moving again.

Candidates are vetted carefully, and those without personal references need not apply. But instinct is Mr. Shata's best guide. He refused to help a Saudi from California because the man would consider only a teenage wife. Others have shown an all-too-keen interest in a green card.

Those who pass initial inspection are listed in the imam's version of a little black book — their names, phone numbers, specifications and desires. Some prefer "silky hair," others "a virgin." Nearly all candidates, men and women alike, want a mate with devotion to Islam, decent looks and legal immigration status.

Scanning the book, the imam makes his pitch with the precision of a car salesman.

"There is a girl, an American convert, Dominican, looks a little Egyptian. Skin-wise, not white, not dark. Wheat-colored. She's 19, studies accounting," Mr. Shata told a 24-year-old Palestinian man one afternoon.

"This is my only choice?" replied the man, Yamal Othman, who lives in Queens.

Such questions annoy Mr. Shata. An imam, he says, should be trusted to select the best candidate. Often, though, his recommendations are met with skepticism.

"It's harder than choosing a diamond," said Mr. Shata.

Sometimes, on the imam's three-legged dates, no one seems more excited than Mr. Shata himself. He makes hurried, hearty introductions and then steps back to watch, as if mixing chemicals in a lab experiment. Love is rarely ignited, but the imam remains awed by its promise.

Mr. Shata discovered love 15 years ago, when he walked into the living room of the most stately house in Kafr al Battikh.

The imam was tall, 22, a rising star at the local mosque. For months, Omyma Elshabrawy knew only his voice. She would listen to his thunderous sermons from the women's section, out of view. Then, one evening, he appeared at her home, presented as a prospective groom to her father, a distinguished reciter of the Koran.
The young woman, then 20, walked toward Mr. Shata carrying a tray of lemonade.

"She entered my heart," said the imam.

After serving the drinks, she disappeared. Right then, Mr. Shata asked her father for her hand in marriage. The older man paused. His daughter was the town beauty, an English student with marriage offers from doctors. The imam was penniless.

But before Mr. Elshabrawy could respond, a sugary voice interrupted. "I accept," his daughter said from behind a door.

"I loved him from the moment I saw him," Ms. Elshabrawy said.

They now have four children.

The family posed last year for a Sears-style portrait, taken by a woman in Bay Ridge who photographs Muslim families in her basement. A blue sky and white picket fence adorn the background. The imam sits at center, with the baby, Mohammed, in his lap, his three daughters smiling, his wife wrapped in a lime-green hijab.

Mr. Shata carries the picture in the breast pocket of his robe. It is as close as most people get to his family. At the mosque, they are a mystery. His wife has been there twice.

Their years in America have come with great hardship, a subject the imam rarely discusses. The trouble is the illness of his 7-year-old daughter, Rawda, who is severely epileptic. She has dozens of seizures every day and rarely leaves home. No combination of medicine seems to help.

"Rawda is the wound in my heart," the imam said.

Mr. Shata offers long, stubborn theories about the value of marriage, but to observe him at home is to understand the commitment he seeks to foster in other Muslims.

The family lives in a spare, dimly lighted apartment two blocks from the mosque. Headscarves are piled over Pokémon cards. The gold-painted words "Allah is Great" are framed over a threadbare couch. In the next room, an "I {sheart} New York" bumper sticker is slapped on the wall.

Mr. Shata spends long hours away from his family, lecturing at mosques, settling disputes, whispering the call to prayer in the ears of newborn babies. On his walk home at night, he shops for groceries, never forgetting the Honey Nut Cheerios, a favorite American discovery of his children.

When he walks in the door, his face softens. Loud kisses are planted on tender cheeks. Mohammed squeals, the girls smile, sweet laughter echoes.

But then there is Rawda.

"My beautiful girl," the imam says softly one evening, holding his limp daughter in his lap after a seizure has passed. He places one pill in Rawda's mouth, then another. She looks at him weakly.

"There we go," he whispers. "Inshallah."

Her lids close with sleep. He lays her in bed and shuts off the light.

Hardship, the imam believes — like marriage, like life — is a test from God.

Foreign and Familiar

It is proof of the imam's uncommon popularity among women that he is trusted with roughly 300 female marriage candidates.

The mosque on Fifth Avenue is a decidedly male place. Men occupy every position on the board of directors. They crowd the sidewalk after prayer. Only they may enter the mosque's central room of worship. Only men, they often point out, are required to attend the Friday prayer.

One floor below is the cramped room where the women worship. On Fridays, they sit pressed together, their headscarves itching with heat. They must watch their imam on a closed-circuit television that no one seems to have adjusted in years.

But they listen devotedly. Teenage girls often roll their eyes at foreign imams, who seem to them like extraterrestrials. Their immigrant mothers often find these clerics too strict, an uncomfortable reminder of their conservative homelands.

Mr. Shata is both foreign and familiar. He presides over a patriarchal world, sometimes upholding it, and other times challenging it. In one sermon, he said that a man was in charge of his home and had the right to "choose his wife's friends."

Another day, to the consternation of his male congregants, he invited a female Arab social worker to lecture on domestic violence. The women were allowed to sit next to the men in the main section of the mosque.

The imam frowns at career women who remain single in their 30's, but boasts of their accomplishments to interest marriage candidates. He employs his own brand of feminism, vetting marriage contracts closely to ensure brides receive a fair dowry and fighting for them when they don't.

Far more than is customary, he spends hours listening to women: to their worries and confessions, their intimate secrets and frank questions about everything from menstruation to infidelity. They line up outside his office and call his home at all hours, often referring to him as "my brother" or "father." He can summon the details of their lives with the same encyclopedic discipline he once used to memorize the Koran.

"Are you separated yet?" Mr. Shata asked a woman he encountered at Lutheran Medical Center one day last July. She nodded. "May God make it easier for you," he said.

A Chaperoned Date

By most standards, the Egyptian bachelor was a catch. He had broad shoulders and a playful smile. He was witty. He earned a comfortable salary as an engineer, and came from what he called "a good family."

But the imam saw him differently, as a young man in danger of losing his faith. The right match might save him.

The bachelor, who is 33, came to Brooklyn from Alexandria, Egypt, six years earlier. He craved a better salary, and freedom from controlling parents. He asked that his name not be printed for fear of causing embarrassment to his family.

America was not like Egypt, where his family's connections could secure a good job. In Brooklyn, he found work as a busboy. He traded the plush comfort of his parents' home for an apartment crowded with other Egyptian immigrants. His nights were lonely. Temptation was abundant.

Women covered far less of their bodies. Bare limbs, it seemed, were everywhere. In Islam, men are instructed to lower their gaze to avoid falling into sin.

"In the summertime, it's a disaster for us," said the bachelor. "Especially a guy like me, who's looking all the time."

Curiosity lured him into bars, clubs and the occasional one-night stand.

But with freedom came guilt, he said. After drifting from his faith, he visited Mr. Shata's mosque during Ramadan in 2004.

The imam struck him as oddly disarming. He made jokes, and explained Islam in simple, passionate paragraphs. The bachelor soon began praying daily, attending weekly lectures and reading the Koran. By then, he had his own apartment and a consulting job.

Now he wanted a Muslim wife.

If the bachelor had been in Egypt, his parents would offer a stream of marriage candidates. The distance had not stopped them entirely. His mother sent him a video of his brother's wedding, directing him to footage of a female guest. He was unimpressed.

"I'm a handsome guy," he explained one evening as he sped toward Manhattan. It was his second date with Mr. Shata in attendance. "I have a standard in beauty."

From the passenger seat, the imam flipped open the glove compartment to find an assortment of pricey colognes. He inspected a bottle of Gio and, with a nod from the bachelor, spritzed it over his robe.

The imam and the bachelor were at odds over the material world, but on one thing they agreed: it is a Muslim duty to smell good. The religion's founder, the Prophet Muhammad, was said to wear musk.

The car slowed before a brick high-rise on Second Avenue. Soon the pair rode up in the elevator. The bachelor took a breath and rang the doorbell. An older woman answered. Behind her stood a slender, fetching woman with a shy smile.

The young woman, Engy Abdelkader, had been presented to the imam by another matchmaker. A woman of striking beauty and poise, Ms. Abdelkader is less timid than she first seems. She works as an immigration and human rights lawyer, and speaks in forceful, eloquent bursts. She is proud of her faith, and lectures publicly on Islam and civil liberties.

She was not always so outspoken. The daughter of Egyptian immigrants, Ms. Abdelkader, 30, was raised in suburban Howell, N.J., where she longed to fit in. Though she grew up praying, in high school she chose not to wear a hijab, the head scarf donned by Muslim girls when they reach puberty.

But Sept. 11 awakened her, Ms. Abdelkader said. For her and other Muslims, the terrorist attacks prompted a return to the faith, driven by what she said was a need to reclaim Islam from terrorists and a vilifying media. Headscarves became a statement, equal parts political and religious.

"There's nothing oppressive about it," said Ms. Abdelkader. "As a Muslim woman I am asking people to pay attention to the content of my character rather than my physical appearance."

The pair sat on a couch, awkwardly sipping tea. They began by talking, in English, about their professions. The bachelor was put off by the fact that Ms. Abdelkader had a law degree, yet earned a modest salary.

"Why go to law school and not make money?" he asked later.

Ms. Abdelkader's mother and a female friend who lived in the apartment sat listening nearby until the imam mercifully distracted them. The first hint of trouble came soon after.

It was his dream, the engineer told Ms. Abdelkader, to buy a half-million-dollar house. But he was uncertain that the mortgage he would need is lawful in Islam.

Ms. Abdelkader straightened her back and replied, "I would rather have eternal bliss in the hereafter than live in a house or apartment with a mortgage."

An argument ensued. Voices rose. Ms. Abdelkader's mother took her daughter's side. The friend wavered. The bachelor held his ground. The imam tried to mediate.

Indeed, he was puzzled. Here was a woman who had grown up amid tended lawns and new cars, yet she rejected materialism. And here was a man raised by Muslim hands, yet he was rebelliously moderate.

After the date, the bachelor told the imam, "I want a woman, not a sheik."

Months later, he married another immigrant; she was not especially devoted to Islam but she made him laugh, he said. They met through friends in New York.

Ms. Abdelkader remains single. The imam still believes she was the perfect match.

That evening, the imam stood on the sidewalk outside. Rain fell in stinging drops.

"I never wanted to be a sheik," he said. "I used to think that a religious person is very extreme and never smiles. And I love to smile. I love to laugh. I used to think that religious people were isolated and I love to be among people."

The rain soaked the imam's robe and began to pool in his sandals. A moment later, he ducked inside the building.

"The surprise for me was that the qualities I thought would not make a good sheik — simplicity and humor and being close to people — those are the most important qualities. People love those who smile and laugh. They need someone who lives among them and knows their pain."

"I know them," said Mr. Shata. "Like a brother."

March 7, 2006
An Imam in America
Tending to Muslim Hearts and Islam's Future
By ANDREA ELLIOTT
New York Times

Clash of Freedoms

2006-02-08T17:25:00.000-05:00

The usually mundane atmosphere of Queen Street, indifferent to political realities was interrupted by loud piercing chants: " What do we want? Respect for our religion”. “What do we want? respect for our prophet” Bellowing out of the chests of hundreds of people marching, amidst cries of indignation. The same cries of indignation that took the form of a global wave of fury crushing an array of countries with a ferociousness that surprised many. Even myself. Marching alongside fellow Muslims, I was reminded- despite our differences, if there is one thing Muslims will unite on, it would be an assault on Islam, especially on our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

New Zealand Muslims joined the global uproar in response to the Dominion Post, and Christchurch’s The Press’ decision to publish depictions of the prophet (insult one) in several stereotypical depictions (insult two) that were clearly pejorative to the belief of 1.2 billion people.

The first publishing in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten occurred months ago. Initially the paper refused to apologize and helped exacerbate the issue, which eventuated in the current ugly manifestation that we have come to see it as: A Huntington clash of civilizations and their differing values- or at least that is how it is desperately being presented as. Even though the paper has now apologized to Danish Muslims, the tidal wave of anger has taken on a life of its own. The issue is no longer about the Danish paper, though I’d like to know why they had recently refused to depict a derogatory image of Jesus because of the offence it may have caused, but not applied that to the case of Muslims.

The Prophet, according to Islamic belief, is not supposed to be depicted to prevent idolatry, a form of aniconism applied in this case to depicting prophets. However, that wasn’t the sole reason for the offence. It was the satirical nature of the drawings disrespectfully showing the prophet as a suicide bomber, collaborating with terrorists by welcoming them into heaven, and other equally as offensive guises that caused the actual offence. The justification? Impressive galumphing rhetoric in an effort to preserve free speech. Yes, one must preserve free speech by depicting badly drawn pointless cartoons. What an achievement.

The images made no constructive points, and the humiliating images indicated the only point was to knowingly humiliate, to slander and to offend. It was a cheap and unintelligent trick to draw attention. The Danish paper insisted an attempt to engage in cross-cultural dialogue. The best to do this was clearly to unnecessarily belittle the other side in the most offensive manner. Possible. God forbid trying another more respectable tactic that might actually encourage discussion. When in fact, the aim was to encourage an uproar, what, with all the current racial tension present in Europe, why the hell not? They knew their aim, and they knew the outcome. The west habitually constructs its narrative in a self-congratulatory tone, with the ideal frame, and even if it means distorting the reality around them. Freedom of speech had nothing to do with the cartoon depiction though; it was an insensitive act and appealed to the already charged political atmosphere, embedded in racial typifications of Muslims and terrorism. You know the world has gone mad, when the NZ Herald of all papers surprisingly got it right, and did not publish the cartoons because they had realized it was nothing more than pointless slander.

Freedom of the press has been thrown around in this debate, and feverishly used as a justification by the defendants, but does it mean we can use it abusively to hurt people? Is it honestly a noble act to stand by a principle that would allow such insensitivity to occur? Of course not, because in this case the principle sacred to the west has been exploited. Surely we should stand up to sensitivity to all religions, cultures and peoples. It is the ultimate way to progress as a cohesive society. All these images do is testify to the Islamophobia and prejudice that have gripped the world in an atmosphere of ignorance and hysteria- fuelled by an ambiguous war on terrorism. To disseminate propaganda images like these, and they’ll eventually be adopted as the truth. People are receptive to the media conditioning their minds after all.

It is arrogant and ignorant to assume the west’s censorship standards and values are universal, and that it justifies their liberty to defame and slander holy and sacred icons. The fact that the world should tolerate this under the simplistic notion of freedom of speech is to remind us of the orientalist view of Muslims as a mass: The same speaking, talking, walking and acting person who is multiplied by a few billion- undeserving of individuality and humanity. It is easier for them to understand something monolithic through such a narrow view after all. Ignoring the fact that Islam is the fastest growing religion today, and in 20 years one third of the world’s population will be Muslim. This reality should be indicative of the need to learn more about the religion, to perhaps understand the belief and its people so major offences like the present one will not occur again, and if it does, others would understand the offence.

A blatant offence like the caricatures of the prophet contribute to the growing isolation and alienation of Muslims from the rest of their citizens and violates human rights laws that specify the freedom to express your religion without humiliation and defamation. The very humiliating depictions of the prophet were an attack on the foundations of morals that he symbolizes. The prophet- depicted as a suicide bomber implies the heinous crimes are associated with the leader of Muslims, the founder of their morals. The person every Muslim strives to emulate. It is basically saying all Muslims are terrorists. It was therefore questioning the morals of 1.3 billion people. Can you really blame Muslims for reacting the way they did then? When a people are demonized, criticized and humiliated so frequently, some elements of them will resort to violence eventually as an expression of frustration.

In any human society, there is a multitude of responses and reactions will occur depending on the differing circumstances. The reactions of Muslims to the defaming of the prophet witnessed varying types of reactions and passionate expression. In Lebanon and Syria, Danish embassies were torched. In Britain there were protests calling on death, but majority of Muslims, in most parts of the world protested in peaceful demonstrations- including the one in Auckland. There was no identical collective response, as the media is desperately trying to present it as. But it is the habit of the mainstream media with their own distasteful agenda and justifying corrupt policies to frame the violent end of this expression. Like the suicide bomber of Palestine and not the orphan girl who plants an olive tree as the true Muslim representation of Palestinian resistance. Like the radical sheikh, unknown to most Muslims preaching hate, but not the peaceful efforts of Islamic scholars and their issuing of fatwas condemning terrorism.

Freedom of speech does not mean you can abuse the privilege with slander and selectively using the principle when it suits you. The double standards are indicative of the lip service it receives. Where was the support for freedom of speech when Muslim girls were prevented from wearing hijab in France and Turkey? Where is freedom of speech when Muslim clerics are threatened with deportation when they claim Bin Laden is justified in his war against the US? Where was the world’s support for freedom of speech when holocaust deniers are persecuted in numerous European states? Why are the Iranian president Ahmadinajad’s speeches on the holocaust watered down in the media? Is he not also exercising his freedom of speech? Why is it Hamas who advocates the destruction of Israel is now being threatened with an aide cut off after winning a rare democratic election? Is that not also freedom of speech?

Yes the press is theoretically at liberty to prance about saying whatever the hell they want. But it also has a responsibility to the public good, to all citizens regardless of their religion, to human rights, and to act with decency. There are internalized societal restraints that dictate our everyday conduct. For instance, TV3 and TV1 news would not use profanity at 6pm, because it is considered inappropriate and offensive to the audience. So there are times we are committed to a set behavior that is deemed appropriate and respectful. Freedom of expression is selective- subjective to the dominate freedom to wear a bikini, but oppressive to wear the hijab, regardless of it being a choice? Is it free to insult a Muslim and inciting terrorism when they insult the west? Is this how western civilization wants to define itself under a thick layer of hypocrisy?

Countries advocating freedom of speech should therefore apply it to every culture and religion. Or let the double standards create cleavages in society and alienate their Muslim populations.

The narrative of Islam= terrorism is getting tedious and perhaps why it took on a pictorial form. It was a provocative and callous act that would most likely radicalize some elements. That’s some commendable work. After all, it’s sending the message: yes, we don’t respect your religion, and to hell with you. There is enough anti-Islam propaganda as it is; Dominion Post and their posse didn’t need to rub salt in the wounds.

NZ takes pride in the tolerant and multicultural society it awards it citizens. However, as a mature democratic society- comparatively speaking, this does not mean we get on the bandwagon of ridicule to desperately maintain an image of being “liberal”. Liberty historically has been associated with tolerance in the face of diversity. The public good is also something to take into consideration. The Dominion Post and those who took the same path weren’t acting responsibly in exercising their right to publish. Instead, they preferred the simplistic justifications to sell their paper and to gain a moment under the spotlight.

For Muslims, although the offence cut deep, and was a visceral and emotional experience, we too need to have a more controlled reaction. In reality, there is no “Islamic response”, but unfortunately, the actions Muslims are judged collectively and taint Islam in the process. Even though a religion should be separately judged by its teachings, and not by its followers who take on different interpretations and cultural manifestations. The image of Islam must always be held in a positive light and that is what a Muslim should strive for. Muslims have much larger things to worry about after all. Honors killings, and other practices impinging on Islamic practices have given far more serious blows to the image of Islam, yet they continue largely un-resisted. Illegal invasions of our land and the repercussions of it have had a huge impact of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, that’s something we should be focused on more.

Islam encourages tolerance and to use wisdom especially at times of civil strife. Burning down embassies will not help people understand Islam, and the violation that has been made. It just makes Muslims look violent and irrational. Boycotting a whole country based on the decisions of individual papers is ludicrous and again, makes Muslims look irrational. This is why the demonstration in Auckland and other peaceful demonstrations by Muslims worldwide have been far more effective. It sent the message out that people have been hurt, and resented the pejorative images- the reaction of the majority. However, unfortunately we know the emphasis will be made on the radical; and violent minority, which is a smidgen in comparison, and anathema to Islamic belief. But of course, far more entertaining and interesting. The words of the Quran ring true, serving as a reminder and a test for Muslims and their patience at times like these: “And the servants of Allah . . . are those who walked on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say 'Peace'" [25:63]

We should therefore respond with intelligent rhetoric and encourage cultural and religious dialogue, not violence even though there are Al Qaeda’s on both sides that are trying to hinder understanding.

All those who value the right of individuals and those who dream of a world of equality- by equality I don’t mean the cultural imperialism of a set of values, norms and ideas where everyone is expected to adhere to alone. True equality is not based on uniformity; it is to respect our differences, and to be equal because we are different. To stand up against cheap trickery of those who are short sighted and are willing to defame over a billion people for the sake of showing they can do it, for mockery, for a principle that they selectively are adherents to, or whatever reason they muster. This is where terrorism, hatred, and racism begin. We would not- rightfully so tolerate a cartoon depicting a rape victim deserving of her rape, a depiction of a priest sodomizing young boys, Jesus in an inebriated state surrounded by Bethlehem’s finest women clad in raunchy clothes, or a paedophile enjoying his victim, because we have standards and taste that our morals are defined by.

I sometimes have to wonder how many demonstrations down Queen Street I must take part in for us to successfully respect one another based simply on our common humanity, if anything else.

----Anti-Flag

2006-02-05T12:03:00.000-05:00

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

A little bit too late?

2006-02-01T07:29:00.000-05:00

Muslims around the world seem to be coming together finally! MashaAllah! But what for? An incident that occurred 4 months ago. FOUR months ago a two-bit minute speck of a newspaper in an unimportant nondescript country held a contest that is only now invoking the anger of muslims everywhere. Is it my imagination or are we muslims a bit slow?

In October, a newpaper held a contest to publish drawings of the Prophet Muhammed (saw), which is wrong, I will agree. How many of us Muslims have visited the sites to view these pictures? Shame on you! It's like spouting about the evils of pornography, then using photos to make your point.

And now the Muslim world is uniting in protest of this issue. A thing that occurred 4 months ago! Everyone is saying boycott the nation that allowed this affront to Islam occur. Where are our priorities! I know muslims are saying that this was an insult against the Holy Prophet (saw) and someone should make amends. But how? They call for an apology. An apology won't undo the item that was published 4 months ago. It won't remove the pictures from the minds of people who viewed them... including all the muslims who, in the interest of defending the Prophet of Islam, are now roaming the web in search of these pictures, to see how some 'artists' have insulted Muslims everywhere.

What a wonderful cause to unite under! Never mind the Pakistanis who are freezing to death in the earthquake zone. Never mind the internal issues that are plaguing the ummah. What about the issue of honor killings? Domestic violence against our female populace? What about the issue of an occupier in a Muslim country, Iraq?

No, we're more worried about some pictures that some kuffar fools published in a backwoods newspaper. Now we Muslims are becoming the laughingstocks. Instead of letting the issue fade into obscurity, where it belongs, forgotten and moulding in an ineffectual newspaper, we are putting it in the hearts and minds of everyone, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

The muslims are calling for a boycott against the country which allowed one of it's presses to publish such an affront to Islam. To what end? Does the country even export goods? The only thing I am aware of is furniture. Ok so boycott danish furniture, they make lousy ugly furniture anyway. Anyone who buys their stuff has no taste anyway. Which leads to cheese, which is probably the only other product they export. Don't quote me on this, because I am no expert, but the cheese they manufacture probably isn't halal anyway, so Muslims shouldn't be eating it to begin with.
Let the issue go. Let the microscopic unimportant country fade back into the obscurity from whence it came, ya muslimeen. And unite for a cause that will actually improve the ummah!

The Aussie Bible

2006-01-10T08:50:00.000-05:00

Message for Mary (Luke 1:26-38)

When Libby was six months gone, God sent the same angel—this Gabriel bloke—to a backblocks town called Nazareth, in the Galilee shire, to a nice young girl who was engaged to the local carpenter, Joe Davidson. Her name was Mary.

The angel said to her, “G’day Mary. You are a pretty special sheila. God has his eye on you.”

Mary went weak at the knees, and wondered what was going on.

But the angel said to her, “Don’t panic, don’t chuck a wobbly. God thinks you’re okay. You’re about to become pregnant, and you’ll have a son, and you’re to call him Jesus. He will be a very big wheel, and will be called the Son of God Most High. God will give him the throne of his father—your ancestor—King David, and he will be in charge of the whole show forever.”

“But how?” said Mary. “Joe and I have done the right thing, we’ve never… well, you know. I mean to say, I’m still a virgin.”

The angel answered, “Leave the mechanics up to God. This is heavenly stuff. God’s Spirit will come upon you, and the Big Brain behind the Big Bang will manipulate the necessary molecules to make it happen. So this little kid of yours will be as special as it’s possible to be, and he’ll be called God’s own Son. Look, even Libby, your old cousin, is preggers—at her age! God can do these things. In fact, Libby is in her sixth month because nothing is impossible with God.”
“God’s in charge,” Mary answered. “If that’s what God wants, then it’s what I want to.”
Then the angel nicked off and left her alone.

Mary visits Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-56)

Mary didn’t muck about. She got packed and ankled it up to a town in the hills, where she went straight to Zeck and Libby’s place, so that she could say “G’day” to Lib. When Libby heard Mary’s “Cooee” at the front door the baby in her womb gave a kick like a footie player at a grand final, and Lib was filled with God’s Spirit. With a big grin, and a voice that could rattle windows, she said: “Good onya Mary! You beaut! God’s chosen you out of all the sheilas in the world, and your baby will be God’s toddler. But, stone the crows, why would the mum of my Big Boss, my Lord, come and see me? As soon as I heard the sound of your voice my little bun in the oven went bananas with excitement. Good onya for believing what God told you—for believing that God can do what he says he can do.”

And then Mary said, “My soul is as happy as Larry with God and my mind is just buzzing with God my Rescuer because he picked me—me! And I’m about as important as a bottle washer’s assistant! But from now on everyone who ever lives will call me well off—looked after by God—for the One who can do anything has done great things for me. His name is the only Name that matters. His gentleness rolls on like a river. He has done great things that would just knock your socks off. The rich, the stuffed shirts, the boss cockies, don’t impress God; he knocks them off their perch. But those who don’t have tickets on themselves he gives a hand to. He provides tucker for the hungry and sends the toffee noses away without a feed. He has wrapped his great arms around his chosen. He hasn’t forgotten his kindness and gentleness. Exactly what he promised yonks ago is what is happening now.”

Mary stayed with Libby for a few months and then nicked off back home again.

John is born (Luke 1:57-66)

When her nine months were up Libby popped her sprog. The next-door neighbours and the rellies all heard that God had been kind to her, and were tickled pink.

