Iran names street after Rachel Corrie Tehran pays tribute to US activist crushed to death by bulldozer while trying stop the demolition of Palestinian homes

Tehran city council has named a street after an American activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003, a local newspaper has reported.

The report in the Hamshahri, a daily affiliated with Tehran's authorities, said the council has named the street Rachel Aliene Corrie. It said the sign would be placed in the city centre, but did not say when it would be displayed.

Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist from Washington, was trying to prevent what she and other campaigners believed was a push by the Israeli military to demolish nearby Palestinian homes. She was 23 at the time of her death.

Iran does not recognise Israel and supports the Palestinians.

The decision marked the first time an Iranian street has been named after a US national since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the pro-west shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi.

Before the revolution, at least three high streets in the Iranian capital were named after former US presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, John F Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt.

Iran and the US have not had diplomatic ties since militant students occupied the US embassy in Tehran, holding American diplomats hostage for 444 days from 1979 to 1981.

There are a few streets in the city named after western nationals, including Bobby Sands, a member of the IRA who died on hunger strike in a British prison in 1981, and Edward Brown, a British Orientalist known for his work on Iranian history.

Washington and its allies say Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and have imposed sanctions on the country. Tehran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

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Gaza fishermen refuse return of confiscated ships stripped of motors, equipment

After extensive correspondence between Palestinian human rights groups and the Israeli authorities, Israel agreed to return several fishing vessels confiscated off the coast of Gaza.

On 2 August, Israel brought the stolen ships to the Karem Abu Salem crossing with Gaza to return the ships to their owners. However, the boats had been stripped of their motors and fishing equipment; in some cases the missing equipment was worth thousands of dollars.

Israel also attempted to charge the boat owners for transportation fees to the Karem Abu Salem crossing — therefore the Palestinian fishermen refused the Israeli receipts for their vessels and returned to Gaza without their ships.

The Palestinian rights groups Adalah and Al Mezan released a statement on 4 August explaining that the returned boats had been confiscated from eight fishermen over the course of 18 months. The full statement by the rights groups is below.

The Electronic Intifada has continuously covered Israel’s repeated attacks on Gaza fishermen and the fishing industry. Israel has arrested fishermen, shot them dead and more recently attacked a small ship carrying human rights observers monitoring Israel’s harassment of fishermen.

In addition to physically attacking Gaza fishermen, Israel has prevented them from rightfully accessing deep sea waters — decimating the fishing industry, robbing Palestinians in Gaza of self-sufficiency and depriving Palestinians in Gaza from an affordable source of protein.

Israel’s attacks on the Gaza fishing industry takes place in the wider context of its systematic decimation of Gaza’s economy, through denying exports from the besieged territory, and through the bombardment of agricultural areas.

The full statement by Adalah and Al Mezan follows:

4 August 2011

Israeli Navy Releases Boats Confiscated from Gaza Fishermen without Equipment and Large Motors; Fishermen Refuse to take Boats

Adalah and Al Mezan continue to work intensively to secure the return of the boats and equipment belonging to fishermen from the Gaza Strip following its undue confiscation by the Israeli navy. The two human rights organizations are following the cases of eight fishermen whose boats were confiscated over the past 18 months

On 1 August 2011, after extensive correspondence, Adalah received a written response from the Israeli military prosecutor for the Israeli navy informing it that dozens of fishermen from Gaza would be permitted to go to the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing to collect small fishing boats (hasakat) that were confiscated from them by the Israeli navy over the course of the past 18 months. However, the military prosecutor also informed Adalah that any outboard motors over 25 horsepower on the boats had been dismantled and would not be returned to their owners, on the pretext that there was a legal prohibition against the export of such engines to Gaza.

When the fishermen arrived at the crossing to collect their boats on 2 August 2011, they were further shocked to discover that all they were given were the empty hulls of the fishing boats: in addition to larger motors, all of the fishing equipment and supplies that were onboard had been removed, in some cases worth tens of thousands of shekels. For example, on 26 April 2010, the Israeli navy raided the fishing boat of fisherman Mr. Fayyad Murtaji along the Gaza coast, arrested him and other people who were present on the boat, and impounded his vessel. The navy released the men soon afterwards but kept the fishing boat and equipment, which included fishing nets worth more than NIS 13,000 shekels, an outboard motor worth NIS 21,500, diving suits, fishing tackle, and search lighting, together worth thousands of shekels.

Furthermore, the fishermen were then required to pay the transportation fees for moving the boats from Israel to the Karem Abu Salem crossing, at a cost of between NIS 3,500 and 5,000 each. In addition, the fishermen are expected to pay for the transportation of the boats from the landlocked crossing to seaports. All the fishermen refused to take receipt of their boats and returned home without them.

The military prosecutor’s response follows extensive legal correspondence between Adalah - on behalf of the fishermen and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights - and the Office of the Navy Prosecutor over the past 10 months. In the correspondence, Adalah Attorney Fatmeh El-‘Ajou rejected the navy’s claims that the confiscation of the boats came in response to violations of security restrictions and for sailing in a closed military zone, arguing that the boats were impounded within the maritime areas of the Gaza Strip in permitted fishing zones.

As Adalah emphasized in a letter dated 20 July 2011, the refusal to permit the import of 25- horsepower outboard motors to Gaza on the basis of the Defense Export Control Law - 2007, which prevents the export of security equipment from Israel into the Gaza Strip - was illegal in these cases, which entail the return of illegally-seized goods from the Gaza Strip and not exported goods.

The military prosecutor for the Israeli navy conditioned the return of the fishing boats on written commitments from the fishermen that they would observe “the security restrictions in the maritime zone off the coast of Gaza and the orders of the Israeli army not to violate the security restrictions,” and “forfeit their right to compensation as a result of the lengthy duration of the impounding of the fishing boats.”

Adalah further argued, in a letter dated 8 September 2010, that the impounding of the fishing boats and the conditions imposed by the Israeli navy constituted a grave violation of the rights of Gaza residents to occupation and property under both Israeli domestic law and international law.

Attorney Mervat An Nahhal of Al Mezan stated