On the 8th day they came to circumcise the little tyke (as the habit was in those days) and they were going to call him “Zeck” after his Dad, but his mum spoke up and said, “Not on your Nellie. Call him ‘John’.”

They said, “But hang on—you haven’t got any rels named ‘John’.”

They made signs to Zeck, his Dad, to find out what handle he wanted to give the kid. He asked for a bit of paper and pencil, and he knocked them all for six when he scribbled down, “His name is ‘John’.” At once Zeck could talk again, and then he couldn’t stop yabbering, saying how terrific God was. The next-door neighbours had the wind knocked right out of them by this, and soon the bush telegraph was full of it, and in the hill country it was all they talked about.

2005-12-17T12:30:00.000-05:00

Falsehood often lurks upon the tongue of him, who,

by self-praise, seeks to enhance his value in the eyes of others.

Arnold Bennett

2005-12-17T12:25:00.000-05:00

Two men were on a plane on a business trip when a Muslim couple boarded the plane and were seated right in front of them. The two men, eager to have some fun, started talking loudly.

"My boss is sending me to Saudi Arabia", the one said, "But I don't want to go...too many Muslims there!" The Muslim couple noticeably heard and grew uncomfortable.

The other guy laughed, "Oh, yeah, my boss wanted to send me to Pakistan but I refused...WAY too many Muslims!"

Smiling, the first man said, "One time I was in Iran but I HATED the fact that there were so many Muslims!" The couple fidgeted.

The other guy responded, "Oh, yeah...you can't go ANYWHERE to get away from them...the last time I was in FRANCE I ran into a bunch of them too!"

The first guy was laughing hysterically as he added, "That is why you'll never see me in Indonesia...WAY too manyMuslims!"

At this, the Muslim man turned around and responded politely, "Why don't you go to Hell?", he asked, "I hear there's not very many Muslims THERE!"

2005-12-12T08:31:00.000-05:00

"Sooner or later we must absorb Islam if our own culture is not to die of anaemia."

Basil Bunting

Ode to My Space Heater

2005-12-11T11:04:00.000-05:00

When the leaves turn brown with the last dying rays of autumn
And the wind turns blustery
No longer carrying warmth from the sun
The beach towels and sun umbrellas are packed away
Insulated from the icy heart of winter

Out of the closet and dusted off
My trusty piece of comfort,
A plastic and metal box
My treasure, my solace
Against the icy blasts of winter

Poised carefully near my side
To protect me from the desolate emptiness
Of an unprotected room
The coldness enveloping me
Pushed back and away

Like a knight in armor
Your heart aflame, burning brightly
Fending off the cold enemy
Who's callous indifference seeks to injure
Any unwilling sacrifice

I love thee my unfailing companion
Ready and willing to fulfill my needs
And never complaining
A trusted and beloved servant
Who has served long and loyally

But alas time and tide has taken it's toll
In the cold depths of the night
You exhaled your final breath of warmth
In a plume of smoke and the scent of decay
Alas I am alone now

Come back to me
My body is chilled
Apathy unending
I fear the solitude
Why did you go?

My space heater died last night.

New Blogs Added

2005-12-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

Two new ones. I don't add often. I find that if you list too many, most of them get lost in the shuffle.

The first one is a new blog from a friend, Anti-flag. Another sister and myself finally convinced her to make a blog. She has a lot to say and blogging is a great way to get your voice heard. Most of the content on her blog is her own commentary. She writes for free for a magazine about controversial Muslim issues, namely terrorism and Palestine. She has been permanently banned from Paltalk because she is very outspoken. But mashaAllah she's an awesome sister and very emotionally involved in Muslim activism. Check her blog out at Revolutionary Crunch. BTW, I made the header for her blog (*pats her own back*)

The second one I've added is worthy because of the content.

Islamophobia Watch was initiated in January 2005 as a non-profitmaking project to document material in the public domain which advocates a fear and hatred of the Muslim peoples of the world and Islam as a religion.

Islamophobia Watch has been founded with a determination not to allow the racist ideology of Western Imperialism to gain common currency in its demonisation of Islam. (From their 'about us' page)

Fabricated Hadith?

2005-12-01T08:40:00.000-05:00

In one of my first posts I quoted this hadith:

“You have returned from a smaller battle to a greater battle.” “What can be a
greater battle than that we have just fought?”He (Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa
Sallam), answered, “The battle against one’s nafs.”

Just recently a friend put forth the claim that this hadith is fabricated. Does anyone have any proofs as to it's soundness or that it is fabricated? I would like to know.

Thanks

When Lies Become the Truth

2005-11-30T09:13:00.000-05:00

The greatest way to live with honour in this world is to be what we pretend to be”-a Socratic axiom that seems so alien to our world saturated with hypocrisy. A world where the face of the hypocrite is masked with “moral and legal justification” because they are the dictators, and truth cowers unquestioningly at its overpowering influence.

In the political gladiatorial arena, the ugly head of imperialism has shown its face again, with the allegations against Iran and its apparent violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The political hoo-ha over this alleged violation has reached hysterical proportions. Drunk on its imperialist fervour, the US has vehemently attempted once again to concoct another justification to extend and simultaneously secure its domination over the resources in the Middle East. It began in Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now we see the tentacles of deception extend to Iran.

Is Iran actually in violation of the NPT terms?

The issue could be settled quite easily if we look at the terms of the NPT and Iran’s reactions to these allegations. Oh, and the minor detail of evidence. But alas, in the political world, the truth is often smothered by fabrication and deception, and evidence is an afterthought. Who needs evidence anyway? It merely hinders an agenda of power and domination.

Iran has repeatedly assured the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) that it is using its nuclear programme for domestic purposes, and to settle any doubts over their activities Tehran has willingly invited inspectors. Tehran asserts its 'inalienable right' under Article IV of the NPT to 'develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.' Such rights are conditional, however, but Iran strongly believes that it has complied with Articles I and II of the NPT, where it agrees not to manufacture or acquire nuclear weapons, and Article III, where it accepts full safeguards, including on-site inspections.

In fact Iran voluntarily agreed under the Paris Agreement of November 2004 to suspend uranium enrichment at Isfahan as part of negotiations with the EU-3. The IAEA itself recognized the move as "a voluntary, non-legally binding, confidence-building measure". Under severe IAEA inspections, Iran proposed to freeze uranium enrichment but to keep a few centrifuges. However, the EU-3 rejected the offer because of the US who had blocked any possibility of a compromise. Even though the NPT specifically states that Iran has the right to work on a nuclear fuel cycle and to keep at least a pilot enrichment program.

But the paranoia of “nuclear watchdogs” in the White House blinded by petrodollars in their eyes insists that Iran is using its nuclear plant programme to create nuclear weapons, and is therefore a threat to the international community. This is premised on, well, nothing.

Tehran stresses that both Israel and Pakistan totally ignored the NPT and built their own nuclear weapons, without giving any explanation to the "international community". Why should Iran, therefore, be punished when it is actually complying with the NPT?

Good question. Not to mention, these demands are an affront to a sovereign nation when there is no evidence that it is in violation of the terms of the NPT. Furthermore, it is humiliating to be subject to such political bullying.Does this all sound familiar? Is it just me or does this fiasco bring back memories of Iraq and its alleged WMD’s. Did not the US claim Saddam was a threat to international peace and order because he was harbouring WMD’s? Even after the invasion of Iraq did the “coalition of the willing” fail in its mission to seek out these phantom WMD’s while they plundered and pillaged the land, which contributed to civilisation, as we know it.

Instead, Bush and his minions concocted another pretext for the reason to go to war with Saddam and that was to ‘liberate’ the Iraqi people. It took them 30 years, but by golly did they do some liberating. The sands of Iraq are soaked with the blood of the liberated.

Have we become this gullible that we are being confronted with another Iraq rendition- an accusation that shamelessly resonates in recent history? History has a habit of repeating itself, but in such a short span of time can we really plead ignorance? Surely our memory of the past cannot be so easily forgotten.

The US is a hypocrisy par excellence in most issues, and the nuclear issue isn’t an exception. Having its own 10,000 nuclear warheads, the US is the only country that has engaged in experimenting with nuclear weapons. If there is anyone who is a threat to international peace it would be the Americans, a point congealed further with recent reports of white phosphorous and napalm being used in Iraq. US prides itself as a leader of the free world and a protector against a possible nuclear threat but its track record of international law violations say otherwise, or perhaps you need to break a few rules to achieve the objective. Furthermore, it maintains good relations with countries who have no respect for international law like Israel- who according to the Natural Resources Defence Council and the Federation of American Scientists may possess 300-400. The Israeli government of course denies this. Therefore, the implication here is it is permissible for “democracies” to acquire nukes in defence of the “free world”- the vaporisation of innocent civilians is a means of preserving cherished values.

If we wish to see it from the perspective of defence, Iran of all countries has a bigger case to acquire nukes on this basis. Israel and the US have been mustering up threats against it for years. In order to protect it from the two nuclear powers one could see why it would acquire nukes of its own in order to create a cold war situation. In the twisted political world, the illogic becomes logic, and the only means of security. Moreover, one lesson the US has taught us is this: If you want to earn the respect of the international community, get yourself some nukes and you’ll be left alone. The morals emanating from Washington have sent ripples through out the world, and countries have willingly embraced them.

Recently though, the only defence that Iran has had against such inane assertions have been trampled down regardless of how weak a defence it was. On September 24 the IAEA declared Iran to be in “non-compliance” with its NPT terms based on suspicions. With no date specified on when Iran would be referred to the UN Security Council, or any mention of sanctions, the resolution put through is remarkably weak. The US has even more reason to engage in an all too familiar patriotic war dance. The new resolution after all gives them the excuse for military action and to carry out a nuclear attack against Iran “legally”. Funny how things seem to end up working out for Washington.

Now that Iran is in “non-compliance” with the terms of the NPT, it is no longer under its protection from the vicious onslaughts. It is no longer a “negative security assurance”- which means a commitment from nuclear states not to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state. On an aside, the US is notoriously known for rejecting this pledge. Iran is now a “nuclear state” as far as the proclamation goes.

The pretext to attack Iran will most likely manifest itself under a humanitarian commitment to ‘liberating’ the Iranians from the ‘crazy mullahs’. Therefore, the nuclear threat will only suffice to instigate an aggressive campaign, and be replaced with the Bushian mantra of “democracy and freedom”. If the Iraqi rendition is fulfilled, then this will be brought to the Iranians through bloodshed, carnage and death.

George W Bush once said “Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously--and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply”.

It is perhaps the only time I’ll ever agree with the ol’ Texan country boy. He’s right. It is a duty upon us all conscience individuals to weed out the Bushs, the Sharons, the Blairs and the Howards in order to preserve justice and protect it from those who have abused it so ritually.

Going Into The Closet

2005-11-29T10:52:00.000-05:00

What exactly is a closet muslimah?

I've been blogging for a couple of months now and I never tackled the subject. Most of you can guess exactly what a 'closet muslimah' is, but for the rest I'll try to explain. I am a fully grown woman with a child who will be an adult herself in less than 2 years. My past is not pristine but I have always tried to be a decent person. I got married at the age of 25 and left the man at the age of 32. The only really good thing to come out of that marriage has been the child that Allah graced me with, my daughter. And of course the lessons learned about enabling and dysfunctional relationships. But before I get into that issue any deeper, I think I should start at the beginning.

I was born just prior to the age of peace and free love, so my parents were already part of the 'establishment'. My mom and dad were both orphans raised in Catholic orphanages. Dad, somewhere in New York, and mom in Köln, West Germany. I don't know anything about my father's father, but I know my dad's mom and a brother were killed in a car wreck on the way home from that brother's high school graduation. His dad was already long gone... I assume he was dead. So my dad was put in the Catholic orphanage to be taken care of. My mom's mother was killed during one of the frequent bombings of Köln during World War II. Her dad married another woman, and the woman did not want his previous children, so he left them at a Catholic orphanage somewhere outside of Köln to be cared for. I don't know if it was a product of the times or the religion (Catholicism) or the place (orphanages) but both of my parents were abused in the orphanages where they were placed. My father is legally blind in one eye, the result of being struck in the face with a cat o' nine tails by a nun while he was young. My mother carries no physical scars from the treatment that she received, but one of her sisters, to this day, is what is termed 'slow' because once she was beaten so hard in the head and face by the nuns that she had to be hospitalized. My aunt is slightly brain damaged as a result.

Both my parents, when old enough, left the orphanages and their Catholicism behind. I was their first child and I have shadowed memories of Sunday school, but I recall it lasting for only a little while. Then there was no religion at all in my family. The Catholic Church refused to baptize me because the godparents my parents chose for me were not Catholics. So I was baptized Episcopalian, but we never attended church. Not long after that religion was completely removed from our lives. My parents both profess to be Atheists now and that is the manner in which I was raised.

I went through life thinking this was just fine. I inherited my parent’s dislike of religion, so I was happy to just go on with my life. The morality was still there. We kids were taught right from wrong, and basically what amounted to the 10 Commandments, you know... Thou Shalt not Kill, Thou Shalt not Commit Adultery, etc., etc. but we were told there is no God. Then at 25 I got married and pregnant. My new husband was Catholic I guess you could say. I don't know. I didn't see much of it in his actions. Then my daughter was born. My husband's mother became almost insane in her insistence that my baby be christened; else if anything happened prior to that, my daughter was going to Hell. An innocent newborn condemned to Hell for lack of being christened? How very odd I thought. But I wasn't religious and I didn't particularly care, but I did want the old monster-in-law off my back, so I acquiesced. There was one major problem though. I wasn't Catholic. Quite a quandary for my mother-in-law, but she searched around and found a Lutheran Church that would christen my daughter. And so the deed was done. That was my brief bout with the Lutheran Church. It worked to get the mother-in-law off my back.

Six years later came the end of my marriage. It was a long time coming. The last day my husband and I were together we got into a rather intense argument over a jar of mayonnaise. Silly I know, but hey, when your husband would rather go fishing than work to support his family, what can I say? Money was tight. The end result of the argument was me getting thrown about the house and finally my husband putting a knife to my throat. Something stayed his hand however and he didn't use the knife. But the look in his eyes I'll never forget. They were empty, dead. When he pulled the knife away I grabbed my daughter, who had witnessed the whole incident, and left the house. My daughter was about 5 at the time.
I never looked back, and never regretted walking away. My daughter and I have not seen her father since that day we parted company. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

My divorce was finalized when I was 32. For the next 8 years I did what 'single' mothers do. I worked and struggled to support my kid. My ex-husband apparently didn't believe in child support. He went underground with the help of his family so that the state couldn't find him and force him to help provide for the child he helped create. So I struggled, with much help and emotional support from my family, particularly my parents. I have never collected a dime in state subsidized support which is no mean feat considering I am just a housekeeper by trade. I am better for the struggle, alhumdulillah.

There was only one man in my life during those 8 years. I'll not discuss this, because it's in a past that Allah has put a veil over. I only make mention of him because he was the beginning of some profound changes in my life. He was from a southern religious family. A far cry from Catholicism. I saw a new side of religion. Unfortunately he was also a poor choice for a companion. More enabling and dysfunction.

In my line of work I come in contact with many different kinds of people. Mostly all fairly affluent of course. Housekeepers are expensive. I worked for over a year for a female minister of a non denominational church. I learned a lot about this different side of religion, far more moderate than Catholicism in its belief system. During this time I also moved into a rental house that is situated next door to a Baptist Church. My daughter attended that church regularly up until a couple of years ago.

Somewhere along this road I was on I guess I began to look deeper into life. I guess a lot of people as they get older and develop 'wisdom' tend to look beyond the scope of their own egos. Somehow a sense of spirituality began to develop inside of me. It was probably there all along. It's in everyone but I guess a lot of people ignore or deny it. Depends on one's focus. I think the word is fitra. I didn't have a lot, I was basically dirt poor. So I didn't have too many worldly possessions to occupy my time. And as my income was limited and not likely to change anytime soon, I did not covet the worldly goods that other people had. But I know that I had much to be thankful for, and I know it wasn't all of my own doing. Things could have been far worse for me. In hindsight, when I think of the day my ex-husband might have killed me, and I wonder what stayed his hand, I guess that was the beginning of my realization of a 'higher power'. Everything happens for a purpose. And the people that come through a person's life-- no matter how small the contact or how great, they have some influence.

I am an extremely introverted person. I find more comfort in myself and my own thoughts than being with other people. But I am not enough. I know there is more to life than me, myself, and I. I don't put much stock in other people though. I'd rather not depend on others. I never attended church so whatever spiritual thinking I had formed by this time was based on my own perceptions. I took what I liked from the religions I had encountered and disregarded the hypocrisies I saw. I can't stand hypocrisy, it drives me insane.

The job with the lady minister ended and I sought other clients. She was such a hypocrite too, but that's her sin and not my place to expose. The 'man friend' also went by the wayside. I was determined that would be the end of my enabling of another human being. He was a very confused person to say the least.

I did not drink alcohol so going to bars and nightclubs was not an option for me. I obviously did not attend church socials either. I was working as a housekeeper during the day and a pizza delivery person at night. The income allowed me to save enough money to buy a cheap clone computer and obtain online access. I had owned an old computer that my brother-in-law had salvaged for me prior to this, so I was familiar with being online. But now being alone, I started using the computer and online as a means to solve my boredom. So I started going to chat rooms. It was interesting to say the least. I was incredibly curious. And the 'anonymity' of chat allowed me to mingle with people from all over the world without actually coming in contact with them. For me it was safe. No required commitments, no relationships. I'm a people watcher so this platform was wonderful for me. I came in contact with all kinds of people. Some of those people were very nice, but most were not. Keep your kids offline, that's all I'll say. I do not allow my daughter to chat online. But I liked to see into what other people think and learn about different places in the world. Chat was my way to do this. I wasn't looking for cyber sex or dirty chat. I'm naive I know. Most people online are there only for that purpose. What they get out of it I'll never understand.

I don't remember what chat room I was in at the time, but one day after responding to many 'whispers' (what MSN calls their private messaging system) from these anonymous people, all asking for pretty much the same thing... either marriage (from the foreigners obviously seeking a visa to the USA) or cyber sex... I got a most unusual and interesting whisper. The usual first opener "hi, asl?" (age, sex, location) to which I responded and asked the whisperer to return the favor. The response came back as male from Saudi Arabia. Whoa! This was post 9/11, so I had my trepidations. I was smart enough to know that a religion and an entire group of people cannot be held responsible for the actions of a few, but still... Saudi Arabia! The land of Muslims! But this was online, anonymous, safe. It's not like I was sitting next to a potential terrorist. I had talked to many different people online before this... Pakistanis, Indians, Britons, Australians, everywhere, and I never ever thought to ask what religion a person followed. I don't know why I didn't, but I just didn't. But this man was from Saudi Arabia. When you hear the name, one automatically associates it with Islam and of course Osama bin Laden. I was so so so curious. So I asked what religion he followed. He responded that he was a Muslim. He then asked me what religion I was, and I replied "none". After what seemed like a long pause he then asked me if I believed in God. After some thought I told him Yes I did, and that I just didn't follow any particular religion. I don't remember much else from the conversation, just the feeling I was left with when we parted ways. He was very polite, almost formal. His questions weren't too personal, and none were even remotely off-key or dirty. They didn't focus on religion, just more along the line of 2 people getting to know each other and curiosities concerning differences in cultures. Saudi Arabia is very far away from the U.S. in many ways, not just distance. His English wasn't perfect, but it was very understandable. We exchanged email addresses and parted 'friends'.

Over the course of the next few months we chatted frequently. We discussed his religion, Islam. I had many questions. Actually I was more curious as to his feelings on such matters as 9/11 and of course Osama bin Laden. His views did not seem 'terroristic' in any way. Actually very moderate I would think. He told me his name was Issa, which I thought was a beautiful sounding name. He also explained that Issa was the Arabic equivalent of Jesus, which totally threw me off balance. Jesus was a part of Christianity not Islam! I had absolutely no idea that the figures which are so prominent in Christian scripture had any place in this foreign religion called Islam. I actually didn't believe him, so I researched. I was totally confused. Jesus was a part of Islam too! Go figure! (Told you I was naive.)

By now one might realize that I was totally clueless concerning Islam. Most Americans are; I am not an unusual case. I read books, I read the news, and I have a television. I am not cut off from the world. I guess because my priorities were elsewhere, like supporting myself and my child, I remained rather insolated from the world around me. My focus was a bit limited.

But now I had a reason to explore. My curiosity was piqued. As an angry American though, I tended to go directly to the bad things I had heard about Islam. I wanted answers. The United States was building a force at this time to invade Iraq. Troops were being sent overseas. My sister is married to a Marine. Her husband was being deployed on a ship somewhere in the Middle East. We were told he was going to the Persian Gulf, that's all. We weren't permitted to know more. A wave of new found patriotism was spreading across the United States and everyone was being swept up in it. Payback for 9/11 was finally coming.

Here I was even more confused than ever though. I had close family being deployed for the upcoming war in Iraq and at the same time I was carrying on this contact with a man, a Muslim, who lived in Saudi Arabia. A few of my family knew of this 'friend'. They did not approve. The walls started going up around me. I did not want to stop talking to Issa, but I also didn't want the censure from my family. So I stopped mentioning him. By this time I was doing a lot of reading about Islam. Mostly general stuff, basics like treatment of women (a subject near and dear to my heart), why alcohol and pork were forbidden (another surprise for me... I thought only Jews forbid the eating of pork). To my wonderment, this was a religion that forbids the consumption of alcohol. That in itself made an impression on me. I have witnessed firsthand the evils of alcohol and the destruction it can wreak. Now here was a belief system that held the same attitudes about it that I held.

My explorations continued. I asked Issa many questions. He was very patient in answering me. If he didn't have an answer he would refer me to some Islamic website, always being careful to check that the website was authentic. There are many sites out there that promulgate false information about Islam. I purchased a copy of the Qur’an for myself from Barnes and Noble online. When I got it I hid it away so that when my family came to visit, which was frequently, no one would see it. Today I have 3 copies on my bookshelf.

Then the Iraqi invasion began. This was the only time I ceased contact with Issa. I did not want the United States to go to war with Iraq. I didn't think what Saddam Hussein was doing in his country was any business of the American people. He was considered a bad man, but I think the Muslims should have handled it. But Issa was so angry when the offensive started. I know we didn't discuss it much because the issue caused very unpleasant emotions to surface. But the day the actual invasion started, Issa's anger was tangible. He hurled so many invectives I was actually frightened of him. I felt that if we were actually in physical proximity to each other he might have struck me out of his anger. It wasn't my fault this was happening. I have little or no say in what my government chooses to do. The American government is not 'by the People, for the People'. It may have been long ago, but not anymore. Now it is 'by the Rich, for how They want the world to be'.

I could fully understand Issa's anger. But it scared me nonetheless. So I stopped talking to him for a short while. I wanted to be away from the confusion of being pulled between his understandable anger and the feelings of patriotism that I was feeling. I am an American after all, no denying it. But I continued to study about Islam. I chose to keep my explorations into Islam purely spiritual and stayed away from the political aspects.

Eventually Issa and I resumed our discussions. His anger had dissipated. I could feel his frustration in our discussions though. I am now fully in understanding about his frustration and feeling of futility.

The level of patriotism in my family varies from 'eh' to full out Stars and Stripes Forever. I kept my explorations of Islam quiet from them. Family visits and dinner discussion concerning world events were enough to tell me to keep my mouth shut. My family's view of Muslims was bad to say the least. I couldn't understand their sentiments though. They were blatantly ignorant opinions. No logic or at the very most a skewed logic. A product of television and newspapers and personalities such as Rush Limbaugh. Yes, my family is staunch conservative right wing Republican. I was too. I was very Moral Majority oriented even though I professed no particular religion. I didn't see any conflict with my new explorations in Islam. I actually found a lot of similarity. Rule by a code of moral law is what religion is, or at least what it's supposed to be. And the ethics and moral codes between Islam and Christianity are very much alike at their most fundamental levels. It's just Christianity seems to have become more democratic then it should and less spiritual. It seems governed by the will of men rather than the Word of God.
I was never taught that Jesus was the son of God and that he died for my sins. I am told that made me a heretic in Christianity. But belief in Jesus as a Prophet purely was an easy concept to grasp hold of. It served to situate a profound figure in religious scripture into a palatable role, because though I refused to recognize Jesus as Divine, I know he had a purpose.

About 8 months after becoming friends with Issa and a lot of research into Islam, I decided one day that I wanted to take Islam as my religion. The idea had been subconsciously forming somewhere in the back of my head I guess. It had what I needed in my life. So I sprung my decision on Issa. His reception to my announcement was one of trepidation. He was concerned over my intentions, why I wanted to become Muslim, and was I going into it with eyes wide open. I put his concerns to rest after some discussion. Then he explained the shahadah. I repeated the attestation that he told me to speak, and then I took a shower. Then he told me to read some short surahs from the Qur’an. We were unsure if this was the proper way for me to be introduced to my new religion, after all I took the shahadah online, so I went to a local Masjid a couple of days later and made it formal with an Imam and some witnesses. Alhumdulillah! I was Muslim!

That was two and a half years ago. I believe I have come a long way since then. I know I am a better person because of these changes. I have learned a lot, and I have a long way to go. I have never regretted stepping onto the path I now follow. I have chosen to keep this part of my life hidden from my family which is no easy feat. But that's a story for another day.

Iraqis probe 'horrific' torture at ministry jail

2005-11-16T14:29:00.000-05:00

Detainees, believed to be Sunnis, likened to 'Holocaust survivors'

NBC News and news services
Updated: 1:37 p.m. ET Nov. 16, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Conditions — including the use of torture — at a secret Baghdad detention facility run by the Iraqi Interior ministry were so “horrific” that some of the scores of men held there “looked like Holocaust survivors” when they were found, NBC News has learned.

Reporting on the developing story from Baghdad, NBC News correspondent Mike Boettcher on Wednesday said sources close to the investigation of the facility told him that photos of the detainees show “people covered in welts from torture. They show torture devices. They show men so emaciated they look like Holocaust survivors.”

Iraq’s deputy minister of the interior, in whose headquarters building the secret prison was found by U.S. forces Sunday, told Boettcher that “he had never seen anything like this in his life.”

Other sources confirmed NBC’s reporting, with the Interior ministry's under secretary for security, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, telling CNN: "I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralyzed and some had skin peeling off various parts of their bodies."

As details of conditions at the prison continued to emerge, Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political party on Wednesday demanded an international investigation.

Omar Heikal of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party told the New York Times that all the detainees were Sunni Arabs. He said it was now clear that majority Shiites in the U.S.-backed government were trying to suppress minority Sunnis ahead of the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

Interior Ministry officials acknowledged that the abused men were mostly Sunni Arabs. They said the abusers were Shiite police officers loyal to the Badr Organization militia. Hadi al-Amery, the head of the Badr Organization, denied any involvement, the New York Times reported.

'Not the only place'
Said Sunni leader Heikal in an official party statement: “Our information indicates that this is not the only place where torture is taking place.”

The party urged “the United Nations, the Arab League and humanitarian bodies to denounce these clear human rights violations, and we demand a fair, international probe so that all those who are involved in such practices will get their just punishment.”

Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari confirmed Tuesday that more than 173 Interior Ministry prisoners were found malnourished and possibly tortured by government security forces at a Baghdad lockup.

Al-Jaafari’s comments came a day after an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said an investigation will be opened into allegations that Interior Ministry officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the insurgency.

“I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture,” al-Jaafari told reporters.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. and Iraqi forces went into the facility in Baghdad suspecting that individuals there might not have been appropriately handled or managed, and “they found things that concerned them.”

'Where are our brothers'
Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary-general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, held up photos of the bodies of people who appear to have been subjected to torture and said: “This is what your Sunni brothers are being subjected too.”

He said his group had sent complaints in the past the government, but without response.
“We told them that if you don’t have information, then where are our brothers who were kidnapped by people wearing your uniforms, using your telecommunication equipment and driving your cars,” he said.

He said that if the investigation proves that the interior minister was involved, then he should resign. He also said the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, should “condemn these acts and stop covering” for the Shiite minister.

The U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq issued a report on Monday depicting a bleak picture of the Iraqi legal system.

“Massive security operations by the Iraqi police and Special Forces continue to disregard instructions announced in August 2005 by the Ministry of the Interior to safeguard individual guarantees during search and detention operations,” the report said.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
© 2005 MSNBC.com

From: Iblis@HizbulShaytan.com

2005-11-13T19:07:00.000-05:00

From: Iblis@HizbulShaytan.com
Subject: Eid Mubarak kr!

Yo , what up son? How’s my favorite target—I mean, friend—doing? I see you’ve been pretty busy for a month being good and all. Whuptee doo, so you managed to do a few fasts and do a few night prayers, eh? You think you the man now, don’t you? All you believers, with your days of mercy and days of forgiveness and days of freedom from the Fire. Whuptee doo. You punks think you’ve undone what I’ve been doing to you for years now? You bast--ds think you’re safe from me? Hahaha, you actually did, didn’t you?

Listen punk, I will bring you and all your little believing brothers and sisters down. Laugh it up and enjoy. I didn’t waste my time last month. I plotted and planned. I got some new tricks up my sleeve that I think you fools will enjoy. I drafted some new personnel to help me out. Trust me sucka, I will come at you and I will own you. You know you’re my favorite target kr; it’s so easy to warm up on people like you and then move on to some other stubborn people who can resist me more.

But listen, for old times sake, and cause we’re pals, I wrote you a little poem. You’ll find it below. Feel free to put it up on your little joke of a blog.

Alright, you ungrateful fu—s, I’m out, I better get to work.

Hatefully yours, Iblis

P.S. The funny thing is you idiots know how to stop me… but you don’t.

I hate you fools so much it hurts inside
Did you think for a second you worthy of His Paradise?
Lemme tell you—you know jack ‘bout servin’ the Divine
Remember - I was the one drunk on heavenly wine
But it was all taken from me in the blink of an eye--
And when He chose you over me, I freakin’ wanted to die
You straight duped, see, cause all I do’s deceive and invite
And so stupidly, all you do is wait just to bite
You did real good last month son, but now baby I’m back
With a mission clear-cut to make your good deeds worth jack
For a month I just waited, biding for time
Free at last, I’m elated to make your *** mine
I’m hungry as hell, wanting to just whisper unseen
Just to revel in the sight of you fools slippin from the deen
I hate you all, and don’t tell me that you can’t even see
The mere fact that you exist disgusts the hell outta me
From day one, when I scoffed, and couldn’t even bow
So now I’m in this wretched state that I’m leadin’ right now.
I want nothin’ but you suckas straight sharin’ my pain
And nothing but seein your good go straight down the drain
And now the month’s over, son, you’s but a sittin’ ol’ duck
You think I care bout you fallin’?—You think I give a care?
Man I’m lovin that you worshippin’ a month—Ramadan
Cause now the time’s jus right for me to get my game on.
I hope you cap all yo’ prayer and forsake yo’ Qur’an
Cause you strapped wit dem weapons, those are your bombs
And I pray you don’t smile when you meet one another
Or go out of your way to honor your brother
And I yearn that you argue bout your damn fiqh issues
So I can mislead you real easy like I did to dem Jews
I wish you won’t drop down some cash to the miskeen
Yo homes, sit on yo’ wallet and forget dem yateem
I hope you don’t fill yo’ selves with pure samâhah--
Instead, fill yo’ selves with ghil, bughd, and khiyânah.
Get tipsy on bukhl, ghadab, and of course batar
Get wasted on ghish, ghaflah and sakht al-qadr
I fear you’ll heed the words of your umm and abi--
I fear above all that you’ll love your Nabi:
I cringe when I think that if your hearts were filled
All my efforts and dreams would be quickly killed.
Damn, if you knew just what that love would spawn
I’d have no hope, O ye who claim imân

Aight foo’, I’m out, there’s sh-- to be done
You just sit there, laugh, and keep havin fun’
So eat, drink and bask in all your goddamn riches
But realize fast that I’m back, bit—es.

The Terrorist's Wife

2005-11-08T06:53:00.000-05:00

From: Kelly McEvers
Subject: What Is Paridah's Role in Jemaah Islamiyah?
Friday, Nov. 4, 2005, at 5:13 AM ET

The last time I saw Paridah binti Abas was in her home village in southern Malaysia. After months of looking for her, I learned that she had moved back there from Indonesia. Some Malaysian friends helped me locate her family home and phone number. When I called, she told me she didn't really want me to visit. But she said she would allow it because I had worked so hard to track her down.

I flew to Singapore and took the one-hour bus trip to the southern Malaysian city of Johor Bahru. An electronics-manufacturing hub, the region is more developed than where Paridah had been living in rural Indonesia. In Johor, houses with yards and painted siding sit on clean, orderly streets. The six-room house where Paridah's family lives has an indoor kitchen, a working phone line, and a computer.

I stayed for a few days. We cooked, and we stayed up late and talked. Paridah explained why she left Indonesia, where her husband now sits on death row. She said she was having trouble paying the monthly immigration fees that she and five of her six children—all born in Malaysia—were required to pay. Her sixth child, Osama, was left in Indonesia with relatives because that's where he was born. Paridah said she was in the process of securing Malaysian citizenship for Osama.

As before, our talks turned to the killing of innocent people and how Paridah felt about it. She said she still was "undecided" about the killing in Bali and other bombings by her husband's organization, Jemaah Islamiyah. She said she "didn't know what to believe" about her husband, his brothers, her brothers—many of whom are now in prison.

We talked about Nasir, Paridah's brother who had been a Jemaah Islamiyah commander but now is cooperating with authorities. "Maybe someday he will come back to the road from which he went astray," Paridah told me, looking out of the kitchen window toward the canal behind the house. "At least, that's what my father thinks."

Sharp-eyed and slight like his daughter, Paridah's father, Abas bin Yusuf, is under house arrest by Malaysian officials for his involvement in Jemaah Islamiyah, dating back to the group's founding in the 1980s. He spent his days smoking, reading, and watching TV. But at least once a day he rode his motorbike toward the center of town, for what he said were meetings with friends. He was kind to me during my stay, in part because, on Paridah's orders, I didn't ask him any questions and was vague about why I was there.

Paridah's younger sister Noorhayati was even more guarded than Abas. Last year, her husband, a Malaysian preacher, was sentenced to three years in an Indonesian prison for helping plan a 2003 suicide car-bombing at the Marriott hotel in Jakarta. That attack killed 12 people.

I was firmer with Paridah than I had been before. I at least wanted to know: Did she consider Bali a justified holy war or a crime? If her son Zaid were to run off to fight in Iraq, would she be happy?

"Yes," she said. "As long as he was sponsored by an international organization that would take care of him when he was hungry or sick—or apprehended by hostile forces."

Would that be considered a holy war? I asked. If he died fighting soldiers from my hometown, would he be considered a hero, a martyr?

She gave me a look she had given me before, a look that invited me to read her mind. I gathered that the answer was yes.

Since then, we have communicated by e-mail—at first during my final months living in Jakarta, and now since I have returned to the United States. Her notes seem to be hinting at something that she hopes I will decipher.

In one e-mail, she asked me not to mention our correspondence to her family, saying, "U can guess why ... but please make a smart guess." In another, she wrote a single line about the death of Mukhlas' father back in Indonesia, followed by a parable about an unbeliever who dares to challenge the reasoning of Islam. In the end, the unbeliever is told by a scholar: "If GOD wants, hell will become a very painful place."

Paridah sent one e-mail from Jakarta, on Sept. 8, 2004. She said she was back in Indonesia "trying every possible way" to bring Osama to Malaysia. She said she hoped I was "in the pink of health." The next day, a Daihatsu van sped up to the front gate of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and exploded, blowing through four layers of asphalt road and shattering the windows of surrounding high-rises. The blast killed nine and injured hundreds more. The suicide bomber was a young man from a rural Indonesian village. The men who planned the attack were from Paridah's home province in Malaysia. In the 1990s, they helped Paridah and her husband establish an Islamic boarding school that became a recruiting ground for Jemaah Islamiyah.

Since the Bali, Marriott, and Australian Embassy attacks, authorities have arrested hundreds of members of Jemaah Islamiyah—including the group's co-founder and spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir—and it's thought that the organization has been considerably weakened. That said, it's very likely that JI is to blame for a second string of terrorist attacks last month in Bali that killed 23 people, including three suicide bombers. Authorities say the small scale of that attack might mean the group has less money than before and is acting independently of its al-Qaida mentors. But it also means that young men are still willing to die for the idea of a Pan-Islamic state across Southeast Asia.

That Paridah's e-mail came from Jakarta, just one day before the Australian Embassy attack was, I think, a coincidence. But I am convinced that there is something more I was supposed to figure out about that visit to Jakarta. After knowing her for nearly two years, I do not believe that Paridah is attending strategy meetings of Jemaah Islamiyah or helping to plot the next attack. But I do believe that she and her family are serving as some sort of liaison between operatives in Malaysia and Indonesia. I also think she is employing her experience at the boarding school to educate a new generation of militants. Perhaps there is still more for me to decode.

Either way, Paridah seems happier these days. Osama finally received his citizenship and has joined her in Malaysia. Paridah has a new job as a teacher. The children are studying English and martial arts.

When I ask her about the future, though, all Paridah will say is that she is waiting. Waiting for her husband to be executed or to win his appeal, waiting for her brothers to be released from jail. And waiting for that day when a pure, Islamic state will allow us both to live in peace.

What Star?

2005-11-06T07:54:00.001-05:00

Last night while driving home from my folks house I saw the moon. It was so beautiful. It was a crescent and not far from it was a very bright star. Anyone know what star it was? It seemed too far west and a bit south of me, so I don't think it was the North Star. I actually thought it might have been a plane because it was so bright, but it never changed position. So I guess it was a star. Any ideas?

A Fatawa on Football

2005-11-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

Is this for real? I found it posted on some forum.

The legal opinions proclaimed by Islamic scholars, known as fatwas, have proliferated in the Muslim world since the 1980s. The growth in fatwas - some of them contradictory - has led to debate over who can legitimately issue them. As part of a government drive to eliminate frivolous fatwas, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan recently published one such edict setting out new rules for football. We publish an edited translation below. In the name of God the merciful and benevolent:

1. International terminology that heretics use, such as "foul," "penalty",
"corner," "goal", "out" and others, should be abandoned and not said. Whoever
says them should be punished and ejected from the game.

2. Do not call "foul" and stop the game if someone falls and sprains a hand
or foot or the ball touches his hand, and do not give a yellow or red card to
whoever was responsible for the injury or tackle. Instead, it should be
adjudicated according to Sharia rulings concerning broken bones and injuries.

3. Do not follow the heretics, the Jews, the Christians and especially evil
America regarding the number of players. Do not play with 11 people. Add to this
number or decrease it.

4. Play in your regular clothes or your pyjamas or something like that, but
not coloured shorts and numbered T-shirts, because shorts and T-shirts are not
Muslim clothing. Rather, they are heretical and western clothing, so beware of
imitating their fashion.

5. If you have fulfilled these conditions and intend to play soccer, play
to strengthen the body in order better to struggle in the way of God on high and
to prepare the body for when it is called to jihad. Soccer is not for passing
time or the thrill of so-called victory.

6. Do not play in two halves. Rather, play in one half or three halves in
order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics, the corrupted
and the disobedient.

7. If neither of you beats the other, or "wins", as it is called, and
neither puts the leather between the posts, do not add extra time or penalties.
Instead leave the field, because winning with extra time and penalty kicks is
the pinnacle of imitating heretics and international rules.

8. Young crowds should not gather to watch when you play because if you are
there for the sake of sports and strengthening your bodies as you claimed, why
would people watch you? You should make them join your physical fitness and
jihad preparation, or you should say: "Go proselytise and seek out morally
reprehensible acts in the markets and the press and leave us to our physical
fitness."

9. You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the posts
or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow him and hug him
like players in America or France do, and you should punish him, for what is the
relationship between celebrating, hugging and kissing and the sports that you
are practising?

10. You should use two posts instead of three pieces of wood or steel that
you erect in order to put the ball between them, meaning that you should remove
the crossbar in order not to imitate the heretics and in order to be entirely
distinct from the soccer system's despotic international rules.

11. Do not do what is called "substitution," that is, taking the place of
someone who has fallen, because this is a practice of the heretics in America
and elsewhere.

Anyone know anything about this? Seems like a mockery or a spoof... but hey it is from Saudi Arabia...

Eid Mubarak Y'all!

2005-11-03T13:29:00.000-05:00

Assalamu alaikum.

The Fiqh Council of North America, after consultation with Muslim astronomical consultants who evaluated credible moon sighting reports, declared Thursday, November 3 as the first day of Shawwal and Eid al Fitr.

This conclusion was arrived at in accordance with current Fiqh Council guidelines.

Eid Mubarak y'all!

Voices of Iraq

2005-10-30T10:38:00.000-05:00

Filmed and Directed by the People of Iraq

Silenced for 24 years under Saddam's regime and denied attention by the international media, the people of Iraq are not well understood at this tumultuous time in their history.

Meet the people of Iraq as they struggle with years of turmoil and strive to build a civil society. Hear in their own words their feelings about Saddam Hussein, the multinational invasion of their country, the presence of American troops and their hopes for what may lie ahead for Iraq.

What values do Iraqis bring to the discussion of their future? What role will women play in a new Iraq? How will Islam influence government?

Voices of Iraq offers a unique opportunity to hear the diverse perspective of Iraqis on issues at the forefront of a global debate over war, terror and the prospects for democratic reform - directly from the street. Voices of Iraq is a ground-breaking documentary that does what no other film or news organization has done before.

The producers of Voices of Iraq distributed over 150 DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERAS across the entire country to enable everyday people - mothers, children, teachers, sheiks and even insurgents - to document their lives and their hopes amidst the upheaval of a nation being born.

Beginning amidst the Falluja uprising in April, going through the marshlands in the South, the Kurdish communities in the North and ending in September of this year, thousands of ordinary Iraqis became filmmakers to reveal the richness, complexity and emotion of their lives.

Voices of Iraq is an unprecedented film. This new documentary genre offers a unique window into what is happening in Iraq. Voices of Iraq has allowed Iraqis to tell their own story.

The Voices of Iraq soundtrack was produced and performed by Euphrates, an exceptionally gifted Iraqi Anglo hip hop group. Euphrates blends their unique Iraqi heritage with their everyday experience of life in the Western world to develop music that empowers people by focusing on issues that affect not only Arabs but all of humanity. In 1988, Nofy Fannan, Habillis and Narcicyst created Euphrates and have since produced two internationally acclaimed albums known for their captivating mix of Middle Eastern melodies with hard, polyrhythmic drums. LISTEN NOW LEARN MORE.

Click for Charity: Pakistan Earthquake Appeal

2005-10-22T11:04:00.000-04:00

Simplyislam.com will donate £0.10 / US$0.17 to Muslim Hands for every visitor click.

Please forward a link to this page to all your email contacts and post the address on your web site or blog. The more people who click on the button, the more money we will be able to donate. Only one click per visitor will be recorded in any 24 hour period. Please note that no personal details will be collected.

The Humanity of the Earthquake

2005-10-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Peace be upon you,

As temperatures drop and the world's response to victims of the earthquake falls far short of expectations, this evening we learn of the worlds' shortage of sub-zero tents. In a region where 500,000 tents are needed a shortfall of 200,000 tents is nothing short of catastrophic.

Disaster fatigue they call it. Hurricane Katrina left us all with a deluge of e-mails showing how the US was being punished for it's actions in Iraq and elsewhere. I suppose, the same commentators will opine that the people of India, Pakistan and Kashmir are also being punished for their sins. In fact, it seems, that everyone is sinning except these commentators, oh to be amongst the sinless!

But this isn't about who has and who hasn't sinned. It is about the Wisdom of Allah. Why does Allah do what Allah does? The question cannot be answered by any of us, suffice to say that in our desire to understand we all offer opinions.

Despite the injustices that occur in this world we find in this confusion a certain humanity within us all. Earlier this evening the spokesman for Islamic Relief was on C4 news making the observation that whilst a female collector in her scarf was out in the street raising money for victims of the earthquake, a homeless man stood up, handed her the money from his collection tin saying that those people need this money more than he did. How beautiful indeed humanity is.

How freely we associate the punishment and suffering of people with the sins which they may or may not have done. How unjustly we interpret the Wisdom of Allah Almighty by making such association. Allah does as Allah wills and Allah knows best why it is that we as people have suffered in this year with such atrocities as the hunger of Niger, hurricane Katrina, the earthquake, amongst other atrocities.

There was an incident at the time of the Prophet Muhammad when theQuraysh and the tribe of Bakr combined their forces attacked the tribe of Khuza breaching the treaty they signed. The tribe of Kaab went to Medina and sought help from the Prophet. Now whilst this incident doesn't relate to the situations of natural disasters as such, it is more the words which the Prophet Muhammad spoke on this occasion which resound so clearly in my mind. Hearing what happened, the Prophet said, "May you be helped O Amr ibn Salim". Then, as a cloud appeared in the sky, he said, "This cloud will provide help for the tribe of Kaab".

The homeless man who donated his money acts as a reminder to the power of humanity. The man who has nothing has everything. So what of those of us who have everything we want, but nothing we need?

Allah Almighty says in Surah al-Asr (103), "By time, man is indeed prey to perdition, except for those who believe, do the righteous deeds, urge each other to seek truth and urge each other to be steadfast".

May Allah Almighty make us of those who believe, who do righteous deeds, urge one another to truth and urge one another to being steadfast in faith, ameen.

fi amanillah, assalam alaikum, f

Banner Updates

2005-10-14T07:48:00.000-04:00

Two more banners to add to the list, Australian and Danish. Shaik Abdul Khafid at Spiritual Tendencies has done a wonderful job! He also changed the red slightly to a darker hue, So I'll show all 6 banners, in case you want to change to the updated versions. The original 4 are shown on a previous post. Please host the banners at your own site and don't hotlink, thanks.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

2005-10-12T09:39:00.000-04:00

I don't like to borrow posts from other blogs. It's uncreative. But this post (found at Faraz Rabbani's Seeker's Digest) had an ironically comical quote.

A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story to every primary school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who asked his teacher why Mary and Joseph had named their baby after a swear word.

Islamic Relief: Pakistan Earthquake

2005-10-11T16:57:00.000-04:00

The death toll of the earthquake now stands at 33,000. The 7.6 magnitude quake struck near Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, destroying buildings, wiping out entire villages and triggering landslides. In Muzaffarabad alone, 11,000 have been confirmed dead.

The worst affected area is Bagh where most buildings have collapsed, including Islamic Relief's office there. The roads to Bagh are blocked by landslides.

Islamic Relief staff in Rawalakot report that 90% of the town has been destroyed, leaving at least 30,000 people homeless.

Thousands of people have lost their homes in the disaster and their immediate needs are tents, blankets, stoves, water purification units and field hospitals to treat the injured.

Islamic Relief Response
Monday 10 October
Islamic Relief is leading teams of international aid workers into the affected area to assess the needs of survivors. Two teams of aid workers from several international humanitarian organisations have been sent to Rawalakot and another is now in Bagh. All three teams are led by IR staff. IR has extensive experience in the region and is the leading agency in Kashmir.

5 million need help
Rawalakot suffered 90% damage, while Bagh is all but destroyed. IR staff estimate that 5 million people will need assistance.

Tents and blankets
A planeload of aid from the UK government has been received by Islamic Relief staff in Pakistan and has already been distributed to survivors in Muzaffarabad. The shipment contained tents and blankets.
The UK government has provided Islamic Relief with a further 1,000 tents from its stockpile in Lahore. The tents will be distributed in Muzaffarabad on 11 October.

Food
In Muzaffarabad, 4,000 packs of food, each weighing 15 kg, are being distributed among survivors.
Locals in Islamabad donated 30 metric tonnes of rice. Two IR Pakistan lorries are in transit to distribute the rice in affected areas.

Sunday 9 October
Islamic Relief is acting as a lead agency on behalf of other humanitarian organisations. An initial £2 million has been allocated for the disaster, and IR staff are carrying out needs assessments in affected areas.

Treating the wounded
Staff at Islamic Relief's health centre in Kashmir's Neelum Valley have been treating the wounded. So far, 2000 people have been treated in the health centre. IR's Islamabad office is arranging shipments of additional medical supplies to the area.

In Khutan, IR's community volunteers are treating the wounded and injured.

The first plane load of aid organised by the UK government has arrived in Pakistan. The aid shipment is made up mainly of tents and blankets.

Islamic Relief in Pakistan
Islamic Relief has worked in Pakistan since 1992 on emergency relief, development and disaster preparedness projects. IR's work is heavily focused on the areas that have been badly affected by this disaster, including Muzaffarabad and Bagh where Islamic Relief has several projects.

You can help by making an Online Donation or telephoning:
UK : + 44 121 622 0622
USA : +1 818 238 95 20
France : +33 149 171717
Germany : + 49 221 722 0799
Holland : + 31 206 160 022
Belgium : + 32 22 198 184
Switzerland : +41 227 320 273
Italy : + 39 34 703 41183
Worldwide: +44 121 622 0622

Muslims Against Terrorism

2005-10-11T16:04:00.000-04:00

These banners are making the rounds. Found them on Dunner's Blog, who got them from Shaik Abdul Khafid, at Spiritual Tendencies. They are quite cool. Use them on your blog, show the world where you stand, and pass the link on to others so they can do the same.

Blog Stickers For Some Great Sites

2005-10-11T10:54:00.000-04:00

I did some surfing and found a site to make blog stickers. Feel free to take them and use them on your own blog. The coding is there, just view source (I think). Please use your own bandwidth to store them.

A Cruel Nationalism

2005-10-08T11:23:00.000-04:00

In a sordid slime, harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom--and for others' goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich--
Our god is marching on. ~Mark Twain

By Sheila Samples

10/07/05 "ICH" -- -- While recently watching George Bush's carefully orchestrated performance from New Orleans' French Quarter a week late and a billion dollars short, I was struck by the confused desperation in his eyes, and I was overcome with sympathy. Not at the spectacle of an out-of-touch derelict engineer racing to catch the presidential train as it careened crazily out of the station, but for the vulnerable and abandoned Americans whose very survival depends upon his empty platitudes and promises.

In Bush's multiple photo-op visits to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf area -- including one released of him with his nose pressed to the window on his initial "flyover" visit -- he's been ludicrously stage-managed -- soaring nonsensical speeches, floodlights, cathedrals shimmering in the background, hugging female black victims brought to him for a camera shot, jouncing around in the back of a truck, rigidly sandwiched between a mayor and a governor and refusing to speak to either...This is Karl Rove's idea of a "hands-on" kind of guy, sleeves rolled up, hard at work. Bush doing his job. Protecting the American people. 'Cause that's, like, you know, his job. Protecting the American people. Did I mention his sleeves were rolled up?

That does it. No more flowery prose. No more screaming into the wind for Americans to wake up before it's too late. No more succumbing to an attack of the vapours while daubing my eyes with a scented handkerchief and plaintively wailing, "when is enough -- enough?" The reality is the panting war profiteers who control Bush will never have enough. Their greed is ravenous, insatiable; it devours everything in its path. They have no intention of giving up the power and profits for which they have worked so hard -- waited so long -- to achieve. Not now. Not ever. They plan to take it with them when they go. The war machine Dwight Eisenhower warned us about is cranked up and running, but it is not freedom they're spreading. It is fascism.

The reality is they are well on their way to attaining a rigid, one-party international dictatorship; a New World Order wherein the world and all its wealth and resources belong to a chosen few -- them. If their plan works, the vulgar lumpen, the underclass, the "people," will crumple under a cruel nationalism, blatant racism and heartless militarism. Like Thomas Jefferson warned -- if left unchecked, the greed of private banks and corporations will ultimately "deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

The miserly response to Katrina should serve as a wake-up call to those Americans who can still think. Fascism is on the march and, when this administration threw down the gauntlet in New Orleans, it declared open war on this nation's poorer citizens, most of whom were Black.

White Americans swallowed the spin that FEMA's disaster brigades, widely heralded for their immediate response to even a spring shower blowing over the Florida coast, suddenly became so incompetent when Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, they couldn't even figure out how to use the telephone or deliver a bag of ice.

Black Americans know better.

The reality is that FEMA worked perfectly -- a planned exercise of bureacratic incompetency in order to expand Bush's powers to declare martial law in the next disaster. It was a well-oiled machine that thwarted every attempt to get help to those who were too old, too ill or too poor to leave. Looking back at FEMA's success in orchestrating "Operation Ethnic Cleansing," I have to agree with Bush -- Brownie did, indeed, do a heckuva job... For example:

FEMA refused the addition of hundreds of assistance personnel and dozens of vehicles, as well as food and water offered by Chicago's Mayor Daley. It also refused to let the Red Cross deliver food; in fact told the agency to leave and not come back. Renita Hosler, Red Cross spokesperson, said they were "at the table every single day" asking for access, but were kept out by the uniformed military.

FEMA refused to use the facilities of the USS Bataan, a 600-bed hospital ship that just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina made landfall. The USS Bataan is an 844-foot ship, complete with helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It has the capacity to make its own water -- up to 100,000 gallons a day -- but this service was also refused. Another state-of-the-art mobile hospital from the University of North Carolina -- a convoy that included two 53-foot trailers, 100 surgeons and paramedics, food, water and medicines -- was forced to park in a gravel lot 70 miles north of New Orleans. They were marrooned there for several days, frustrated by news that people were dying and that disease was becoming more widespread because of contaminated water.

Vice President Dick Cheney directed officials at the Southern Pines Electric Power Association, not once but twice, to restore gasoline and diesel fuel pipelines before restoring much needed power to rural hospitals. Amtrak's offer to help evacuate the sick and elderly from hospitals and the detention center was rebuffed, and three trailer trucks loaded with water from WalMart were turned away. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans, told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" that FEMA officials also prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and they cut the parish's emergency communications line, which was restored, but Broussard said the Parish sheriff was forced to post armed guards to protect it from FEMA.

On its own website, FEMA ordered First Responders not to respond "unless dispatched" because "self-dispatching volunteer assistance could significantly complicate the response and recovery effort." To emphasize the order, FEMA blocked a 500-boat citizen flotilla loaded with aid, and slapped Germany in the face by turning back a German government plane loaded with 15 tons of food.

All things considered, it looks like FEMA's response to Katrina was a catastrophic success. The only thing Bush and his racist cohorts didn't take into account was the universal shock that met his unconcerned efforts to flush poverty and crime down the toilet -- the outrage at remarks of Baton Rouge Republican Richard Baker, who chortled that God had finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans, and of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who suggested we could save money by just bulldozing the area and moving on...

The looting going on in New Orleans is being done by Halliburton's Kellogg Brown and Root and the Shaw Group, both clients of lobbyist and former FEMA head Joe Allbaugh, and by Bechtel, whose CEO is on Bush's Export Council. Bush immediately rescended the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act which requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area. The body snatching is being done by the same funeral-gate firm that Bush was involved with in Texas -- Kenyon -- a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.

Hurricane Katrina ripped the mask from the Bush administration and, for a brief moment, exposed the sheer evil, and the bigotry, racism and greed that lies just beneath the surface. Those who dared to look upon the face of Bush's god cannot go home again. They know that the reality these greedy monsters create for us is one of relentless, non-stop chaos.

Being sucked up into Bush's reality is like stepping out of the shower, soap in your eyes and, as you fumble for a towel, the phone jangles. Someone rings the front doorbell while simultaneously beating on the door -- someone else is pounding on the back door, shouting incoherently. It is the witching hour and you are home alone. The dog is barking wildly, the cat is yowling while scratching frantically on the screen. In a panic, you race to the window, and fall back in shock. The entire landscape is exploding in a massive fireworks display. You can see shadowy figures moving furtively across your lawn, and you wonder briefly what they are doing, but they disappear into the flashing lights and noise.

Because of world opinion and media coverage, we lucked out on this one, but the next "national emergency" -- possibly a flu pandemic -- could be democracy's last hurrah. Bush is already boasting of using the military to "quarantine" those affected. And it won't be in our homes -- this isn't the measles with the school nurse tacking a "quarantined" sign on our front doors. Last year, Bush authorized preliminary studies for the rapid construction of a National Detention Center Program, complete with a series of detention centers, to be added to the existing 600 units now in place. Also, The Department of Homeland Security is consulting with an Israeli company, Israeli Prison Systems, Ltd., for the expedited construction of modular internment camps to be located in rural areas throughout the continental US and Alaska.

Sound like a conspiracy? I would hope so, because to survive, we must come to grips with the fact that we are victims of a vast, insidious conspiracy fueled by the vociferous greed of those who have no intention of relinquishing their power. Political author Frank Kent once said, "The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people." We must become a bit more intolerant of those who would control us, or we will soon be forced to fight for our very lives in the horrid reality of the New World Order.

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. : rsamples@sirinet.net.

© 2005 Sheila Samples

September Morning

2005-09-28T08:19:00.000-04:00

Bone of Contention

2005-09-26T16:55:00.000-04:00

A daily thought taken from Abdul Hakim Murad's Contentions

Make Hayy while the sun shines.

('Sleep is the brother of death')

al-Hayy

The Living, The Alive, The Everlasting, The Deathless, The Ever-Living

Bone of Contention

2005-09-25T14:35:00.000-04:00

A daily thought taken from Abdul Hakim Murad's Contentions

There was a young man who blamed Fate

For the fact that he prayed Fajr late

"How frightfully odd

Of Almighty God

To wake me at quarter past eight!"

The Seven Day Challenge

2005-09-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

UmmZaid at Sunni Sister and Umm Ali at A Heavy Truth have taken up the gauntlet of this challenge. The challenge being for seven days to refocus the soul on gratefulness and to leave aside whining, complaining, sarcasm and negativity. Let's be thankful for the goodness and mercies Allah has shown us and provided in our lives. Especially in these times, with Katrina and Rita and the growing frustration, wreaking havoc on so many people's lives, some of them our fellow muslims. I'll take the challenge myself. I should be ok as long as I don't get behind the wheel of my car and come in contact with other drivers (hehe). I don't think North Carolinians know how to drive. But I'ma hush my mouth and smile, inshaAllah. Sister Aaminah at WriteousSisterSpeaks has also taken up the challenge.

Our sister Risama has been displaced by hurricane Katrina. Her home was in New Orleans. She has created a blog called the Katrina Files, which is her effort to collect articles from the news, and posts from fellow bloggers, keeping the rest of the world updated on the efforts (and sometimes non-efforts) to dry out and re-establish New Orleans. May Allah reward her efforts.

Please make dua that Umm Ali and hers are fine. Her last entry at A Heavy Truth indicates that she was going to be stuck in her home... somwhere in Texas within the forecast path of Rita. The worst of Rita has come and is on her way north now. Many, many people are without power along the Gulf coast now. InshaAllah we hear from Umm Ali soon about her status.

Hate Speech Update

2005-09-24T10:30:00.000-04:00

Just a little update on the status of AmericanJihad blogs and groups:

Below is an answer to your support question regarding "^(55) americanjihad HS"
Dear---------,

Thank you for your report. As the account was created for the purpose of inciting and promoting violence against a specific group of people, it is in violation of the Terms of Service; as a result, we have suspended the account.

Regards,
Michelle
LiveJournal Abuse Team

LiveJournal's Notice to AmericanJihad:

Dear user,

Your account "americanjihad" has been brought to our attention. As the account is being used to promote and incite violence and make threats against a specific group of people, we have suspended the account for being in violation of our Terms of Service, Article XVI Section 1. The suspension is permanent and non-negotiable.

We would like to warn you that any further action of this nature may result in more serious action against your accounts, up to and including permanent suspension of all LiveJournal accounts held by you.

If you have any questions about this suspension, please feel free to contact us.

Regards,
Michelle
LiveJournal Abuse Team

And AmericanJihad MSN Group:

Hello-------,

Thank you for writing to MSN Groups.

We apologize for the delayed response and for the inconvenience this has caused you.

We appreciate your help in locating inappropriate activity in MSN Groups. We will follow-up on your report and take the appropriate action.

Thank you for your support and for taking the time to write to us. We hope you'll pass along other thoughts and suggestions as you use the service.

Sincerely,

Vida
MSN Groups Customer Support

A visit to the group site displays this:

This Group is Unavailable

This group has been disabled for administrative purposes.

ALHUMDULILLAH!

Hate Speech

2005-09-20T15:56:00.000-04:00

I am not one to get on a soapbox. I am rather a meek and mild person, really rather shy actually. I run an MSN Group with the help of some good friends. We just want to have some fun and some clean chat with no flirting and such, and maybe share some knowledge. A few days ago I was checking the pending posts (we check em so nothing unislamic or pornographic, etc) gets through. There were a couple of pendings from a person nicknamed AmericanJihad. They were hater posts, some of the most awful garbage I have ever read. We obviously declined the posts. My sister friend found some links on one of the posts that led to some sites on BlogSpot. Later in this message I will give the links to these blogs.

What I am asking of all the people who read this post is to report these blogs to BlogSpot. They are in violation of the Terms of Service. If enough people speak out, I am sure something will be done. This person (AmericanJihad) is calling for people to murder muslims, whom he deems are ALL terrorists. Read some of his posts... you'll see. I won't put excerpts here simple because I don't want the taint on my blog. The things he says are just horrible, and ignorant.

If you are a person of conscience, help to get these blogs shut down. I have included instructions and links on how to make a complaint. It's just a few minutes of your time, and I'm sure it will make a difference. Just click read more and the instructions will be there.

Asalaamu Alaikum and Thank you.

This is the link for where to report a TOS violation.
1. Just select the 'Report a TOS violation option.
2. Which blog does it effect? Select 'no blog in particular'.
3. What email address should we send replies to? Give them your email address.
4. Enter a brief but descriptive summary. I wrote "Hate Speech and inciting violence"
5. Finally, tell us all about it. Copy and paste the Blog links, which will be listed below. Then write something to the effect of what is contained in those blogs. Use detail.
Then click 'send it' and it's done.

Here are the 4 Blogs this person is using on BlogSpot:

American Jihad
queerjihad
ValleyofDeath
AJLONG

Do what you can, report him... but don't comment on his blogs, or return the hate sentiment. He needs to be stopped from spreading his hatred, hatred borne of pure ignorance. And that's what we need to do, inshaAllah.

May Allah remove the ignorance from this man's eyes, and the hatred from his heart. Ameen.

American By Birth...

2005-09-17T12:16:00.000-04:00

I once was lost,

But now I'm found.

Was blind,

But now I see...

(Alhumdulillah!)

'From Iraq' Michael Rosen

2005-09-16T09:08:00.000-04:00

Michael Rosen: Three Songs of the Dead

From Iraq

We have no mouths
We evaporated
You don’t see the holes in the ground where we were put
We are the unfound
We are uncounted
You don’t see the homes we made
We’re not even the small print or the bit in brackets.
You see less of us than you see of the dust
You see less of us than you see of the wind
Because we were somewhere else,
because we lived far from you,
because our minutes, hours, days and years did not last as long as yours,
because you have cameras that point the other way,
because you talk about other people…
…Of that moment when we went
you can’t even say you missed it.

Back on Track

2005-09-13T14:16:00.000-04:00

Took some time to change the blog's skin. Considering I know nothing of CSS (don't even know what CSS stands for)... with the help of 2 friends, I got meself a pretty cool lookin blog now. Feel free to post comments on how it looks.

Bone of Contention

2005-08-29T09:56:00.000-04:00

A daily thought taken from Abdul Hakim Murad's Contentions

To blame others for our misfortunes is always a victory for the nafs.

My New Kitten

2005-08-28T20:15:00.000-04:00

Her name is Jambalaya, we call her Jammy

◊

"There is a reward for acts of charity to every beast alive."

(Bukhari, Muslim)

Bone of Contention

2005-08-28T19:19:00.000-04:00

A daily thought taken from Abdul Hakim Murad's Contentions

Only the very bad or the very good are polygamists.

My Little Mosque Poem

2005-08-27T10:33:00.000-04:00

By Mohja Kahf

In my little mosque
there is no room for me
to pray. I am
turned away faithfully
five
times a day

My little mosque:
so meager
in resources, yet
so eager
to turn away
a woman or a stranger

My little mosque
is penniless, behind on rent
Yet it is rich in anger—
every Friday, coins of hate
are generously spent

My little mosque is poor yet
every week we are asked to give
to buy another curtain
to partition off the women,
or to pave another parking space

I go to the Mosque of the Righteous
I have been going there all my life
I have been the Cheerleader of the Righteous Team
I have mocked the visiting teams cruelly
I am the worst of those I complain about:
I am a former Miss Mosque Banality

I would like to build
a little mosque
without a dome
or minaret
I’d hang a sign
over the door:
Bad Muslims
welcome here
Come in, listen
to some music,
sharpen the soul’s longing,
have a cigarette

I went to the mosque
when no one was there
and startled two angels
coming out of a broom closet
“Are they gone now?” one said
They looked relieved

My great big mosque
has a chandelier
big as a Christmas tree
and a jealously guarded
lock and key
I wonder why
everyone in it
looks just like me

My little mosque
has a bouncer at the door
You have to look pious
to get in

My little mosque
has a big sense of humor
Not

I went to the mosque
when no one was there
The prayer space was soft and serene
I heard a sound like lonely singing
or quiet sobbing. I heard a leafy rustling
I looked around
A little Quran
on a low shelf
was reciting itself

My little mosque has a Persian carpet
depicting trees of paradise
in the men’s section, which you enter
through a lovely classical arch
The women’s section features—
well, nothing

Piety dictates that men enter
my little mosque through magnificent columns
Piety dictates
that women enter
my little mosque
through the back alley,
just past the crack junkie here
and over these fallen garbage cans

My little mosque used to be democratic
with a rotating imam
we chose from among us every month
Now my little mosque has an appointed imam
trained abroad
No one can dispute his superior knowledge

We used to use our minds
to understand Quran
My little mosque discourages
that sort of thing these days
We have official salaried translators
for God
I used to carry around a little mosque
in the chambers of my heart
but it is closed indefinitely pending
extensive structural repairs

I miss having a mosque,
driving by and seeing cars lining the streets,
people double-parking, desperate
to catch the prayer in time
I miss noticing, as they dodge across traffic
toward the mosque entrance between
buses and trucks,
their long chemises fluttering,
that trail of gorgeous fabrics Muslims leave,
gossamer, the colors of hot lava, fantastic shades
from the glorious places of the earth
I miss the stiff, uncomfortable men
looking anywhere but at me when they meet me,
and the double-faced women
full of judgment, and their beautiful
children shining
with my children. I do

I don’t dream of a perfect mosque
I just want roomfuls of people to kiss every week
with the kisses of Prayer and Serenity,
and a fat, multi-trunked tree
collecting us loosely for a minute under
its alive and quivering canopy

Once, God applied
for a janitor position at our mosque,
but the board turned him down
because he wasn’t a practicingMuslim

Once a woman entered my little mosque
with a broken arm,
a broken heart,
and a very short skirt
Everyone rushed over to her
to make sure
she was going to cover her legs

Marshmallows are banned
from my little mosque
because they might
contain gelatin derived from pork enzymes
but banality is not banned,
and yet verily,
banality is worse than marshmallows

Music is banned
at my little mosque
because it is played on
the devil’s stringed instruments,
although a little music
softens the soul
and lo, a hardened soul
is the devil’s taut drumskin

Once an ignorant Bedouin
got up and started to pee against a wall
in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina
The pious protective Companions leapt
to beat him
The Prophet bade them stop
A man is entitled to finish a piss
even if he is an uncouth idiot,
and there are things
more important in a mosque than ritual purity

My little mosque
thinks the story I just narrated
cannot possibly be true
and a poet like me cannot possibly
have studied Sahih al-Bukhari

My little mosque
thinks a poem like this must be
written by the Devil
in cahoots with the Zionists,
NATO, and the current U.S. administration,
as part of the Worldwide Orientalist Plot
to Discredit Islam
Don’t they know
at my little mosque
that this is a poem
written in the mirror
by a lover?

My little mosque
is fearful to protect itself
from the bricks of bigots
through its window
Doesn’t my little mosque know
the way to protect its windows
is to open its doors?

I know the bricks of bigots
are real
I wish I could protect my little mosque
with my body as a shield

I love my dysfunctional little mosque
even though I can’t stand it

My little mosque loves Arab men
with pure accents and beards
Everyone else is welcome
as long as
they understand that Real Islam
has to come from an Arab man

My little mosque loves Indian
and Pakistani men with Maududi in their pockets
Everyone else is welcome because as we all know
there is no discrimination in Islam

My little mosque loves women who know
that Islam liberated them
fourteen hundred years ago and so
they should live like seventh-century Arabian women
or at least dress
like pre-industrial pre-colonial women
although
men can adjust with the times

My little mosque loves converts
especially white men and women
who give “Why I embraced Islam” lectures
to be trotted out as trophies
by the Muslim pom-pom squad
of Religious One-up-man-ship

My little mosque faints at the sight
of pale Bosnian women suffering
across the sea
Black women suffering
across the street
do not move
my little mosque much

I would like to find a little mosque
where my Christian grandmother
and my Jewish great-uncle the rebbe
and my Buddhist cousin
and my Hindu neighbor
would be as welcome
as my staunchly Muslim mom and dad

My little mosque has young men and women
who have nice cars, nice homes, expensive educations,
and think they are the righteous rageful
Victims of the World Persecution

My little mosque offers courses on
the Basics of Islamic Cognitive Dissonance
“There is no racism in Islam” means
we won’t talk about it
“Islam is unity” means
shuttup
There’s so much to learn
Class is free and meets every week

I don’t dream of a perfect mosque, only
a few square inches of ground
that will welcome my forehead,
no questions asked

My little mosque is as decrepit
as my little heart. Its narrowness
is the narrowness in me. Its windows
are boarded up like the part of me that prays

I went to the mosque
when no one was there
No One was sweeping up
She said: This place is just a place
Light is everywhere. Go, live in it
The Mosque is under your feet,
wherever you walk each day

Mohja Kahf’s first book of poetry is E-Mails from Scheherazad (University Press of Florida, 2003). She was born in Syria and came to the United States in 1971 with her parents. Now a sedate professor of literature at the University of Arkansas, Dr. Kahf used to be one of the baton-twirling sisters in her college alma mater’s MSA chapter..

Bone of Contention

2005-08-27T10:03:00.000-04:00

A daily thought taken from Abdul Hakim Murad's Contentions

Islamic modernism: a danse macabre flirting with the spiritual death of the Enlightenment.

Terrorism Begets Terrorism

2005-08-17T17:17:00.000-04:00

© storm_of_stones

In his poem, ‘From Iraq’, Michael Rosen wrote,

“We are the unfound, we are uncounted. You don’t see the homes we made. We’re not even the small prints or the bit in brackets … because we lived far from you, and you have cameras that point the other way”.

Rosen expressed here a pervading inequality in the West - how lives in the West are considered more valuable than the lives of people elsewhere. Such a show of selective sympathy came to the forefront in response to the London bombings.

Selective sympathy comes from Western desensitisation of images of death from the Middle East. These repetitive images flood the media, giving a misconstrued perception that the culprit is fanaticism derived from an “eastern religion” called Islam. But the truth is that these images represent nothing more than the effects of a “Frankenstein” creation of corrupted governments, born out of imperialist domination.

Dying Iraqis and Afghanis with no name and no background are in effect dehumanised, and with that we feel neither affiliation nor compassion. We forget their suffering. Some even reason that their lives are dispensable for the “greater cause” whatever that may be. We consequently don’t recognise them as people, just like us, with a family and a home. I should use past tense here, as their existence does not last long enough in our minds to allow me to use the present.

Occasionally, we get a story about an American soldier who has saved a young girl from the brink of death - or more arrogantly - the liberation of people we can only refer to as “non Western”, allowing us to mute our outrage. Thus, we’ve been conditioned to play a game of pretend-and-live in a selfish and pseudo reality, oblivious to the suffering of those who do not belong to the Western creed and identity. Rarely, someone in the West will astutely put aside this indifference to make a profound and commendable statement:

“Members of Parliament find it easy to feel empathy with people killed in explosions by razor-sharp red-hot steel and splintering flying glass when they are in London, but they can blank out of their mind entirely the fact that a person killed in exactly the same way in Falluja died exactly the same death."

George Galloway echoed Rosen’s thoughts in response to the wave of sympathy that flooded the media, amid a stunned atmosphere of shock in the aftermath of the bombings. The reaction he received was unsurprisingly of utter disbelief and the accusation of being insensitive at a time of civil strife. Speaking words of truth seem to be taboo in these times.

The London bombings were unquestionably despicable acts, and its victims deserve sympathy of the highest level. But what drives people to such despicable acts?

Lesson for the day: you can’t expect to invade another country without some form of retaliation, however misplaced. So when you kill people in droves, you will feel the heat.

We’re told that the bombings were performed by British Muslim suicide bombers. What have they achieved? Retaliation: No – they have missed the target completely. Sympathy: No – Britons regard Islam and Muslims with ever more contempt now. The bombers may have had desperate and foolish motives for their mission, but unquestionably the sum-total of their mission is complete failure. And we all have a right to be outraged about this - a united front of Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

But it beggars the following questions. Where were the same cries and outrage for those dying in war-stricken Afghanistan? Why did we not hear the same cries for the 135,000 Iraqis who have lost their lives for “freedom” and “democracy” brought to them on a plate of bloodshed and carnage? What about the injustice against the Palestinians we’ve witnessed for over 60 years? Or the 200,000 Chechnyans who’ve suffered under Russian subjugation, including 40,000 children? They’re merely figures to the majority of us. Victims of war should all be recognised equally.

Blair and Bush not only have blood on their hands from the thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis who lost their lives for the agenda of private corporations and the greed of an immoral and deceitful plutocracy; but additionally that of the Londoners who became the unwilling foot soldiers in their government’s foreign policy blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan. The archaic wheels of war therefore continuously roll, lubricated by the blood of innocents.

London experienced what life was like in Iraq; only, it was a rather minor insight considering fifty-two deaths is seen as a “quiet” day in Iraq. The dying cities of Iraq and Afghanistan and its victims therefore came to haunt the people of London. It was a cold hard reality in the guise of bombs that shook the city. Oblivious Britons, who only received small smidgens of a bloody war their government was engaged in from news reports, were therefore suddenly plunged into the brutal and indiscriminate consequence of involvement in an illegal war.

The lesson from 9/11 has obviously been taken too lightly. Instead of looking at the reason why four well-educated British-born youths would take their lives along with fifty-two fellow Britons, Blair has looked the other way. He, like Bush, resorted to the same predictable Bush-ian mantra giving us a nebulous sense of ‘understanding’ with his fallacious commentary:

"It is important, however, that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world."

What he really meant by “our way of life” is the blatant subjugation of another country through sheer terror. As you can see, he has become fond of taking a page from Bush’s laughable rhetoric like a ventriloquist dummy, as the latter responded in a similar fashion:

“And the contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions of those who care deeply about human rights, and those who kill, those who've got such evil in their hearts that they will take the lives of innocent folks."

You would think Bush is describing himself. His idea of caring “deeply” about human rights is his neglect of the 80,000 Iraqi complaints of prisoner abuse at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, he expresses his close relations with known human rights abuser, Uzbek leader Islam Karimov by inviting him to the White House. Does Bush know his buddy condones the boiling of body parts in his prisons? Or perhaps he’s getting some tips from Karimov for future use at Guantanamo Bay.

As for “taking the lives of innocent folks”- perhaps Bush thinks the whole of Iraq’s population are either evil Baathist loyalists or Al Qaeda terrorists. Yeah, that’ll serve to explain how over 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. Not by suicide bombers as we’re conditioned to believe but by the Anglo-American “coalition” invasion. Does this mean that the whole of Afghanistan’s population consists of either the Taliban or Al Qaeda members? Too right it does. That would also explain the indiscriminate bombings of Afghan villages and cities, which has led to the death of 20,000 civilians. Wait, I think that’s what you call “collateral damage” - a euphemism for cold-blooded murder. It gets kind of confusing at times - that’s why we have Bush’s Tarzanic assinine speeches to help us sum up the events thus: American safety at the expense of the death of thousands. Noted.

Blair insists the recent bombings have nothing to do with the West’s military incursions into the Middle East, efforts to plunder and control Arab oil, or the installation of despotic regimes in the past sponsored by the British and Americans. We’re assured the people of the region have no resentment about these issues. Right.

Of course this dynamic duo of Blair and Bush deny these things considering it’s their jobs on the line. They instead persist on their claim that there is a good incentive to invade these “evil doers” given their “evil ideology”.

Additionally, Blair and Bush repeatedly state that Al Qaeda and their leader Bin Laden are jealous of the freedom in the West and fundamental “way of life”. If that were the case, why hasn’t Osama targeted the Swiss as the man himself pointed out? Who exactly is the West at war with anyway? A Brazilian immigrant - who became the first victim of the Israeli-inspired “shoot eight times to kill” policy adopted by Scotland Yard? Such is the irony of seeking advice from Mossad. Wait, I get it; “someone wearing a suspiciously large jacket and isn’t white” … gee I’m glad that we’re guarded by such gifted intelligence operatives.

Islam did not encourage the four youths to blow themselves up or plant the bombs, whatever the “intelligence” has concluded. Memories of atrocities in the Middle East have reopened deep wounds as far back as Crusader times. And this sprung forth a sense of perversion in four Muslim youths to commit these senseless acts. It was not hate of the West that drove them; it was misplaced vengeance. The spirit of vengeance has no ideology, religious or national. It is driven by a poignant notion of justice. The message was clear, “you kill our civilians, and we kill your civilians”. Such a disgusting message has no grounding in any religion, least of all Islam.
Islam expressly forbids any such acts - we all know this by now. But the media will hunt down to the far corners of the earth any “radical Sheikh” who supports terrorism; not because it is representative of Islam, but because the story will sell newspapers.

Furthermore, the deplorable events in London were worsened by the aftermath where we witnessed the callousness and ignorance of our societies. This racist backlash has subjected Muslims in the West to a form of ostracism in countries they consider home. Coaxed by ideas propagated in the media – essential in conditioning our thoughts and perceptions; vigilantes exacted ‘revenge’. Reports of numerous mosques have been raided through out Britain. Muslim women have been attacked, and a recent report of the first killing in retaliation to the London bombings has occurred. The Muslim communities worldwide have been treated like they have orchestrated these random attacks on the West as a collective entity. Such ignorance is magnified even further with an attack on a Sikh temple in the United Kingdom. I can see the common ground.

It is like a stark rendition of the Hollywood flop “The 9/11 Aftermath”, where paranoid American nutters wreaked their own terror on American Muslims. We should know by now how the story ends. Badly.

Even here in New Zealand - a country that takes pride in the tolerance and safety that it accords its multicultural society - six mosques were attacked simultaneously in Auckland. This probes the question, how are 1.2 billion Muslims responsible for a random attack on London? Must be those telepathic powers.

To clarify misconceptions of Islam, the Muslim Council of Britain issued a Fatwa (religious edict) to condemn the recent bombings. Maulana Razid Shah of the World Islamic Mission noted:

“There can never be any excuse for taking an innocent life. The Qur’an clearly declares that killing an innocent person was tantamount to killing all mankind and likewise saving a single life was as if one had saved the life of all of mankind … this is both a principle and a command. We are firmly of the view that these killings had absolutely no sanction in Islam, nor is there any justification whatsoever in our noble religion for such evil actions. It is our understanding that those who carried out the bombings in London should in no sense be regarded as martyrs”.

Whilst the Muslim leadership worldwide has an obligation to clarify misconceptions about Islam, it is unfortunate that for the vast majority in the West, this has to occur in perpetuity for it to drive home. Yes, we Muslims should condemn it. Or should we? It is self-evident that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. It has been proved endlessly. Islam is over 1400 years old; suicide bombing is a relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, the current narrative connecting Islam and suicide bombing and terrorism as a whole is ludicrous. Why should we always assume the defensive stance? Is it an ongoing requirement that the Pope condemns all terrorist acts done in the name of Catholicism in Ireland? Of course not. The followers of a religion don’t necessarily reflect the religious teachings.

Muslims should therefore not be held responsible or be associated with terrorism nor should succumb to pressures from ‘pointing fingers’ that claim to hold the moral high ground. Terrorism is an effect, not a cause.

Occupation is synonymous with terrorism. The occupation must stop in order to end the supposed justifications for the killing of innocents on both sides. Suicide bombing is anathema to Islam when we’re reminded that the Qur’an explicitly condemns suicide. Robert Pape, Director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, states that suicide bombing is not related to Muslims alone; it is a method to compel a ‘modern democracy’ to end its occupation of another. Furthermore, 70% of suicide bombings before 9/11 occurred by the Hindu Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers. Are we forgetting the Japanese Kamikazes? I don't recall Hinduism or Shintoism being maligned the way Islam has been. Terrorism should therefore be stripped of its religious associations or innocent communities will pay the price.

Terrorism is terrorism, despite who does it. It breeds further hate, which has a cancerous presence and the potential to destroy the peace and tolerance that defines a civil society. The hate crimes we witnessed in ‘retaliation’ are unquestionably terrorist acts themselves. Whether it’s in the form of killing, vandalism of holy places or propagating hate against a group of people - they are all expressions of depravity.

Terrorism has managed to strip us of our civil liberties; racial profiling and discrimination in the US and Britain echo times of primitiveness and ignorance- like burning of witches in the medieval era. One would think we would have left the dark ages behind us. But it has crept up on us, and before we know it, will engulf us with its irrationality as well as our lack of understanding of humanity.

One can take heed of the morals expressed in the Holy Qur’an at a time where civil society is bemused with its understanding of itself:

“Goodness and evil can never be equal. Repel [evil] with that which is better: then the one between whom and you was hatred will become as it were your close friend!” (41:34)

storm_of_stones

Above the Law

2005-08-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

© storm_of_stones

Man, as Mark Twain describes him, is “the only animal that for sordid wages will march out... and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for ‘the universal brotherhood of man’ – with his mouth.”

Such a truism remains relevant to this day.

The USA is hypocrisy par excellence. The current Bush administration has highlighted this exceptionally well with its invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The American government endorses the notion of “universal brotherhood of man” and civilisation as a whole through impressive speechmaking, whilst slaughtering innocents. The hypocrisy is staggering. With breathtaking arrogance, they have made a mockery of democracy in the process, proving they only pay lip service to it. They have likewise made a mockery of the international community and the laws that bind a civilised entity. I’ll illustrate these by way of a few examples.

"All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for those elections to be free and fair.”

Bush unashamedly declared this early in March 2005 in reference to Lebanon’s upcoming May elections. He went on to say,

“The Lebanese people have the right to determine their future, free from domination by a foreign power. The Lebanese people have the right to choose their own parliament this spring, free of intimidation.”

At first glance at this morsel of Bush’s speech, one would think he was speaking for all that is good and would commend him for his attempts to condemn the evils of this world. But alas, this could only be feasible if we were unaware it was the words of the warmongering Texan himself. The man who led the bombing of Afghanistan, a Third World country, back in 2001 based on a hunch. An invasion that culminated in the death of 9,000 Afghan civilians killed in the initial extensive bombing by a ‘bruised ego’. The figure excludes the deaths that followed under the occupation as a result of large-scale famine, further bombings and deteriorating health of the masses.

Cunningly, the concept of Bin Laden has been exploited by the Bush-ites. Some say he is a religious zealot. Others say he died many years ago from renal failure. Some go as far as to say he was on the CIA payroll. Bush’s team have used his name to further their imperialist agenda, whatever the case may be. Perhaps we’ll never know the truth. In this case, the fear of the unknown reigns supreme, and the frenzied media feed off the fear-driven Bin Laden concept like maggots.

The cataclysm witnessed in Afghanistan was not nearly enough to quench the bloodthirsty neo-cons running the White House. It continued with the invasion of Iraq, under false pretexts and justifications, later exposed by the Downing Street memo that clearly stated the attack on Iraq began as early as 2002. If we were oblivious to all this and much more, we would be joining the fatuous flag-waving American masses in praising this speechmaker. This saviour. However, our conscience would get the better of us upon realising the flagrant hypocrisy displayed in this speech. A few examples exemplify this hypocrisy.

Syria adhered to UN resolution 1559 that condemned its occupation of Lebanon and eventually withdrew its 14,000 troops due to international pressure earlier this year; precipitated by the suspiciously convenient assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The resolution specified the sovereignty of Lebanon and the Lebanese people and reaffirmed the illegitimacy of Syria’s presence there. In addition, it highlights the “importance of free and fair elections according to Lebanese constitutional rules devised without foreign interference or influence”.

Western backers supported the occupation of Lebanon in order to bring stability into the country during the civil war between the Christian minority (40%) and the Muslim majority (60%). The Taif agreement that followed led to a slow withdrawal of Syrian troops and a greater representation for the Muslim majority. But the democratic reforms in this agreement apparently were “too democratic” for Bush (and his cronies), as it gave Muslims a more accurate representation in accordance with their number.

I know what you’re thinking, is this not a GOOD thing? Wouldn’t Bush be in support of democratic reform? Of course not! I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that a “democratic system” in the Middle East can only work if a puppet government is ruling it - cautiously coaxed by their Western masters. Not some “rogue” Muslims who have the audacity to think they know how to practise democracy on their own. God forbid such transgressions! Maybe it’s something in the felafel that inspired this blasphemy. All is forgiven once subservience has been met.

To illustrate another example, take a look at Russia’s occupation of Afghanistan in 1980. UN Resolution 37/37 reaffirmed “… the right of the Afghan people to determine their own form of government and to choose their economic, political and social system, free from outside intervention, subversion, coercion or constraint of any kind whatsoever …” and called for “… the immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan”. Additionally, it reiterates that the “… preservation of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and non-aligned character of Afghanistan is essential for a peaceful solution of the problem …”

Sound familiar? Sounds a lot like Bush’s speech on Syria’s occupation of Lebanon! Yet how are Syria’s and Russia’s occupations different from USA’s occupations? The USA’s incursions have been upon the sovereign nations of Afghanistan and Iraq. In all cases, there has been an occupation, the sovereignty of the people has been revoked, as well as there territorial integrity and governance destroyed. Additionally, there has been a manipulation of their political system and extensive foreign interference in their fundamental way of life. In the Iraq case, the illegal occupation has been cloaked under the guise of an electoral system - a mere façade to enable imperialist protagonists to install puppet governments and ensure hegemony and accessibility to resources.

In June 2005, the Jury of Conscience World Tribunal on Iraq met in Istanbul, Turkey. They quite rightfully declared in relation to Iraq, ”Any law or institution created under the aegis of occupation is devoid of both legal and moral authority. The recently concluded election, the constituent Assembly, the current government and the drafting committee for the Constitution are therefore all illegitimate …”

Therefore, such a declaration must be applied to both Iraq and Afghanistan as the occupation of both continues.

In the same March speech, Bush hailed his 150,000 or so American troops in Iraq as contributing to the spread of “democracy” and “freedom” in Iraq. This has been expressed through the ritual torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, the continued death of thousands of Iraqis, and the predictable reinstallation of another puppet regime that echoes the installation of CIA-backed Saddam Hussein. Additionally, democracy and freedom has come to Iraq through the use of disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapons systems, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure; culminating in the destruction of the country, with Falluja being the pinnacle of this devastation. Furthermore, they’ve rewritten the laws of the country they have illegally occupied and censored Iraqi media, as well as their own, in order to mask their crimes. To top this exceptional record, they’ve intentionally exacerbated ethnic and religious divisions, which have undermined Iraqi national identity. If these aren’t reasons enough for Iraqis to throw jubilant cries of joy in massive street celebrations, I don’t know what is. Well, assuming they won’t have lead pumped into them by some crazed trigger-happy six-months-trained American youth whose deployment has been extended due to the unpopularity of an illegal war; and “mistakenly” seeing the fervour of gratitude as defiance against his God-given authority.
This is the “democracy” and “freedom” Saddam was apparently holding back on.

The USA has consequently proved that international law and international institutions like the UN are nothing but hot air. As far as the US is concerned, “might is right”. They alone are the exception. Oh ok, maybe also few of their allies, like Israel, Turkey and Uzbekistan – also in violation of international law. But that’s trivial, really. Below their aggressive and murderous exterior, we’re assured they’re nice guys. No, really.

Meanwhile the international community remains idle as the USA gallivants around the world, spreading “democracy” and “freedom” through bloodshed in breech of international law. International law they and their allies are clearly above and beyond.

If Bush has so much faith in what he believes, why does he need to bring it through sheer force and terror? The conundrum for him and his minions is if they allowed a genuine democratic process to occur in the Middle East, then they would be facing a bottom-up democracy resulting in the emergence of elected Islamic and anti-US/Israel governments. I have an inkling that might not go down well with the neo-cons. So an illegal occupation, a pseudo-election and support of despotic “democratic” governments” are naturally better alternatives.

When will the international community address the laws that we’re expected to abide by, and call upon the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan? When will the “preservation of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and non-aligned character of Afghanistan” (and Iraq) be met?

The UN has produced these resolutions in order to keep countries in check in case they violate the sovereignty of others. We have yet to see this in the case of the USA’s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess the power of a permanent veto in the Security Council does wonders.

-Storm of Stones.

Bombing Without Moonlight

2005-08-16T15:36:00.000-04:00

The Origins of Suicidal Terrorism
© Oct 2004 Abdal-Hakim Murad

1. Amnesia

Attention deficit disorder seems to flourish under conditions of late modernity. The past becomes itself more quickly. Memories, individual as well as collective, tend to be recycled and consulted only by the old. For everyone else, there are only current affairs, reaching back a few months at most. Orwell, of course, predicted this, in his dystopic prophecy that may have been only premature; but today it seems to be cemented by postmodernism (Deleuze), and also by physicists, who are now proclaiming an almost Ash‘arite scepticism about claims for the real duration of particles.

This is a condition that has an ancestry in the stirrings of the modernity which it represents. Hume anticipated it in his stunning insistence on the non-continuity of the human self: we are ‘nothing but a collection of perceptions which succeed each other with inconceivable rapidity and are in perpetual flux and movement;’ or so he thought.[1] Modern fiction may still explore or reaffirm identities (Peter Carey) and thus define human dignity as the honourable disposition of at least some aspects of an accumulated heritage. But this is giving way to the atomistic, playful, postmodern storytelling of, say, Elliot Perlman, which defines dignity - where it does so at all - in terms of freedom from all stories, even while lamenting the superficial tenor of the result. It is against the backdrop of this culture that the scientists, now far beyond Ataturk's ‘Science is the Truest Guide in Life’, raise the stakes with their occasionalism, and, for the neurologists, the increasing denial of the autonomy of the human will - a new predestinarianism that makes us always the consequence of genes and the present, not the remembered past.[2]

Our public conversations, then, seem to be the children of a marriage of convenience between two principles, neither of them religious or even particularly humanistic. The elitist mystical trope of the moment being all that is, significantly misappropriated by some New Age discourses, has become the condition of us all, albeit with the absence of God. Journalism thus becomes the privileged discourse to whose canons the public intellectual must conform, if he or she is to become a credible guide. More striking still is the observed fact that amidst our current crisis of wisdom it also seems to provide the language in which the public discussion of faith is carried on. Thus Catholicism becomes the humiliated cardinal of Boston, not St Augustine. Its morality is taken to be that which visibly clashes with the caprice of characters in Home and Away, not a severe but ultimately liberating cultivation of the virtues rooted in centuries of experience and example. Judaism, in its turn, becomes the latest land-grab of a settler rabbi, not a millennial enterprise of faith and promise. Of course, our new occasionalism does invoke the past. But it does so with reference either to scriptures, stripped of their normative exegetical armature, or to those events which remain in the consciousness of a citizenry raised on enlightenment battles with obscurantism. So again, we recall Galileo, not Eckhart; we recall the interesting hatreds of the Inquisition, not the charity of St Vincent de Paul. Otherwise, our culture is religiously amnesiac. Winston Churchill, near the end of his life, began to read the Bible. ‘This book is very well-written,’ he said. ‘Why was it not brought to my attention before?’

It is in this frankly primitive condition that we seek to discuss religious acts which, against all the predictions of our grandparents, claim to interrupt the progress of history towards a world in which there will be no continuity at all. To our perplexity, history, despite Fukuyama, does not seem to have ended. Humans do not always act for the economic or erotic now; Tamino still seeks his Sarastro. A residue of real human diversity persists. For the human soul is not yet, as Coleridge wrote,

Seraphically free,
From taint of personality.[3]

This failed ultimacy, this sense that we, the Papageni, have to dust down the armour of an earlier generation of moral absolutes, when history was still running, when the victory of the corporations and of Hollywood was not yet assured, accounts for the maladroit condition of the world’s current argument about terrorism. The most active in seizing the moment, as they elbow impatiently past the fin de siécle multiculturalists and postmodernists, are the oddly-named American neoconservatives, who invoke Leo Strauss and roll up their sleeves to defend Washington against Oriental warriors who would defy the dialectics of history and seek to postpone the apotheosis of Anglo-Saxon consumer society, which they see as the climax of a billion years of evolution.[4] But despite such ideologised adversions to the longue durée, secularism seems to have little to offer that is not short-termist and reactive, and determined to reduce the globe to a set of variations on itself.

Traditionalists, who should be more helpful, seem paralysed. Much of the fury and hurt that currently abounds in the Christian and the Muslim worlds reveals a sense that the timetable which God has approved for history has been perverted. Christendom is not a virgin in this respect; in fact, it was first, with scholastic and Byzantine broadsides against Christian sin as invitation to Saracenic chastisement (Bernard, Gregory Palamas). Then it was the turn of Islam, when, from the seventeenth century on the illusion of the Muslims as materially and militarily God’s chosen people was dealt a series of shocking blows. Now it is, once again, the turn of Christendom (if the term be still allowed), which is currently wondering why history has not yet experienced closure, why a former rival should still be showing signs of life, either as the result of a misdiagnosis, or as a zombie-like revenant bearing only a superficial resemblance to his medieval seriousness. Certainly, the American president and his frequently evangelical team see themselves in these terms. Architects of a society which, Disney-like, appropriates the past only to emphasise the glory of the present, these zealots appeal to a prophecy-religion in which the Book of Revelation is the key to history. For them, too, the promised closure is imminent, and its frustration by the Other an outrage.

President Reagan, while less captivated by end-time visions than his successors, could offer these thoughts to Jewish lobbyists:

You know, I turn back to your ancient prophets in the Old Testament and the signs foretelling Armageddon and I find myself wondering if we’re the generation that is going to see that come about. I don’t know if you’ve noted any of these prophecies lately, but, believe me, they certainly describe the times we’re going through.[5]

The protagonists of the current conflict, then, are unusual in their confidence that history has not ended, although millennialism seems to hover in the background on both sides, helped along by the frequently Palestinian scenery. The triumph of the West, or the resurgence of an Islam interpreted by bestselling Pentecostal authors as a chastisement and a demonic challenge, signals the end of a growing worry about the religious meaninglessness of late modernity. Tragically, however, neither protagonist seems validly linked to the remnants of established religion, or shows any sign of awareness of how to connect with history. Fundamentalist disjuncture is placing us in a kind of metahistorical parenthesis, an end-time excitement in which, as for St Paul, old rules are irrelevant, and Christ and Antichrist are the only significant gladiators on the stage. Fundamentalists, as well as mystics, can insist that the moment is all that is real.

2. Sunna Contra Gentiles

In such a world of pseudo-religious reaction against the postmodern erosion of identity, it follows that if you are not ‘with us,’ you are with the devil. Or, when this has to be reformulated for the benefit of the blue-collar godless, you are a ‘cheese-eating surrender monkey’. Where religion exists to supply an identity, the world is Augustinian, if not quite Manichean. The West's ancient trope of itself as a free space, perhaps a white space, holding out against Persian or Semitic intruders, is being coupled powerfully, but hardly for the first time, with Pauline and patristic understandings of the New Israel as unique vessel of truth and salvation, threatened in the discharge of its redemptive project by the Oriental, Semitic, Ishmaelitic other. In the West, at least, the religious resources for this dualism are abundant and easily abused. Take Daniel Goldhagen, for instance, who in his most recent book suggests that the xenophobia of the Christian Bible is qualitatively greater than that of any other scripture. New Bibles, he urges, must be printed with many corrections to what he describes as this founding text of a lethal Western self-centredness.[6] Semites of several kinds would be well-advised to beware a culture raised on such a foundation.

It is remarkable that both sides, in constructing themselves against a wicked, fundamentalist rival, mobilise the ancient trope of antisemitism. The Self needs its dark Other, preferably nearby or within. That Other has standard features: in the case of Christian antisemitism it is that it stands for Letter rather than Spirit, for blind obedience rather than freedom, for an discreet but intense transnational solidarity in place of Fatherland and Church. It is sexually aberrant (hence the Nazi polemic against Freud). It hides its women (who should, instead, join the SS, or practice nacktkultur). It imposes archaic and unscientific taboos: diet, purity, circumcision. Such are the categories in which an almost dualistic West historically defines its relationship to its nearest and most irritating Other.[7]

Antisemitism is, in Richard Harries' words, a 'light sleeper'. But part of its strength is that it is not asleep at all; and never has been. As Christendom seeks its identity, the Dark Other today is now more usually Ishmael. Torched mosques, terrified asylum-seekers, bullied schoolchildren, and, we may not unreasonably add, a journalistic discourse of the type that is now being labelled ‘Islamophobic’, are less new than they seem. They represent a vicarious antisemitism. ‘Islamic law is immutable’ is a chorus in the new Horst Wessel song. ‘Circumcision is barbaric.’ ‘Their divorce laws are medieval and anti-woman.’ ‘They keep to themselves and don’t integrate.’ Such is the battle-cry of the resurgent Western right: Pim Fortuin, Jean-Marie Le Pen, Jorg Haider, Filip de Winter. It has become startlingly popular, though always volatile at the polls. Thus is the old antisemitic metabolism of Europe and its American progeny being reinvigorated by the encounter with Ishmael. Again, history has started up again, and again our amnesiac culture ignores the vast cogwheels, deep beneath the surface, which move it.

On the other side, now, crossing the Mediterranean, or the Timor Sea, we generally find not a bloc of sincere fundamentalist regimes, but an archipelago of dictatorships, Oriental despots after the letter, which are in almost every case answerable not to their own electorates - for they recognise none - but to a distant desk in the State Department.[8] These are the neo-mamluks, ex-soldiers and condottieri of a system that penalises ethics. Ranged against them we observe the puritans, iconoclasts with El Greco eyes, whose claim it is to detest the modernity of the regimes. Such puritans, led by the memory of Sayyid Qutb, have no illusions about the nature of secular rule. They see clearly that the regimes are more modern than those of the West, because more frank in their conviction that science plus commerce does not equal ethics. Where the Western journalistic eye sees retardation, the Islamist sees modernity. Hitler and Stalin were more modern than Churchill and Roosevelt, more scientific, more programmatic, more distant from the past. The future is theirs, and it is neither Christ’s millennial reign nor the triumph of small-town America. It is Alphaville.

The Islamist, then, is not the caricature of the envious, uncomprehending Third Worlder. Typically he has spent much of his life in the West, and is capable of offering an empirical analysis, or at least a diagnosis. Sayyid Qutb, in his writing on what he calls ‘the deformed birth of the American man,’ sees Americans as advanced infants; advanced because of their technology, but puerile in their ignorance of earlier stages of human development.[9] There is something of Teilhard de Chardin in his account, which inverts Tocqueville to identify an American idiot-savant mania for possession. Technology made America possible, and ultimately, America need claim nothing else. Linked to Christian fundamentalism, it is an enemy of every other story; and unlike the East, it will not remain in its place. It must send out General Custer to subdue all remnants of earlier phases of human consciousness rooted in nature, spirituality or art. Its client regimes are therefore its natural, not opportunistic, adjuncts in its programme to subdue the world. They are not a transitional phase, they are the end-game.

Antisemitism forms part of this vision too, certainly. But since, as Goldhagen confirms, this is an essentially Christian phenomenon, to be healed by correcting the views of the Evangelists, in an Islamic context which lacks a letter-spirit dichotomy it seems a hazier resource for identity construction. Qutb was influenced by the Vichy theorist Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), through his odd, vitalist tract L’Homme, cet inconnu, which remains an ultimate, though unacknowledged, source text for much modern Islamism.[10] No medieval Muslim thinker of any note wrote a book against Judaism, although homilies against Christianity were quite common. If medieval Islam had a dark Other, it was more likely to be Zoroastrianism than Judaism, which, in Samuel Goitein’s phrase by which he summed up his magisterial work A Mediterranean Society, enjoyed a close and ‘symbiotic’ relationship with Islam.[11] But today’s Qutbian Islamist purges midrashic material from Koranic commentary, and studies the Tsarist forgery The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, and, even, Mein Kampf. Nothing can be discovered, it seems, in the Islamic libraries, so that this importation into an ostensively nativist and xenophobic milieu becomes inescapable - the fundamentalist’s familiar appeal to necessity.

As he surveys the wreckage of Istanbul synagogues and Masonic lodges, the journalist, as ibn al-waqt, is oblivious to the happier past of Semitic conviviality in the Ottoman Sephardic lands. And perhaps he is right, perhaps, under our conditions, the past is another religion. But the paradox has become so burning, and so murderous, that we cannot let it pass unremarked. The Islamic world, instructed to host Israel, was historically the least inhospitable site for the diaspora. The currently almost ubiquitous myth of a desperate sibling rivalry between Isaac and Ishmael is nonsensical to historians.

Here, at the dark heart of Islam’s extremist fringe, we find what may be the beginnings of a solution. No nativist reaction can long survive proof of its own exogenous nature. And no less than its Christian analogues, Islamic ghuluww, at least in its currently terroristic forms, betrays a European etiology. It borrows its spiritual, as well as its material, armament from Western modernity. This, we may guess, marks it out for anachronism in a context where intransigence is xenophobic.[12]

This is an unpopular diagnosis; but one which is gaining ground. It cannot be without significance that outside observers, when not blinded by a xenophobic need to view terrorism as Islamically authentic, have sometimes intuited this well. Here, for instance, is the verdict of John Gray, in his book Al-Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern:

No cliche is more stupefying than that which describes Al-Qaida as a throwback to medieval times. It is a by-product of globalisation. Its most distinctive feature - projecting a privatised form of organised violence worldwide - was impossible in the past. Equally, the belief that a new world can be hastened by spectacular acts of destruction is nowhere found in medieval times. Al-Qaida’s closest precursors are the revolutionary anarchists of late nineteenth-century Europe.[13]

And Slavoj Zizek, a still more significant observer, is convinced that what we are witnessing is not ‘Jihad versus MacWorld’ – the standard leftist formulation - but rather MacWorld versus MacJihad.[14]

This implies that if ghuluww has a future, it will be because modernity has a future, not because it has roots in Islamic tradition. That tradition, indeed, it rules out of order, as it dismisses the juridical, theological and mystical intricacies of medieval Islam as so much dead wood. The solution, then, which the world is seeking, and which it is the primary responsibility of the Islamic world, not the West to provide, must be a counter-reformation, driven by our best and most cosmopolitan heritage of spirit and law.

A point of departure, here, and a useful retort to essentialist reductions of Islam to Islamism, is the fact that orthodoxy still flies the flag in almost all seminaries. The reformers are, at least institutionally, in the Rhonnda chapels, not the cathedrals. Perhaps the most striking fact about regulation Sunni Islam over the past fifty years has been its insistence that religion’s general response to modernity must not take the form of an armed struggle. There have been local exceptions to this rule, as in the reactive wars against Serbian irredentism in Bosnia, and Soviet intrusion into Afghanistan. But a doctrine of generic jihad against the West has been conspicuous by its absence.[15]

It is not immediately clear how we gloss this. In the nineteenth century Sunni Islam frequently elected to resist European colonial rule by force, giving rise to the figure of the Mad Mullah who formed part of the imperial imagination, in the fiction of John Buchan, or Tolstoy’s Hajji Murad. In the twentieth century, however, the traditional pragmatism of Sunnism seemed to generate an ulema ethos that was certainly not quietist, but had nothing in common with Qutbian Islamism either. Hence the Deobandi movement in India, and its Tablighi offshoot, supported the Congress party, and generally opposed Partition. Arab religious leaders sometimes resorted to force, as with the Naqshbandi shaykh Izz al-Din al-Qassam in mandate Palestine; but the independence movements were overwhelmingly directed by secular modernists. The ancient universities, al-Qarawiyyin, al-Zaytuna, al-Azhar and the rest, regarded the modern period as a mandate for doctrinal retrenchment and the piecemeal ijtihad-based reassessment of aspects of Islamic law. In other words, mainstream Islam’s response to the startling novelty of a modernity that was forced on its societies at the point of an imperial or postcolonial bayonet was self-scrutinising and cautious, not militant.

Traditional wisdom and the texts, of course, were the reason for this. Sunnism, as inscribed by the great Seljuk theorists, had put its trust in prudence, pragmatism, and a strategy of negotiation with the sultan. So in British India, the Hanafi consensus decided that the Raj formed part of dar al-islam. In Russia, Shihab al-Din Marjani took the same view with regard the empire of the Tsars. But for Qutb, all this was paradigmatic of the error of classical Sunni thought. Islam was to be prophetic, and hence a liberation theology, challenging structures as well as souls, not by preaching and praying alone, but by agitation and revolution. Given his education and sitz im leben in the golden age of anti-colonialism, probably nothing could have extricated Qutb from his critique of what he saw as Sunni indifferentism, rooted, he suspected, in Ash‘ari deontology and a presumed Sufi fatalism. The prophetic is not meant to be accommodating; it fails, or it succeeds triumphantly. The normative political thinkers, Mawardi, Nizam al-Mulk, Ghazali, Katib Çelebi, and their modern advocates, had to be jettisoned. Technological empires had made the world anew, and, if it was to cope with an increasingly bizarre and offensive Other, Islamic thought had to be reformed in the direction of an increasingly unconditional insurrectionism.

Qutb’s resurrection of Ibn Taymiya, via Rashid Rida, became paradigmatic. In the fourteenth century this angry Damascene had attacked ulema who acquiesced in the rule of the nominally Muslim Mongols. Loyalty could be to a righteous imam alone. Rida and others had taken pains to dissociate this from the Kharijite slogan ‘No rule other than God’s’, for an unpleasant odour hung about the name of Kharijism. But de facto, the hard wing of Hanbalite Islam seemed vulnerable to a Kharijite reading. Prototypical al-Qaida supporters wrote to condemn the Syrian neo-Hanbali scholar Nasir al-Din al-Albani, when he released a series of taped sermons entitled Min Manhaj al-Khawarij, ‘From the Method of the Kharijites’, in the early 1990s.[16] Often the word used by less radical puritans in Saudi Arabia for those engaged in terrorism is, precisely, ‘Kharijite’.

What everyone agrees, however, is that al-Qaida is far, far removed from medieval Sunnism. For some, it is Kharijite; for others, an illicit Westernisation of Islam. As Carl Brown puts it, ‘it cannot be stressed too often just how much Qutb’s hardline interpretation departs from the main current of Islamic political thought throughout the centuries.’[17] For Brown, Qutbism is kharijism redux; but we would add, with Gray, that it is a Westernised kharijism. Like all identity movements, it ends with only a very arguable kind of authenticity.

The convergence between a malfunctioning Hanbalism and modern revolutionary vanguardism may owe its strength not to a shared potential for an instantiated xenophobia, although this will attract many party cadres; instead, I suspect, it relates to deeper structures of relationality with the world and its worldliness. The new Islamic zealotry is angry with the Islamic past, as Ibn Taymiya was. For Ibn Taymiya, the ulema had not adequately polarised light and dark. In the case of the mystics, they had disastrously confused them. There is something of the Augustine in Ibn Taymiya: a concrete understanding of a God who is radically apart from creation, or, in patristic terms, alienated from it, and a consequently high view of scripture that challenges Ash‘arite and Maturidi confidences in the direct intelligibility of God in the world, and revives essentially dualistic readings of the Fall narrative. It may be that Ibn Taymiya’s roots in Harran, scene of neo-Gnostic and astral speculations, parallel Augustine’s Manichean background. But there is certainly a furious, single-minded zeal in both men that expresses itself in a deep pessimism about the human mind and conscience, and hence the worth of intellectuals, poets, logicians, and mystics.[18] In such a cosmology, which deploys the absolute polarity abhorred by Deleuze’s Pli (his love of nomadic arts, with their ‘blocs of sensations’ is Islamically suggestive) gentilizing becomes first, not second nature.

Seljuk accommodationism, by contrast, had been driven by an ultimately Ghazalian moralism that feared the spiritual entailments of this crypto-dualism. Nizam al-Mulk, paradigm of high Sunni realpolitik, does not enforce a norm, but enforces the toleration of many norms. He finds that like all scripture, the Koran is super-replete, overflowing with meaning, and no exegete may taste all its flavours; this destabilising miracle may express itself in schism, historically the less favoured Islamic option, or in adab al-ikhtilaf, the forced courtesy of the scholar-jurist well aware of the ultimately unfixable quality of much of holy writ. The Sunni achievement, which was a moral as well as a pragmatic achievement, was to incorporate a wide spectrum of theological and juristic dispute into the universe of allowable internal difference. For zealotry, as Ghazali puts it, is a hijab, a veil.[19] It is a form of, in the Rabbis’ language, loving the Torah more than God. A besetting odium theologicum which can only be healed through self-scrutiny and a due humility before the often baffling intricacy of God’s word and world.

It was on the basis of this hospitable caution that non-Qutbian Sunnism engaged with modernity. Reading the fatwas of great twentieth-century jurists such as Yusuf al-Dajawi, Abd al-Halim Mahmud, and Subhi Mahmassani, one is reminded of the Arabic proverb cited on motorway signs in Saudi Arabia: fi’l-ta’anni as-salama - there is safety in reducing speed. Far from committing a pacifist betrayal, the normative Sunni institutions were behaving in an entirely classical way. Sunni piety appears as conciliatory, cautious, and disciplined, seeking to identify the positive as well as the negative features of the new global culture. Thus it is not the orthodox, but the merchants of identity religion, the Sunna Contra Gentiles, who insist on totalitarian and exclusionary readings of the Law and the state.[20]

If this is our curious situation, if al-Qaida is indeed a product and mirror not of the Sunni story, but of the worst of the Enlightenment’s possibilities, if it is, as it were, the Frankenstein of Frankistan (as Zionism is a golem), how effective can be America’s currently chosen antidote? This takes the form of killing, imprisoning and torturing the leadership, and many of the rank and file, using the methods which have been reported by British and other detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, and by Red Cross officials disturbed by news from Bagram air base in Kabul. Again, our occasionalism has allowed us to forget the history of revolutionary movements, which suggests that such measures are self-defeating, sowing the dragon’s teeth of martyrdom, and announcing to the world the depth of the torturer’s fear. A civilisation confident of victory would not resort to such desperate means. For after violence and internment, there is no last resort. Both moral advantage and deterrent threat have already been used up.

Traditional Sunnis intuit that al-Qaida is a Western invention, but one which cannot be defeated in a battleground where the logic is Western. This was one of the messages that emerged from the 2003 summit meeting of eight hundred Muslim scholars at Putrajaya.[21] Al-Qaida is inauthentic: it rejects the classical canons of Islamic law and theology, and issues fatwas that are neither formally nor in their habit of mind deducible from medieval exegesis. But it is not enough for the entire leadership of the religion to denounce al-Qaida, as it did at Putrajaya, and then to hope and pray that the same strange logic of modernity that bred this insurgency can spirit it away again. The West inseminates, but does not so easily abort. Faced with this, the Sunni leadership needs to be more alert to its responsibilities. Even the radical Westernisation of Islamic piety remains the responsibility of Muslim ulema, not, ultimately, of the Western matrix that inspired it. And it has to be said that the Sunni leadership has not done enough. Denunciations alone will not dent the puritan’s armour, and may strengthen it; this the Counter-Reformation learned by experience.

3. Jus in bello

The war against neo-Kharijite ideology can only be won by Sunni normalcy. Washington’s rhetoric of ‘religion-building’ disguises either a Texan missionary instinct or the triumphant relativism of the secular academy. Franklin Graham and the Ashcroft Inquisition will fail, as Christianity always does against Semitic monotheism, while liberalism, at once its rival and its hypocritical bedfellow, cannot be relied on to supply ethics under conditions of stress. For the Occidental energy all too often responds to such conditions either by apathy (remember the wartime Parisian intelligentsia), or by suspending the ethical teleologically, the classic revolutionary gambit since the days of the Paris commune, if not the English civil war.

The zealots of both sides insist that the validating of ‘soft targets’ is a representative Islamic act. How might they respond to evidence that it is, in fact, a representative secular-Western one? The evidence, as it turns out, is compelling, being a matter of historical record. Despite its claims in times of obese complacency to abhor the killing of the innocent, the secular West reverts with indecent haste to Cicero’s maxim, Silent enim leges inter arma - laws are silent during war. And it is in this Occidental culture, and not in mainline Islam, that we should seek the matrix of radical Islamism. Let us survey the record.

W.G. Sebald has been a recent and helpful contributor here. He writes lyrically of the vengeance visited by the RAF on Germany’s cities in the early 1940s, focussing on the thirty thousand who died in Operation Gomorrah (!) against the city of Hamburg. The object of such campaigns was military only in a very indirect way, for Churchill’s purpose in what he called ‘terror bombing’ (where it was not straightforward vengefulness) was to sap the morale of Germany’s civilian population. As Sebald shows, Parliament restructured the whole British economy to support the area bombing campaign, for one reason alone: it was the only way in which Britain could successfully strike back.[22]

In 1930, the British population had generally shared the view of one politician that to bomb civilians was ‘revolting and un-English.’[23] But with its back against the wall, the population changed its mind with impressive speed. In 1942, Bomber Command’s Directive No. 22 identified the 'morale of the enemy civil population’ as the chief target. By the end of the war, a million tons of high explosive had rained down on German cities, and half a million civilians were dead. By that time a majority of Britons explicitly supported the bombing of civilian targets.[24] As the MP for Norwich put it: ‘I am all for the bombing of working-class areas of German cities. I am Cromwellian - I believe in “slaying in the name of the Lord”,’[25] while after Operation Gomorrah, a popular headline crowed that ‘Hamburg has been Hamburgered.’[26] A third of the war economy was directed to serve this onslaught, with the development of new weapons of mass destruction, such as incendiary bombs, designed specifically to maximise devastation to private homes.[27] Yet after Dresden, which the postwar official history hailed as the ‘crowning achievement’ of the bombing campaign, Churchill was forced to reconsider:

It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed. Otherwise, we shall come into control of an utterly ruined land.[28]

This was no sort of repentance. To his last breath Churchill defended the terror campaign which he had instigated and which underpinned so much of his popularity. Mass destruction from the air of a target whose details were often obscured by clouds or the absence of moonlight, was not, for this icon of English defiance, a moral problem.

A largely secular person of the stamp of our wartime Prime Minister was clearly following a fairly standard Enlightenment philosophy which had replaced the wars of kings with the wars of peoples. Clausewitz, the chief architect of post-medieval military thought, was certain that ‘war is an act of force which theoretically can have no limits,’[29] a view that the most influential military theorists of the twentieth century extended to the use of airpower to terrorize civilians (Liddell Hart, Douhet, Harris). One might have hoped that this illustration of the moral calibre of secularity was found appalling by the Christian conscience of the day. But the stance taken by the leaders of British Christianity was already deeply influenced by modernism. The Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, followed by his brother bishop of York, consistently refused to join the anti-terror minority within the Anglican church. As a historian records, ‘only a handful of the clergy objected outright to area bombing;’[30] George Bell, the outspoken Bishop of Chichester, was a lonely exception in upholding earlier ideals of a just war which had regarded women and children as sacrosanct.

After the war, the victors reset the moral template to its rhetorical default position, and their earlier fatwas in favour of terror bombing were relegated to an outer, uncomfortable edge of the national memory. Once again, England and America (which had carried on its own targeting of civilians in Japan)[31] reverted to the traditional notion of civilian immunity, with its pre-Enlightenment roots. So five years later, the British press felt able to excoriate Menachem Begin as a terrorist, simply because, as he puts it in his memoirs: ‘our enemies called us terrorists […] but we used physical force only because we were faced by physical force.’[32] And today, who can claim that Al-Qaida’s logic is different? The 777 has become the poor man’s nuclear weapon, his own Manhattan Project. Again, he has turned traitor to the East by embracing the utilitarian military ethic of his supposed adversary. He, even more than the regimes, shows the cost of Westernisation.

In this light, how may we take the pulse of the West’s denunciation of ‘Muslim terror’? Let us recall Adorno’s First Law of sexual ethics: always mistrust the accuser.

4. Samson Terroristes

The targeting of civilians is more Western than otherwise; contemplating the Ground Zero of a hundred German cities, this can hardly be denied. Yet it will be claimed that suicidal terrorism is something new, and definitively un-Western. Here, we are told by xenophobes on both sides, the Islamic suicide squads, the Black Widows, the death-dealing pilots, are an indigenously Islamic product.[33] And yet here again, when we detach ourselves from the emotive chauvinism of the Islamists and their Judeo-Christian misinterpreters, we soon find that the roots of such practices in the Islamic imagination are as recent as they are shallow. The genealogy of suicide bombing clearly stretches back from Palestine, through Shi‘a guerillas in southern Lebanon, to the Hindu-nativist zealots of the Tamil Tigers, and to the holy warriors of Shinto Japan, who initiated the tradition of donning a bandanna and making a final testament on camera before climbing into the instrument of destruction. The kamikaze was literally the 'Wind of Heaven', a term evocative of the divine intervention which destroyed the Mongol fleet as it crossed the Yellow Sea.

Hindu and Buddhist tributaries of Middle-Eastern suicide bombing are conspicuous, and it is significant that the Islamists, driven as ever by nativist passion, recoil from them in fits of denial. (How happily, in the sermons, hunud rhymes with yahud!) Yet some scenic images may be instructive for those who take the philosophy of isnad seriously. After describing the Christian martyr Peregrinus, who set fire to himself in public, Sir James Frazier records:

Buddhist monks in China sometimes seek to attain Nirvana by the same method, the flame of their religious zeal being fanned by a belief that the merit of their death redounds to the good of the whole community, while the praises which are showered upon them in their lives, and the prospect of the honours and worship which await them after death, serve as additional incentives to suicide.[34]

But it was in South India that holy suicide seems to have been most endemic:

In Malabar and the neighbouring regions, many sacrifice themselves to the idols. When they are sick or involved in misfortune, they vow themselves to the idol in case they are delivered. Then, when they have recovered, they fatten themselves for one or two years; and when another festival comes around, they cover themselves with flowers, crown themselves with white garlands, and go singing and playing before the idol, when it is carried through the land. There, after they have shown off a good deal, they take a sword with two handles, like those used in currying leather, put it to the back of their necks, and cutting strongly with both hands sever their heads from their bodies before the idol.[35]

The atmaghataka, the suicidal Hindu, was a familiar sight of the premodern Indian landscape, where ‘religious suicides were highly recommended and in most cases glorified.’[36] Suicide often functioned as the culmination of a pilgrimage: ‘the enormous Tirtha literature (literature on pilgrimage) curiously enough describes in detail suicide by intending persons at different places of pilgrimage and the varying importance and virtues attached to them.’[37] Ibn Battuta and al-Biruni, among other Muslim visitors, had been particularly shocked by Hindu customs of sacred suicide, particularly bride-burning and self-drowning.[38] Altogether, in such a culture the development of suicidal methods as part of war is hardly surprising; they are deeply rooted in local non-monotheistic values.

Today’s Tamil extremists extend this tradition in significant ways. Each Tamil Tiger wears a cyanide capsule around his neck, to be swallowed in case of capture. The explosive belt, used to assassinate hated politicians as well as Sinhalese marines and ordinary civilians, predates its Arab borrowing: the first Tamil suicide-martyrs in modern times appear in the 1970s.[39] The Tiger’s Hindu roots[40] thus nourish the current Palestinian practice; as one observer notes: ‘the Black Tigers, as the suicide cadres are known, have been emulated by the likes of Hamas.’[41]

But there is also a strong Western precedent, in pagan antiquity, in early Judaism, and in Christianity.

Suicide had been a respectable option for many ancients. Achilles chooses battle against the Trojans, knowing that the gods have promised that this will lead to his death. Ajax takes his own life, in the confidence that this will not affect his honour. Chrysippus, Zeno, and Socrates all opt for suicide rather than execution or dishonour. Marcus Aurelius praises it to the skies. It was only the neo-Platonists and late Platonists (who not coincidentally became the most congenial Hellenes for Islam) who systematically opposed it.[42]

The Biblical text nowhere condemns suicide. (Judas is condemned for betrayal, not for taking his own life; although Augustine will claim otherwise.) On the contrary, it offers several examples of individuals who chose death.[43] Saul (the koranic Talut) falls on his own sword rather than be humiliated in Philistine captivity (I Samuel 31). Jonah (Yunus) asks the frightened mariners to cast him into the sea (Jonah 1.12), and begs ‘Take my life from me,’ (4.3) for ‘it is better for me to die than to live’ (4.8-9). Job (Ayyub) prays: ‘O that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire; that it would please God to crush me’ (Job 6:8-13), and even ‘I loath my life’ (7:15). Later, during the Maccabean revolts, the hero Razis falls on his sword to avoid falling into the hands of the wicked (2 Maccabees 14:42, 45-6). A notion of vicarious atonement has developed, so that the militant’s suicide which enrages the enemy brings a blessing to the people (4 Maccabees 17:21-2). [44]

The early rabbis typically accept self-immolation in situations of military desperation, to avoid humiliation and to impress the enemy. The deaths of Saul and Samson were regarded as exemplary.[45] And in 'the Jewish Middle Ages, enthusiasm for martyrdom (at least in Ashkenaz - northern Europe) became so great that it proved a positive danger to Jewish existence.’[46] Religious voices raised in support of 20th century Zionism could link this tradition to their own militancy.[47] Hence Avram Kook, the first Ashkenazy Chief Rabbi of mandate Palestine (in Walter Wurzburger’s words)

permitted individuals to volunteer for suicide missions when carried out in the interest of the collective Jewish community. In other words, an act that would be illicit if performed to help individuals, would be legitimate if intended for the benefit of the community.[48]

In the nascent Christian movement, Jesus came to be presented as a suicide, albeit one who knew that he would be resurrected. Some historians are convinced that Jesus, having armed his band with swords (Luke 22:36), formed part of the larger Zealot movement against Roman oppression,[49] while others adhere to the orthodox view that his deliberate death was to be a cosmic sacrifice for human sin; but in either case, the dominant voice in the New Testament presents him as going to Jerusalem in the awareness that this would bring about his certain death (see Mark 10:32-4). Hence the insistent courting of martyrdom by many early Christians praised by Tertullian (here in the words of a modern scholar):

In 185 the proconsul of Asia, Arrius Antoninus, was approached by a group of Christians demanding to be executed. The proconsul obliged some of them and then sent the rest away, saying that if they wanted to kill themselves there was plenty of rope available or cliffs they could jump off.[50]

And for Chrysostom, blasting the infidels, the Christians were better than the ancients, since Socrates had had little choice, while Christians volunteered for martyrdom. In fact, most orthodox Christian martyrs appear to have been volunteers, many of them appearing from nowhere to clamour for the death penalty, or emerging from the crowds to join the flames consuming one of their brethren. It was only with Augustine that this self-immolating behaviour came to an end, as involuntary martyrdom was established as the only acceptable Christian norm in the West.[51]

Orthodoxy, however, remained closer to the primitive tradition. As Frazier records (of sixteenth to nineteenth-century Russia): ‘whole communities hailed with enthusiasm the gospel of death, and hastened to put its precepts into practice.’ Although at first the volunteers were dropped into doorless rooms in which they starved to death ‘for Christ’, fire became the most popular method.

Priests, monks, and laymen scoured the villages and hamlets preaching salvation by the flames, some of them decked in the spoils of their victims; for the motives of the preachers were often of the basest sort. They did not spare even the children, but seduced them by promises of the gay clothes, the apples, the nuts, the honey they would enjoy in heaven. […] Men, women and children rushed into the flames. Sometimes hundreds, and even thousands, thus perished together.[52]

Combining the practice of suicidal martyrdom-seeking with the pursuit of warfare, resulted, for Europeans as well as for Tamils, in what would today be called suicidal warfare. This had the advantage of generating tremendous publicity for the cause in worlds such as the Indic and the Greco-Roman which, like today’s, had a penchant for the bizarre.[53] And for this, the most spectacular precedent was in the Bible. Brian Wicker, a modern Catholic interpreter, remarks that ‘to us, Samson just appears like a cross between Beowulf and Batman,’[54] while Bernhard Anderson in his book The Living World of the Old Testament, neutralises the Samson story by viewing him as the object of divine punishment.[55] Yet he is presented by the narrator of Judges 13 to 16 as an unambiguous hero, and traditionally the churches regarded his self-destruction and his massacre of three thousand Philistine men, women, and children, as a valid act of martyrdom. Augustine and Aquinas both pose the question: why is self-murder not here a sin, and answer: because God had commanded him, and the normal ethical rule was thus suspended.[56]

This suicide-warrior rises to the top of Western literature in Samson Agonistes. Milton is here smarting from the horror and shame of the Restoration. Once again, England is under the idolatrous law of king and bishops, a kind of jahiliyya, and Cromwell’s city of glass has been shattered. His poem, then, is autobiographical: Samson is a true hero, humiliated, blinded by an unjust king, kept captive in the world of the dark Other. Like the refugee-camp inmate he is

Exposed
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong,
Within doors, or without, still as a fool,
In power of others, never in my own.[57]

His duty, confronted by a hypocritical War on Terror, is to take effective revenge by any means necessary. His father, recognising this grim necessity, makes the usual statement of fathers of suicide bombers everywhere:

Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail,
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame, nothing but well and fair.
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.[58]

The theme continues, through Handel, to reach Saint-Saens. In the latter’s opera Samson and Delilah the Samson legend, far from falling by the wayside of progress and fraternité, seems the perfect icon for France’s contemporary humiliation before Prussian technology. The guns of Krupp have frustrated France’s destiny in her mission civilatrice, and the chosen people must be avenged. The story seems perfectly modern: there is the theme of the tragic power of sex - Delilah becomes a second Carmen - and we witness the inevitability of total destruction in a grand, cast-iron Götterdammerung. Ernst Jünger, Stalingrad, and the suicidal B-52 captain in Doctor Strangelove are not far behind.

But perhaps the most recent, and also the most fascinating, mobilisation of the Samson ‘ideal’ in Western literature is the novel Samson by the Zionist ideologue Vladimir Jabotinsky. ‘Homeland, whatever the price!’ is the captured Israelite’s slogan. Like the Islamist, the Zionist hero stresses the impossibility of conviviality:

The second thing I have learned in the last few days is the wisdom of having boundary–stones […] Neighbours can agree so long as each remains home, but trouble comes as soon as they begin to pay each other visits. The gods have made men different and commanded them to respect the ditch in the fields. It is a sin for men to mix what the Gods have separated.[59]

Like a good Islamist, the Zionist Samson combines this xenophobia with a passion to acquire the Other’s technology. When asked if he had a message for his own people, he cries:

They must get iron. They must give everything they have for iron – their silver and wheat, oil and wine and flocks, even their wives and daughters. All for iron! There is nothing in the world more valuable than iron. Will you tell them that?[60]

Like the Islamist, too, Jabotinsky’s suicide-hero is envious of the unbeliever’s skills at organisation:

One day, he was present at a festival at the temple of Gaza. Outside in the square a multitude of young men and girls were gathered for the festive dances [...] A beardless priest led the dances. He stood on the topmost step of the temple, holding an ivory baton in his hand. When the music began the vast concourse stood immobile [...] The beardless priest turned pale and seemed to submerge his eyes in those of the dancers, which were fixed responsively on his. He grew paler and paler; all the repressed fervor of the crowd seemed to concentrate within his breast till it threatened to choke him. Samson felt the blood stream to his heart; he himself would have choked if the suspense had lasted a few moments longer. Suddenly, with a rapid, almost inconspicuous movement, the priest raised his baton, and all the white figures in the square sank down on the left knee and threw the right arm towards heaven – a single movement, a single, abrupt, murmurous harmony. The tens of thousands of onlookers gave utterance to a moaning sigh. Samson staggered; there was blood on his lips, so tightly had he pressed them together [...] Samson left the place profoundly thoughtful. He could not have given words to his thought, but he had a feeling that here, in this spectacle of thousands obeying a single will, he had caught a glimpse of the great secret of politically minded peoples.[61]

Lest this be thought an aberrant, marginal use of the suicide-hero, let us recall the words of another Zionist thinker, Stephen Rosenfeld: ‘All our generation was brought up on that book.’[62]

Samson provides an important Biblical archetype for the national hero who is a semi-outcast among his own people, but who saves them nonetheless. In the dying months of Nazi Germany, selbstopfereinsatz missions were flown by Luftwaffe pilots against Soviet bridgeheads on the Oder.[63] In 1950, Cecil B. DeMille used Jabotinsky’s novel as the basis for his film Samson and Delilah. And a still more recent example is the film Armageddon, in which a group of socially marginalised Americans sacrifice their lives by detonating their spacecraft inside a comet that is on a collision course with Earth. In doing so they are defying tradition and even lawful orders, but they earn thereby the eternal gratitude of their people. As Robert Jewett and John Lawrence have shown, this image of the American hero as the ordinary man impatient of traditional authority who risks or destroys himself to save the world (John Brown, Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone, Captain America, Superman, Spiderman, and Captain Picard in the final episode of Star Trek), is the great monomyth of today’s West.[64] In some Eastern parts, the popularity of magically vanishing Bin Laden figures, who emerge from undistinguished lives to break conventional laws in order to save the world, offers another suggestion of how deeply Westernised Arab culture has become.

Let no-one claim, then, that suicide bombing is alien to the West. It is a recurrent possibility of Europe’s heritage. What needs emphasizing, against the snapshot thinking of the journalists, is the absence of a parallel strand in Islamic thinking. For Islam, suicide is always forbidden; some regard it as worse than murder.[65] Many Biblical stories are retold by Islam, but the idea of suicidal militancy is entirely absent from the scriptures. Saul’s suicide is not present in the Koran, nor do we find it in Tabari’s great Annals (which wish simply to record that he died in battle).[66] The Koranic Jonah does not ask to be pitched overboard, and Job does not pray for death. Similarly, the suicidal istishhad of Samson is absent from the Koran and Hadith, no doubt in line with their insistence on the absolute wickedness of suicide. The same Islamic idealism that cannot accept David’s seduction of Bathsheba, or Lot’s incest, has here airbrushed out Samson’s killing of the innocent and his self-destruction.

Again, the point is clear: the scriptural and antique sensibilities which provided some cultural space for suicidal warfare in Western civilisation appear to have very thin foundations in Islam. Flying into a skyscraper to save the world is closer to the line which links Samson to Captain America, with a detour through the Book of Revelation, than to any Muslim conception of futuwwa.

Here are Buruma and Margalit, in their important study of Westernised anti-Westernism:

Bin Laden’s use of the word ‘insane’ is more akin to the Nazis’ constant use of fanatisch. Human sacrifice is not an established Muslim tradition. Holy war always was justified in defence of the Islamic state, and believers who died in battle were promised heavenly delights, but glorification of death for its own sake was not part of this, especially in the Sunni tradition. […] And the idea that freelance terrorists would enter paradise as martyrs by murdering unarmed civilians is a modern invention, one that would have horrified Muslims in the past. Islam is not a death cult.[67]

Let us now move on to consider other hints of the Western roots of radical Islamism. One symptom may be detected in a shared fondness for conspiracy theories. The messianic importance of the hidden deliverer is emphasised by the machinations of the forces of darkness which are ranged against him. The mu’amara, or Plot, is everywhere, as Robert Fisk, that dauntless lamentor of Mid-East fantasies, regularly observes.[68] A sadly typical example is given by Abdelwahab Meddeb:

When I was at Abu Dhabi in May 2001, a number of my interlocutors, of various Arab communities (Lebanese, Syrian, Sudanese, etc.), confirmed the warning, spread by the local newspapers, to the public of the countries of the Near East not to buy the very inexpensive belts with the label Made in Thailand. These belts, the people told me, were actually Israeli products in disguise and carried a kind of flea that propagated an incurable disease: one more Zionist trick to weaken Arab bodies, if not eliminate them. These interlocutors, otherwise reasonable and likable, gave credit to information as fantastic as that. Those are the fantasies in which the symptoms of the sickness of Islam can be seen, the receptive compost in which the crime of September 11 could be welcomed joyfully.[69]

Again, this is historically unusual for Muslims. Healthy communities far from Western influence find it incredible. The current prevalence of a kind of Islamic McCarthyism, often hysterical in its attempts to reduce a complex and enraging modernity to a monomaniac opposition, is simply another indication of how far the Islamists have travelled from the tradition. Religion makes us more attentive to reality, while secularity, bereft of real disciplines of self-knowledge and self-disdain, permits a dream-self. ‘They think that every shout is against themselves,’ says the Koran of the hypocrites (63:4), while praising the believers for their clearsighted faith that only God is simple, and it is only He that should be feared. The correct mindset is specified in scripture:

Those to whom the people said: ‘The people have gathered against you, therefore fear them!’ But it increased them in faith, and they said: ‘Allah is enough for us, an excellent Guardian is he!’
So they returned with grace and favour from Allah, and no harm touched them. They followed the good-pleasure of Allah, and Allah is of great bounty.

It is only the devil who would make [men] fear his allies. Fear them not; fear Me, if you are believers. (3:173-5)

The context is the aftermath of Uhud, when waverers warned of the strength of the combined enemies around Medina. Paranoia thus becomes the marker of imperfect faith and undue respect for the asbab. But despair is kufr: Islam’s Samson could never say:

Hopeless are all my evils, all remediless;
This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard,
No long petition, speedy death,
The close of all my miseries, and the balm.[70]

Moreover, it requires an apparently unbearable humility for the Islamist conspiracy theorist to recognise that until very recently Muslims have seldom been perceived by the United States as a noteworthy enemy. For most of its history, America has opposed and feared and stereotyped Englishmen, Rebels, Red Indians, Spaniards, Huns, Reds or Gooks. The current preoccupation with Muslims is shallow in the US memory, if we discount the brief and long-forgotten enthusiasms of the Decatur episode.

Again, as with the conspiracy theories which urgently needed to see 9/11 as the work of Mossad, and the utilitarian justification of the vanguard’s suspension of the ethical, the radical Islamists are an expression of the very Westernising alienation they profess to defy. In a sense, the West hates them because they are more modern than itself, and thus remind it of the unbearable risks it has taken by following the road of Enlightenment. It is as Meddeb reminds us: ‘Who are those who died while spreading death in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania? [...] They are the sons of our times, the pure products of the Americanisation of the world.’[71]

Self-immolation in Gaza to bring down the unbelieving temple. This is tragedy in Wagnerian mode. It is suicide, selbstmord, not really prefatory to redemption, but to publicity and therapy. It was Nietzsche, not any Islamic sage, who wrote: ‘The thought of suicide is a great source of comfort: with it a calm passage is to be made across many a bad night.’[72] After being ‘eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves,’ Samson experiences ‘calm of mind, all passion spent’[73] - the English idiom begins with Milton’s ending, linking, as do some readings of the Samson legend, eros and thanatos, desire and death.

But it is Nietzsche who introduces the modern superhero. If ‘the splendrous blond beast, avidly rampant for plunder and victory’ cannot take the revenge which heals his heart, he will end his unworthy existence in a magnificent, Hitlerian funeral pyre. Samson thus becomes an anticipation of modernity.

Religion, if it has the right to exist at all, must consider this a spurious healing. Neither vainglory nor despair can have a place in the metabolism of a religion based on the idea of God’s unique mastery of history, the polar opposite of dualistic paganism, or of the romantic Enlightenment dream which found its tragic moods congenial. The scriptures denounce hamiyya, the feverish identity-politics of the pagan Arabs; the post-orthodox Islamist admits it to his heart. ‘Roots of Muslim Rage’ is the title of Bernard Lewis’ most notorious piece on Islamism.[74] His pathology of the roots is far astray; but the rage is undeniable. How are we to understand such rage in the heart of a religion built on submission to the Divine will, hulwihi wa-murrihi, the bitter and the sweet of it? Which insisted that ‘it is not the wrestler who is strong; it is the man who masters himself when angry’?[75] Why did the Blessed Prophet pray for ‘a certainty by which You render slight in our eyes the calamities of this world’?[76]

The roots are, as it turns out, instrumental reason, natural causality, and the enthroning of Aristotle over Plato, or Newton over St Denys. Without the certainty of an omnipotent God (and is not Islam here better at restraining passion than all other faiths?) the experience of adversity leaves us prey to wild emotion. It was this same jahili craving for revenge that led Churchill astray, as one historian suggests: ‘In this superheated and bloody time emotion may have masqueraded as political thinking in a rationalizing Prime Minister’s mind.’[77]

Religion is never more tested than when our emotions are ablaze. At such a time, the timeless grandeur of the Law and its ethics stand at our mercy. ‘Let the qadi not judge when he is angry,’ as it is said. But here is the reality of Gaza:

‘Hamas operations are not directed and have never been directed against children,’ says Hamas political leader Ismail Abu Shanaab. ‘It is directed at military targets.’ When pushed, however, he goes further. ‘To be frank with you, there are a lot of the moralities which got broken in this war,’ he says. ‘They are letting the Israelis kill Palestinians and they want the Palestinians to be moderate, to be moral. We cannot control the game because it has no rules, it has no limits.’[78]

Revenge, rage, the teleological suspension of the ethical. It is Churchillian, but also aromatic with a not-yet-dispersed Marxism. Here, for instance, is Mawdudi, a tributary of the Hamas vision:

‘Muslim’ is the name of the international revolutionary party which Islam organizes to implement its revolutionary program and Jihad is that revolutionary struggle which the Islamic party carries out to achieve its objectives.[79]

As Abdullah Schleifer goes on to remark:

Mawdoodi took as his enduring model a progression of dynamic relationships - the movement, the party, revolutionary struggle, the revolution - defined by one of the major desacralizing forces in contemporary times, in pursuit of a concept of state that draws its substance from non-Islamic sources, and all with that same innocence of the modern Muslim importing his ‘value-free’ technology.[80]

The antinomian quality of this furious insurrectionist method confirms Gray’s suggestion that Islamism is simply another modern weapon against religion. For theists, the ethical can never be suspended; on the contrary, it is needed most when most under strain. Yet the militant transgressions of radicals form only part of a much wider picture of covert but deep surrender to Enlightenment thought.

Islamism, that soi-disant hammer of the Franks, is ironically modern in very many ways. It is modern in its eagerness for science and its hatred of ‘superstition.’ It is modern in its rejection of all higher spirituality (Qutb recommends, instead, ‘al-fana’ fi’l-‘aqida’).[81] It is modern in its rejection of the principle of tradition, and, despite itself, cannot but impose the insecurities of Western-trained minds (and are they not all engineers and doctors?) on scripture. Intertextuality and the community of sages are barred. The theopolitics of classical Islam, where both scholarship and the state are invigorated by mutual tension (the Men of the Pen and the Men of the Sword), is replaced by the finally Western model of the ideological totalitarian state, with a self-appointed clerisy (albeit composed of technocrats) requiring absolute control over policy and the Shari‘a. The modular diversities of pre-modern Muslim societies, where villages, tribes, and millat minorities regulated themselves, give way to the Islamist appropriation of the machinery of centralised post-colonial etatism. Social subsets which flourished for centuries under, say, Ottomanism, already eroded by centralising colonial regimes, are finally liquidated by a vision that is purely Western, albeit camouflaged by loud religious language. As Maryam Jameelah puts it, in a courageous article in which she publicly announces her disillusionment with the Islamist model:

The tragic paradox of the life and thought of Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdoodi was his subconscious acceptance of the very same Western ideas he dedicated his entire life to struggling against.[82]

In such a system, those who should be serving God end up obeying the men of the state who are His all too fallible interpreters. They worship in fear of the police, not in fear of God. Dissidence becomes a simultaneous treason and blasphemy. The failure of this totalitarian model of the ‘Islamic State’, this ‘carceral Islamism’ which makes a Muslim land a prison rather than a landscape of options and regional variety, is today everywhere apparent, and is a sign, perhaps, that God will not allow victory to such a perversion. For the Muslims will not long be allowed to bow before any other than God.

5. Dies IraeIs this attack on tradition a modernity with a future? Zealotry itself is not normally refuted, it has to subside. Often that subsidence is enabled by schism: Cromwell could not be replicated because of the powerfully fissiparous quality of Dissent. Calvin’s Geneva hardly outlived him. Hutterites, Levellers, Anabaptists, and the other fragments of the Protestant detonation could perpetuate themselves, but their energy source seemed to have a half-life. Islamic extremism, what has historically been called ghuluww, excess, and has occasionally, though not often, troubled the religion’s equilibrium, usually knows a similar deflation through internal factionalism and the disappointment which seeps into all annunciatory movements when the world does not either improve or come to an end. In the case of Muslim puritanism, we see, currently, infighting, as in Algeria, and on the streets of Riyadh. Apathy may not be long postponed.

This seems likely, to the extent that Islamism is the product of indigenous decay, a second Reformation. But will its porosity to Enlightenment thought prolong or accelerate this decay? (How ironic that Islam’s Reformation should come after its Enlightenment!) Here predictions about Islamism may not be so different from predictions about a certain kind of exhibitionist postmodernism. Take Foucault, for instance. On his death, he had been praised by Le Monde as ‘the most important event of thought in our century.’ He was an iconic Western iconoclast, but more honest about the consequences of modernity than most liberal seekers after virtue. He had been strongly pro-Khomeini, and had also praised the Baader-Meinhof terrorists. Like many Islamists, he was a lapsed Marxist, concerned with making a statement, with angering the middle-class West, with disruption. A second Bakunin, he was concerned not with advancing a detailed and realistic agenda, but with a passionate desire to shock. And like his hero Nietzsche, he died of a venereal disease, his immensely careless sexual habits indicating the powerful allure of suicide for the sake of making a statement. We need to ask: is this too close for comfort to radical Islamism, with its penchant for épater les blancs by whatever means? For how long can the West portray the Islamists as its own polar opposite? Will it be harder to forget the zealots than to forget Foucault?

This is less hopeful: Foucault has not been forgotten. The ambient vacuum which permitted a philosophy of the absurd in France and in the Middle East shows no signs of abatement. Capitalist shortsightedness wedded to postmodern philosophy may offer the only real life-support system that the Muslim reformation can hope for. Thus the defeat of the Muslim aberration may depend on nothing less than the defeat of the current global system, and its replacement with an order grounded in the ethical brilliance of the monotheisms. This diagnosis places us far beyond both Qutb’s chauvinism and the narcissism of the neocons. The same classical Islamic strength through cosmopolitanism that helped our ancient order to endure as a non-totalitarian expression of certainty must be remobilised to affirm the Other’s heart, in order to reconnect the global system with religious reality. That is, a successful ‘war on terror’ cannot be detached from a humanly consensual war on environmental loss, on unfair trade, on identity feminism, and on genetic manipulation. If it is so detached, it will be lost.

Blake portrays the spirit of the industrial age as Urizen, blind ignorance, fettered in laws of causality unveiled by Newton, and sunk in feral emotionalism. Religion is indispensable to the nurturing of a true humanism because it fights this, and insists that humanity has a telos, and that the soul is therefore sacrosanct.

To succeed, then we must be able to realise that self-judgement, that greatest and most irreplaceable gift of the Abrahamic religions, is more than an evolutionary confidence trick. Consider Jürgen Habermas’ latest book, which reflects on human nature as challenged by genetic science.[83] Postmodernism seems to problematise self-judgement; and its associated ethical practice seems to reduce Aristotle’s greatness of soul, which he, against later monotheist reaction, considered a virtue, to superbia, greatest of the seven deadly sins. But Habermas reminds us that confronted by genetic science, we are required, after a long hiatus, to judge ourselves. For science seeks our permission to rebuild our bodies to reduce the suffering of future generations; yet in the process it must ask us to define what we presently are. Liberal ethics, which resist both such definitions, and any exercise in using human beings for our own purposes, however idealistic, are thereby interrogated. Habermas is quite clear that the West’s conception of virtue is a Christian ghost, rooted in a Kantianism that has been the basis of liberal notions of individual autonomy. Yet he seems convinced that this ghost still lives, and can be maintained perpetually, and may even serve as the stable basis of ever more ambitious projects for universal codes of human rights, in the arena of bioethics, as elsewhere. This will include, presumably, the war on Carrelian Islamism.

John Gray, iconoclastically again, is unsure that this is as coherent as it is helpful. Gray, whose understanding of Al-Qaida as an Enlightenment project we noted earlier, would rather we revisited Schopenhauer’s deconstruction of Kant. Frightened ethicists have deceived themselves that there is no Christianity in this Christian ghost. Yet true Kantianism would reject the categoric imperative as a false projection upon the Noumenon. Our desperate desire to find a new moral anchorage after the sinking of Christian scholasticism blinds us to what is for Gray the unanswerable insight that without God, we are beyond good and evil. Schopenhauer saw, as Gray put it, ‘that the enlightenment was only a secular version of Christianity’s central mistake.’[84] There is no soul, only the individual will, and we have no reason to suppose that we are any more free in our decision-making than the animals from which religion taught us that we were so categorically distinct. Our consciousness is just one more part of the world. Heidegger turns out to be worse: he insists that he excludes Christian paradigms, but internalises them implicitly in his consideration of the human plight, suffering, guilt, and the paradox of being. And while Schopenhauer maintained a pure and private pessimism, Heidegger sought to intuit Being in his tribe. ‘The Führer himself and alone,’ he exclaimed, ‘is the present and future German reality and its law.’ Hitler’s xenophobia allowed the philosopher to repair his wounds, and reconnect with Being. Qutbian fundamentalism is not far away.

It is impossible to exaggerate the debt Giddens’ ‘runaway world’ owes to Christianity, for showing so much vitality even after Nietzsche proclaimed the death of its God. But for the Gospels, the Western empire would not have benefited from Kant’s conjuring trick, or Rawls’ benign adversion to ‘good people’. Yet the fact of its precariousness remains; and the risk of a tribal resolution is enormous.[85] Science harnessed to Geist dragged up Hitler; and something similar has beset Islam. Solidarity, mythologically voiced, technologically imposed, is to be the cure for our desperate alienation. Remember the words of the Furies in Aeschylus:

For many ills one attitude is the cure
When it agrees on what to hate.[86]

The danger, then, is that liberalism will prove too weak to prevent one form of Enlightenment chauvinism – carceral Islamism – from triggering a sudden revival of another such form – Hitlerian essentialism. The prosperity of the far-right across the liberal West shows how far this march has already come. Postmodernity is methodologically incapable of resisting this; and monotheism must step into the breach. A monotheism, however, which bears all the arms it has acquired and sharpened during its travels: its intellectual appropriation of Athens, its hospitality to the autochthonously non-Semitic, its insistence on diversity, all enabled and preserved by the centrality of spiritual purgation. The civil war within Enlightenment modernity that Gray identifies as the essence of the ‘war on terror’ is suicidal. Only a ressourcement in the anchored past can deliver us.
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NOTES[1] Cited in Joh n Gray, Straw Dogs: thoughts on humans and other animals (London, 2002), 75.
[2] Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained (London, 1992); Daniel Wegner, The Illusion of Conscious Will (Bradford, 2002).
[3] Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
[4] For the neocons see now Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge, 2004).
[5] Cited in Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence, Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism (Grand Rapids and Cambridge, 2003), 131.
[6] Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (London: 2002), 369-70; e.g. ‘The Catholic Church and other Christian churches […] could include in every Christian Bible a detailed, corrective account alongside the text about its many antisemitic passages, and a clear disclaimer explaining that even though these passages were once presented as fact, they are actually false or dubious and have been the source of much unjust injury. They could include essays on the various failings of the Christian Bible, and a detailed running commentary on each page that would correct the texts’ erroneous and libellous assertions.’
[7] Cf. Julia Lipton, ‘Othello Circumcised: Shakespeare and the Pauline Discourse of Nations’, Representations 57 (1997), 78: ‘Christian typologists also used Esau, Pharoah and Herod to couple the Jew and the Muslim as carnal children of Abraham facing each other across the world-historical break effected by the Incarnation.’
[8] See Fukuyama: ‘A country that makes human rights a significant element of its foreign policy tends toward ineffectual moralizing at best, and unconstrained violence in pursuit of moral aims at worst.’ Harper’s Magazine, August 2001, p. 36.
[9] Salah Abd al-Fattah al-Khalidi, Amrika min al-dakhil bi-minzar Sayyid Qutb (Beirut, 2002).
[10] Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism (Princeton, 1999), 52; citing Qutb’s Khasa’is al-Tasawwur al-Islami; Youssef Choueiri, Islamic Fundamentalism (London 1990), 142-9. As Choueiri concludes: ‘What Qutb fails to inform his vanguard, however, is that the code of conduct he subsequently elaborated in his ‘commentary’ on the Koran matches that of Carrel much more than Muhammad’s own Traditions.’ The result is not an indigenous form of governance, but ‘a Third World version of Fascism.’
[11] Samuel Goitein, Jews and Arabs (New York, 1955), 130: ‘Never has Judaism encountered such a close and fructuous symbiosis as that with the medieval civilization of Arab Islam’.
[12] Many Muslims who have rejected the new radicalism in favour of authenticity will sympathise with the experience of Franky Schaeffer, who in the 1970s was an extreme Calvinist advocate of totalitarian government. In the 1980s, shocked by the reality of fundamentalist leaders, he joined the Greek Orthodox Church, denouncing the Protestant radicals as ‘a hybrid composed of fragments of ancient Christian faith and thoroughly modern, anti-traditional, materialist and often utopian ideas.’ Cited in Steve Bruce, Fundamentalism (Cambridge, 2000), 122.
[13] John Gray, Al-Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern (London, 2003), 1-2.
[14] Slavoj Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real (London and New York: Verso, 2002), 146.
[15] See for instance Richard Martin, ‘The Religious Foundations of War, Peace and Statecraft in Islam’, in John Kelsay and James Turner Johnson (eds), Just War and Jihad: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on War and Peace in Western and Islamic Traditions. (New York, Westport and London, 1991.)
[16] Naqd Kalam al-Shaykh al-Albani fi Sharitihi Min Manhaj al-Khawarij. N.d., n.p.
[17] L. Carl Brown, Religion and State: the Muslim approach to politics (New York, 2000), 156-7. It needs to be added that Qutb’s aberration is typical of those who carry out radical ijtihad without the needful qualifications in shari‘a sciences. For instance, he develops his absolutist rejection of any conversation with the West in his Ma‘alim fi’l-tariq (Cairo, 1980), 145, on the basis of out-of-context Koranic verses (2:109, 2:120, and 3:100), which warn only of the dangers of cooperating with some of the ahl al-kitab. To try and force the issue, he then produces a hadith from Abu Ya‘la, ‘Do not ask the People of the Book about anything …’ (Abu Ya‘la, Musnad [Damascus and Beirut, 1985/1405], IV, 102), apparently unaware that this hadith is weak; see ‘Abduh ‘Ali Kushak, al-Maqsad al-A‘la fi taqrib ahadith al-Hafiz Abi Ya‘la (Beirut, 1422/2001), I, 83. In any case, who is more absurd than the radical who rejects all Western influence, and then writes books with titles like Khasa’is al-Tasawwur al-Islami (‘Special Qualities of the Islamic Conception’)? Qutb’s whole manner of expression would be unimaginable without modernity.
[18] Abdelwahab Meddeb, Islam and its discontents (London, 2003), 48-52. Qutb’s waning interest in literature is one symptom of this.
[19] Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Disciplining the Soul, tr. T. Winter (Cambridge, 1995), 86.
[20] ‘Asian Muslims in particular have come to reify the shari‘a as much as any Orientalist, converting the law into a symbol of ethnic identification.’ Lawrence Rosen, The Justice of Islam: Comparative perspectives on Islamic law and society (Oxford, 2000), 186.
[21] www.dfw.com/mld/bayarea/news/6281132.htm?1c.
[22] W. G. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction (London, 2004), 17.
[23] Stephen A. Garrett, Ethics and airpower in World War II: the British bombing of German cities (New York and Basingstoke, 1993), 28.
[24] Garrett, 90; Harvey Tress, British strategic bombing through 1940: politics, attitudes, and the formation of a lasting pattern (Lewiston, 1988), 304.
[25] Garrett, 90.
[26] Garrett, 103.
[27] Tress, 335.
[28] Cited in Garrett, 20.
[29] Cited in Garrett, 132.
[30] Garrett, 96.
[31] General Curtis LeMay, who planned the Tokyo attacks which killed perhaps a hundred thousand civilians, remarked that they were ‘scorched and boiled and baked to death.’ (John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War [New York, 1986], 50.)
[32] Menahem Begin, The Revolt (revised edition, London 1979), 59-60.
[33] A substantial literature now exists seeking to identify suicide bombing as a paradigmatically Muslim act. See, for instance, Shaul Shay, The Shahids: Islam and Suicide Attacks (Transaction, 2003); also Christoph Reuter, My Life is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing (Princeton, 2004). This forms part of a larger determination to show the radicals as authentic expressions of Islamic tradition (see, for instance, the works of Emmanuel Sivan). The level of Islamic knowledge present in this literature is usually poor; see for instance Reuter’s belief (p.22) that the Mu‘tazilites were founded by Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd! Reuter is a Stern journalist, whose patronage by Princeton University Press shows the fragility of the standards of American academic institutions in times of international crisis.
[34] Sir James Frazier, The Golden Bough. Part III: The Dying God (London, 1913), 42. For a more recent study see Jacques Gernet, ‘Les suicides par le feu chez les bouddhiques chinoises de Ve au Xe siecle’, Mélanges publiés par l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises I (1960), 527-558. For Buddhist suicide in India see W. Rahula, ‘Self-Cremation in Mahayana Buddhism’ in his Zen and the Taming of the Bull (London, 1978), 111-6. Rahula amplifies (p.113): ‘Usually a self-cremation was done in public, but there were some monks who burnt themselves secretly. One monk burnt himself in a cauldron of oil. Some made a modest offering to a stupa by cutting off a finger or a hand, wrapping it with cloth drenched in oil, and setting fire to it.’ The practice is traced back to the time of the Buddha himself; as F. Woodward records: ‘The Buddha approved of the suicide of bhikkus; but in these cases they were Arahants, and we are to suppose that such beings who have mastered self, can do what they please as regards the life and death of their carcases’ (‘The Ethics of Suicide in Greek, Latin and Buddhist Literature’, Buddhist Annual of Ceylon [1922], p.8).
[35] Ibid, 54. See also the ritual described on page 47, in which the king of Calicut ‘had to cut his throat in public at the end of a twelve years’ reign.’
[36] Upendra Thakur, The History of Suicide in India: An Introduction (Delhi, 1963), xv-xvi.
[37] Ibid., 9. See also the section on ‘Religious Suicide’, on pp.77-111.
[38] Rihlat Ibn Battuta (Beirut, 1379/1960), 411-3, focussing on the practice of bride-burning, but referring also to Hindu self-drowning rituals. See also Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni, Tahqiq ma li’l-Hind (Hyderabad, 1377/1958), p.480: ‘Those among them who kill themselves do so during eclipses; or they may hire a man to drown them in the Ganges. Such people hold them underwater until they die.’ For more on this practice see Thakur, 112.
[39] Edgar O’Ballance, The Cyanide War: Tamil Insurrection in Sri Lanka 1973-88 (London, 1989), p.13, for the first Tamil suicide martyrs in the 1970s. Other Tamil Tiger terrorist habits include beheading (p.10), taking Western hostages (p.40), and drug-dealing to fund operations (p.120).
[40] For the religious puritanism of the Tamil Tigers (no extramarital relations, no alcohol, etc.), see Dagmar Hellmann-Rajayanagar, The Tamil Tigers: armed struggle for identity (Stuttgart, 1994), 37. Sometimes considered to be Marxist, the Tamil Tigers are primarily inspired by national and religious tradition (ibid., p. 56).
[41] Amantha Perera, ‘Suicide bombers feared and revered,’ Asia Times, July 17, 2003. For more on Islamist borrowings from Tamil suicide warfare see Amy Waldman, ‘Masters of Suicide Bombing: Tamil Guerillas of Sri Lanka’ (New York Times, 14 January 2003).
[42] Cf. Plotinus, against the Stoics: ‘if each man’s rank in the other world depends on his state when he goes out, one must not take out the soul as long as there is any possibility of progress’ (Ennead I.9; cf. also the Elias fragment of Plotinus found after this section in Armstrong’s Loeb translation). This is similar to the Islamic virtue of praying for a long life in the service of God. (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, VI, 23.)
[43] ‘Within Israelite society, as early as the period of the united monarchy, voluntary death, given the proper circumstances, was understood as honorable and even routine.’ (Arthur J. Droge and James D. Tabor, Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in antiquity [San Francisco, 1992], 56.)
[44] See J.W. van Henten, The Maccabean martyrs as saviours of the Jewish people: a study of 2 and 4 Maccabees (Leiden and New York, 1997).
[45] Droge and Tabor, 87, 100. See also Sidney Hoenig, ‘The Sicarii in Masada – Glory or Infamy?’ Tradition 11 (1970), 5-30; Sidney Goldstein, Suicide in Rabbinic Literature (Hoboken, 1989), 41-2.
[46] Daniel Boyarin, Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism (Stanford, 1999), 171. It is not insignificant that ‘during the Moslem period, mass suicides among Jews do not seem to have occurred’ (Goldstein, 49).
[47] The former Ashkenazy Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Goren, allowed suicide as an alternative to prisoner-of-war status, following the examples of Saul and Masada (Goldstein, 49).
[48] Walter S. Wurzburger, Ethics of Responsibility: Pluralistic Approaches to Covenantal Ethics (Philadelphia, 1994), 92. For more, see Goldstein’s chapter entitled ‘Suicide as an Act of Martyrdom’, pp.41-50.
[49] ‘In strictly historical terms it is unlikely that Jesus of Nazareth ever expected to give his life as “a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Rather, his intention was to bring about the restoration of Israel and to usher in the kingdom of God.’ (Droge and Tabor, 115.) Islam would probably be more impressed by the Lucan Jesus, who apparently never intended to die.
[50] Droge and Tabor, 136.
[51] Droge and Tabor, 134-9, 152-5; 167-83. Voluntary martyrdom continued in some places, such as early Muslim Cordova, where 48 Christians were beheaded between 850 and 859: ‘the majority of the victims deliberately invoked capital punishment by publicly blaspheming Muhammad and disparaging Islam.’ They were eulogised by the Church. (K. B. Wolf, Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain [Cambridge, 1988], 1.)
[52] Frazier, 45.
[53] Glen Bowersock, Martyrdom and Rome (Cambridge, 1995), 66-7.
[54] Brian Wicker, ‘Samson Terroristes: A Theological Reflection on Suicidal Terrorism’, New Blackfriars, vol. 84 no.983 (January 2003), 45. I am indebted to Wicker for much of the information in the next two paragraphs.
[55] Bernhard Anderson, The Living World of the Old Testament (London, 1958), 111.
[56] Droge and Tabor, 186.
[57] John Milton, Poetical Works (Edinburgh, 1853), II, 76.
[58] Milton, 125.
[59] Vladimir Jabotinsky, Prelude to Delilah (New York, 1945), 131. This is a translation of the original, published as Samson in 1926.
[60] Jabotinsky, 330.
[61] Jabotinsky, 200.
[62] Stephen Rosenfeld, ‘Straight to the Heart of Menachem Begin’, Present Tense (Summer 1980), 7.
[63] Antony Beevor, Berlin 1945, the downfall. (London, 2002), 238. Focke-Wulf fighter-bombers packed with explosives would deliberately ram Soviet bridges and command centres.
[64] Jewett and Lawrence, 35-9.
[65] ‘Abdallah ibn Qutayba, ‘Uyun al-akhbar (Cairo, 1348/1930), iii, 217.
[66] Tabari, History, Volume III: The Children of Israel, translated by William M. Brinner (Albany, 1991), 139.
[67] I. Buruma and A. Margalit, Occidentalism: A Short History of Anti-Westernism (London, 2004), 68-9.
[68] Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (London, 1990), 78, 79, 85, 139, 166, 175, 178, 302, 320, 374, 408, 523, 530, 567, 603.
[69] Meddeb, 115.
[70] Milton, 93.
[71] Meddeb, 9.
[72] Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, tr. Helen Zimmern (London, 1907, repr.1967), 98.
[73] Milton, 126.
[74] Bernard Lewis, ‘Roots of Muslim Rage,’ The Atlantic Monthly, September 1990
[75] Bukhari and Muslim from Abu Hurayra.
[76] Tirmidhi and al-Hakim (1, 528), from Ibn ‘Umar.
[77] Tress, 289.
[78] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2179606.stm
[79] Cited by S. Abdullah Schleifer, ‘Jihad: Sacred Struggle in Islam IV,’ The Islamic Quarterly 28/ii (1984), 98.
[80] Schleifer, 100.
[81] William E. Shepard, Sayyid Qutb and Islamic Activism: A Translation and Critical Annotation of Social Justice in Islam (Leiden, 1996), p.xxxiii. Here we have, again, the phenomenon of ‘loving the Torah more than God’.
[82] Maryam Jameelah, ‘An Appraisal of Some Aspects of the Life and Thought of Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi’, Islamic Quarterly xxxi (1407-1987), 116-130, p.130.
[83] Jürgen Habermas, The Future of Human Nature (London: 2003).
[84] Gray, Straw Dogs, 41.
[85] See Gray, Straw Dogs, 102-3: ‘The egalitarian beliefs on which Rawls’s theory is founded are like the sexual mores that were once believed to be the core of morality. The most local and changeable of things, they are revered as the very essence of morality. As conventional opinion moves on, the current egalitarian consensus will be followed by a new orthodoxy, equally certain that it embodies unchanging moral truth.’
[86] The Eumenides 996-7.
www.masud.co.uk

Purification

2005-08-13T11:28:00.000-04:00

“You have returned from a smaller battle to a greater battle.”
“What can be a greater battle than that we have just fought?”
He (Salla Allahu ta'ala alayhi wa Sallam), answered, “The battle against one’s nafs.”

Imam Malik (Radi Allahu Ta'ala anhu) said, "Whoever studies jurisprudence and does not study Sufism will be corrupted. Whoever studies Sufism and does not study Jurisprudence will become a heretic. Whoever combines both will reach the truth." [Kashf Al-Khafa Wa Muzid Al-Abas, Vol. 1, P341]

A Pretty Flower

2005-08-12T15:47:00.000-04:00

----------------

You will see on the Day of Resurrection, the Zalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.) fearful of that which they have earned, and Allahs Torment will surely befall them, while those who believe (in the Oneness of Allah Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous deeds will be in the flowering meadows of the Gardens (Paradise), having what they wish from their Lord. That is the supreme Grace. (42:22)

Qaseedah Burdah (The Poem of The Scarf)

2005-08-11T20:39:00.000-04:00

Is it because of your remembrance of the neighbor's of Dhi-salam?
That tears mixed with blood are flowing (from your eyes).
Or is it because of the breeze blowing from Kaazimah.
Or it is the lightning struck in the darkness of the night Idam
What has happened to your eyes, (the more) you tell them to stop, the more they continue flowing.
What is the matter with your heart, (the more) you tell it to come to its senses (the more it is distracted).
Does the lover think that his love can be concealed?
While his eyes are shedding tears and his heart is glowing.
Had it not been for the love, you would not have shed tears at the ruins (of your beloved).
Nor would you become restless at the remembrance of the cypress (tree) the high mountain.
How do you deny love after the testimony?
Borne against you by (such) reliable witnesses as yours and your illness.
Love has ingrained two lines of fear, and withered your face.
On your cheeks like yellow rose and the reddish tree.
Yes! Thoughts of the beloved came to me at night and kept me awake.
And love transforms pleasure into pain.
You who reproach me, regarding my love, excuse me.
From me to you if you do justice, you would not reproach me.
My state (of love) has been expressed to you, (now) my secret is no longer concealed.
From those who neither malign (me), nor is there (something to) check my agony.
You have sincerely advised me, I did not heed it.
For verily a lover is deaf to those who advise him.
I regarded with suspicion the advice of the elders in reproaching me.
(Wisdom) in the advice of the elders is above suspicion.

Verily my soul which is laden with evil did not heed the advice.
Due to its ignorance, from the warning by grey hair and old age.
And I have not prepared, for good deeds, a feast,
For a guest (that) has lodged on (my) head nor did I honour (him).
Had I known that I would not be able to honour him (it)?
I would have concealed my secret, which is exposed, by dying.
Who is there that can restrain my wayward-self from its waywardness.
Just as unmanageable horses are restrained by reins.
Do not try, through sinning, to subdue sensual desires.
For verily food, only increases sensual desires.
Your self (desires) is like when breastfed.
Loves suckling but when you wean it, will stop.
Then stop its inclinations and beware that it does not overpower you.
Verily lust whenever it overpowers (it will) kill or maim (your character).
And guard it while it is grazing in (the field of) actions
If it enjoys pasture, do not let it roam (graze) freely.
How often has pleasure been considered good, whereas it turned out to be deadly?
Because he does not know that there is poison in the fat.
And fear the evil of (both) hunger and satiation.
For most times hunger (poverty) is more evil that overeating.
And shed tears from those eyes which have become full.
Of forbidden sights and regard it as obligatory (upon yourself) to guard your eyes from forbidden things.
And oppose (your) self (nafs) and shaytaan and disobey them both.
And if both of them give you sincere advice regard it as lies.
And do not obey them both (nafs and shaytaan) as an enemy or as a wise (person).
For you know well the deception of (such) an enemy or a wise (person).
I seek forgiveness from Allah from such sayings (preaching) which I do practice upon.
For verily I have attributed (claimed), through this, offspring from a barren woman.
I command you to do good but I do not command myself to do the same.
And I was not steadfast (on deen) so then of what use (value) is my saying to you: "Be steadfast!" (On deen).
And I made no provisions before death of voluntary (nafl) worship.
And I did not perform salaat nor did I fast except what was obligatory.

I transgressed the Sunnat of him (Nabi, Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) who passed the night (in ibaadat).
Until his feet complained of injury due to being swollen.
And he tied and folded, on account of hunger, around his stomach.
A stone beneath which is his delicate skin.
And high mountains of gold (tried to) tempt him.
Towards it, but he was (completely) disinclined due to his high courage.
His piety increased in spite of his need.
For verily need never prevails (overpowers) the infallible.
How can the necessities of such a noble personality incline him towards this world?
For had it not been for him this world would not have come out of non existence.
Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) is the leader of both worlds and both creations (man and jinn).
And of both groups, Arabs and non Arabs.
Our Nabi, the one who commands (good), forbids (evil). There is none (parallel to him).
More truthful than him in saying "No" or "Yes".
He is (Allah's) most beloved, whose intercession is hoped for.
For every fear (and distress) that is going to come (on the day) of agony (and fears).
He called (people) towards Allah, so those who cling to him.
Clinging to a rope which will never snap.
He transcends the Ambiyaa, physically and in (noble) character.
And (the other Ambiyaa) cannot come near his in knowledge and noble nature kindness.
They all obtained from Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam)
(Like a) handful (of water) from the ocean or (a few) sips from continuous rains.
And they all stopped before him at their (assigned) limits.
(Either) of a point of knowledge or to gain one wisdom from (his) wisdom.
For he is the one with whom, ended all outward and inward perfection.
And then the creator of all creation chose his as (His) most beloved.
He has no equal in his magnificence.
The jewel of (excellence) in him is indivisible.
Discard what the Christians claim about their Nabi
Then decide and say what you wish in praise of him (Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam).
And attribute towards his personality whatever you wish of excellence.
And attribute to his dignified status as mush greatness as you wish.
For verily excellence of the Messenger of Allah has no (limits)
Bounds, that a speaker might (be able to) express with his mouth.
If his miracles were proportionate (according) to his rank, in greatness,
Then his name would have, when called out brought decaying bones back to life.
He did not try to (test) us with that which would confound our minds.
Out of keen interest (kindness) for us, neither were we suspicious (about the truthfulness of his mission) nor were we confounded (by his doctrines).
His perfect inner nature made people helpless from comprehending, so it was not understood.
Those near and far, except according to their (helpless) imperfect understanding.
Like how the sun is seen by the eyes from far.
Verily small, yet hurts (dazzles) the eye (when you stare at it).
And can the reality of him be comprehended in this world.
A sleeping nation whose description of him are (like interpretations of) a dream.
So the extreme depth of (our) knowledge concerning him is that he is a man.
And verily he is the best of all the creation of Allah.
Every miracle which all the Nabi's showed.
Verily they have been derived from his NUR.
For verily he is the sun of virtue (and) they (Ambiyaa) are its stars.
Which show their lights to people only in the dark?
Until when the sun rose his light spread.
Universally and gave life to all the nations.
How noble are the physical qualities of Nabi Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, adorned with good character.
(Who) was vested with beauty and disguised by pleasant temperament.
(He) is like a blooming flower in its freshness and the full moon in splendour.
And the ocean in generosity and time its fearless courage.
Even when alone, it appears due to his grandeur.
As though (he is) in the midst of a large army and its retinue.
It is like pearls well preserved in oysters.
From the two mines, of his speech and his smiles.
No perfume equals the dust (earth) which is touching his (Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam's Mubarak) body.
Glad tidings are to the person who smells it (the dust) and kisses it.

His birth distinctly showed his pure origin.
The excellence! Of his beginning and his end.
On that day the Persians discovered that they (were going face misfortune)
Were warned with the approach of misfortune and punishment.
And the walls of the palace of Kisra trembled and crumbled.
Like how the army of Kisra was scattered never to be untied again.
And the fire (of the Persians) took a cool breath (subsided and died out), out of regret.
While the rivers (of Persia) had sleepless eyes (dries up) from excessive sorrow.
Saawah (village in Persia) became grief stricken with the drying up of its lake.
And the (thirsty) water bearer returned in anger with disappointment.
It is as though fire became wet like water.
Due to grief, while water was (affected by) the blazing fire.
And the jinn were shouting (at the appearance of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) and the NUR was glistening.
And the truth (nubuwaat) appeared with these anwaar, and with their voices.
(The kaafir) became blind and deaf, to the announcements of glad tidings.
Nor did they hear and the lighting of warning was nor seen by them.
After their fortune tellers had informed the people
That their false religions would not stand.
And even after they witnessed shooting stars on the horizon.
Falling, just as (their) idols were (falling) on earth.
So much so that they kept running from the path of wahi
The devils (shaytaan), one after the other.
As though in running away the shaytaan were the army of Abrahah.
Or like that army (put to flight) upon whom (Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) threw pebbles.
Which he threw after their making tasbih in his (Mubarak hands).
Like how (Hadhrat Yunus Alayis Salaam) when he made tasbih (of Allah) was thrown out from the stomach of the swallowing (fish).

The trees answered his call, prostrating.
Walking towards him on shins (trunk) without feet.
It is though writing lines that were written.
With their branches, calligraphically writing of his perfection.
Like the cloud following him wherever he went.
Sheltering him from the intense heat, (as that) of an oven in the blazing summer.
I take an oath (of truth) by the moon that was split, it bears.
A connection with his heart (which shows) the truth of my oath.
What excellence qualities and noble deeds the cave contained (in it).
While every eye (of the disbelievers) was blind him.
The truth (sidq) and the true (siddique) in the cave were not seen (by the disbelievers).
And they were saying "There is no one in the cave".
They thought a wild dove and a spider would not
Lay an egg, or spin a web for the best of creation.
The protection of Allah (made him) dispensed with double.
From armours and high forts.
Whenever time caused me any distress and I took refuge in him.
I receive shelter from him which was not misused.
I did not ask for the wealth of the two worlds from his hand.
But I received a great gift the best hand that was ever kissed.
Do not deny that his dreams are revelations (wahi), for verily his
Heart does not sleep, when eyes sleep.
And this was at (the period of) puberty of his prophethood.
At that time dreams cannot be denied.
Great are the blessings of Allah that wahi are not earned.
Nor was any Nabi accused (of lying when) giving knowledge of the unseen.
His miracles are (completely) clear, not hidden from anyone.
Without it justice cannot be established amongst people.
How often has his hand granted freedom (cure) from disease by (his) touch.
And set free the insane from the chains (fetters) of insanity.
He revived the starving year (of famine) through his dua.
Until it resembled a white spot on black times.
By means of a cloud which rained so abundantly, you would think large rivers
Gushing forth from the sea or like the torrential flood of Arim.

Allow me to describe the miracles of him (Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam) exposed (performed).
Like the lighting of fires on the hillside at night for guests.
The beauty of a pearl is further enhanced in a necklace.
But its value does not diminish (in the least when not strung on a necklace).
So why should the ambitions of those who praise not increase towards
That which (him (Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam) he of noble character and good habits.
Verses of truth from the Most Merciful (Allah Ta'aala) newly heard.
(As well as being) eternal which is quality (of Allah) who is described with eternity.
It is not connected with any period of time, while it informs us.
About the hereafter as well as of Ad and Iram.
Which remains with us forever, therefore it is superior to every miracle.
Of the other Nabi's (for) when (their miracles) came but did not remain.
Absolutely clear (as evidence) so it did not leave (room for any) doubts.
By neither the enemies nor so they require any judge.
No one opposed it ever except for the vehement enemy.
(Due to) the enmity of the enemy towards it, (but that he) refrained from it seeking a truce.
Its eloquence refuted the accusations of its objectors.
Just as a respectable man keeps off the hand of a transgressor from his harem.
Its meaning is like the waves of the ocean in helping (one another)
And the (Qur'an) transcends the jewels of the sea in beauty and value.
Its wonders cannot be counted nor comprehended.
Nor would you (be) satiated by its constant repetition (recitation).
It cools the eye of its reciter, so I said to him
You have succeeded with the hope of Allah, therefore hold steadfast onto it.
If you recite it due to fear of the heat of blazing fire.
Then you have doused the blazing fire with its cool water.
It is the Houze-e-Kauthar with which faces are illuminated.
Of the sinners even though they came to it (with faces) black as coal.
It is like the straight bridge like the scales in equilibrium.
Justice, without which, amongst man cannot be established.
Do not be astonished if the jealous person rejects it.
(Feigning) ignorance while they are shrewd.
Verily the eye rejects the ray of the sun due to dust.
The mouth rejects the (sweet) taste of water due to sickness.

You the best of those to whose court seekers of bounties resort.
Running the (mounted) on the backs of fast camels.
And O you is the greatest sign for he who takes a lesson.
And O you who is the greatest bounty for a person who avails himself of it.
You traveled by night from one sacred place to another.
As the full moon travels trough intense darkness.
And you continued ascending until you attained a position.
At the distance of two cubits length, as has never been attained nor sought.
And you preferred due to your position by all the Ambiyaa.
And Rasul just as a servant gives preference to his master.
You passed the seven heavens with them.
In a procession in which you were the standard bearer.
Until you left no goal (for) any competitor to strive for.
In closeness, nor any room for ascent for any one to advance.
You made inferior every position by (your) advance, when
You were invited to his majestic and unique position.
So that you may be successful in a reaching the most concealed.
From all eyes, and secrets well concealed.
So you acquired every (status) worthy of pride unrivalled.
And you surpassed every position which none other passed.
And extremely excellent are the ranks that were granted to you.
And incomprehensible are those bounties which conferred upon you.
Glad tiding be to us o people of Islam. We have
By the Grace of Allah a pillar which is indestructible.
When Allah called, the one who invited us (Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam) to His worship.
Because of the noblest of messengers, we are the noblest of ummats.

The hearts of his enemies were struck with terror at the news of his advent.
Just as a heedless goat that has strayed, the herd becomes scared to a sudden alarm.
He never ceased to encounter them at every battle.
Until, by the effects of lances they were like meat on a chopping block.
They loved fleeing that they would envy.
The corpses which were carried away by vultures and eagles.
Nights would pass without them knowing number.
As long as it was not nights of the sacred months (Ashur-e-Horum).
It is as though the religion of Islam was a guest that visited their house.
With every brave warrior, greedy for the flesh of the enemy.
He used to lead an ocean of an army on galloping horses.
They would strike (the enemy) with a massive wave of brave warriors.
Of every volunteer, having hope of reward from Allah.
Fighting to exterminate the roots of kufr and to destroy it.
Until the religion of Islam became of them.
Reunited after her estrangement, with her family.
Always taken care of by an affectionate father
And a loving husband, so she did not suffer from orphan-hood or widowhood.
They were mountains, so ask about them from him who fought them.
What was his experience with them in each contest (battle).
Ask (them about the condition of) Hunain, Badr, Uhad.
The verdict death for them was more severe than an epidemic.
(They made their) white (shining) swords red (with blood) after they were plunged.
Into every black lock of (hair) of their enemies.
And they write (with arrows) in calligraphic writing (on those of the bodies), which was left out.
By their pens (lances). Like undotted letters,
Completely clad with weapons they had characteristic marks to distinguish them.
Like a rose is distinguished by (characteristic) marks from a thorn tree.
The winds of help (from Allah) would guide you to their fragrance.
So you would think every brave man to be a flower in the bud.
As though they were, when on horseback like the plants on hills.
On account of the strength and bravery, not because of the tightness of their saddles.
The hearts of the enemies flew into terror (due to their) prowess.
So they could not make distinction between a lamb and a mighty warrior.
And the person who has the help of Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam with him.
Even if a lion meets him in its den it begins to fear.
And you would never see a friend not assisted.
By him, nor would you find any enemy, but in pieces.
He lodged his ummat in the fort of his religion.
Like a lion which lodges with its cubs in a jungle.
How many queries did the words of Allah have with defiers.
Concerning him, and the clear evidence (of Allah), disputed many a plaintiff.
It is sufficient for you as a miracle (to have so vast) knowledge in an unlettered person.
In the period of ignorance, and such noble etiquettes in an orphan.

I served him with praise, by means of which I ask to be pardoned.
The sins of a life passed in poetry and serving (others).
As these two have garlanded me with those consequences which I fear.
As though I am due to it (poetry and serving others) a sacrificial animal.
I obeyed the misleading passions of youth in both conditions and I did not.
I achieved but sin and remorse.
The great regret of my soul in its transaction.
It did not purchase Deen with the world, nor had I negotiated for it.
The person who sells his future for his present.
He is being defrauded in the sale and its negotiation.
If I had committed any sin my covenant is not (likely to be) violated.
With my Nabi Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wassallam and nor is my rope broken.
For verily I have a security from him due to my name.
(Being) Muhammad, while he is the most faithful of mankind in fulfilling his promise.
If at my resurrection, he should not take me by my hand
Out of kindness, then say O the slipping of my foot.
I seek the sanctuary (in Allah) that he should deprive one who is hopeful of his graces.
Or that his neighbour (follower) returned from him dishonoured.
And since I have devoted my thoughts to his praises.
I have found him to be best sanctuary for my salvation.
His bounty will never escape from (my) hand which has been soiled.
For verily rain causes flowers to bloom on rocks
And I did seek the flowers (wealth) of the world which were plucked.
By the hands of Zuhair through his praises of Haram.

Most generous of mankind, I have no one to take refuge in
Except you at occurrence of widespread calamity.
And O messenger of Allah, your exalted status will not diminish, because of me (intercession on my behalf)
When most Bountiful (Allah Ta'alaa) will manifest (Himself) by the name of the Punisher.
For verily amongst your bounties is this world, and the hereafter.
And part of your knowledge is knowledge of the Preserved Tablet (Lowh), and the Pen.
My soul do not become despondent due to your grievous sins.
Verily major sins when pardoned are minor.
Perhaps the mercy of my Lord when distributed.,
Would be distributed in proportion to the sins.
My Lord (Sustainer)! Make my hopes, not unfulfilled.
By you, and make my reckoning (of deeds) not destructive.
Be kind to Your Servant in both the worlds, for verily his
Patience, when called upon by hardships (calamities), runs away.
So order clouds of blessings (salutations) from you perpetually.
Upon Nabi Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam abundantly and gently
And upon his family, his Sahabah, then upon those who follow them.
The people of piety, knowledge, clemency and generosity.
(Then) be pleased with Abu-Bakr and Omar (Radiyallahu Anhuma).
And Ali and Uthman (Radiyallahu Anhuma), the people of nobility.
As long as the easterly breeze makes the branches of cypress rustle.
And (as long as) the camel riders make their camels march with the enchanting songs.
Forgive its writer and its reader
I ask of you all goodness O You the Most Generous and Most Munificent.

Qaseedah Burdah (The Poem of The Scarf)

2005-08-11T20:29:00.000-04:00

The writer HAZRAT IMAAM SAALIH SHARA-FUD-DEEN ABU ABDULIAH MUHAMMAD BIN HASAN AL-BUSAIRI R.A had become paralysed. His doctors and physicians gave up all hope of his recovery. Eventually in this state of complete helplessness and despair he composed this poem expressing the grandeur and excellence of Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam. Using this as his sole means of asking Allah Ta'alaa to cure him from his illness, he isolated himself in a quiet place one Thursday night and with complete devotion, concentration and sincerity began reciting this poem. While reciting it sleep overcame him. He had a vision of Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam. He told Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam of his illness whereupon Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam passed his blessed hand over Imam Busairi's body. Through the barakat and blessing of Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam, Allah Ta’alaa granted him complete cure from his paralysis. When he awoke he found a scarf or shawl on his body which he had seen Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallhu Alayhi Wasallam place on his paralysed limbs. This resulted in the poem being named "Qasidah Burdah" (The Poem of the Scarf). In the morning when due to some necessity, he went to the bazaar, a pious dervish greeted him with salaam and requested him to recite the Qasidah which he had composed in praise of Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. The poet said that "I have composed many poems in praise of Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, which one do you wish to hear?" The dervish replied: "The one which begins with, A-min Tazak-kurin (i.e. Qasidah Burdah)". Upon this request the poet became wonder struck and said, "I take an oath that no one knows about this poem. Tell me the truth, from whom did you hear about it?" The dervish replied, "I take an oath by Allah that I heard it from you last night when in a dream you had recited it to Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam, whereupon Sayyidina Rasuluallah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam became attentive towards you and because of its blessings Allah Ta'alaa granted you complete cure from your ailment". When the poet gave this poem to the dervish his secret became known to all the people and its barakat and blessings too became general for all. When this poem reached Baha-ud-deen the governor of the country named Tahir, he so highly regarded and respected it that he would stand while listening to it. It is also narrated that Sa'aadud-deen Farouqi, who was a viceroy of Baha-ud-deen, had became blind. In a dream he saw a pious person who told him to take the Qasidah Burdah from Baha-ud-deen and place it on his eyes. In the morning he told Baha-ud-deen about this dream. The Qasidah Burdah was brought and with full sincerity and conviction Sa'aadud-deen placed it on his eyes. Through its barakat Allah Ta'alaa granted him complete cure and restored his eyesight.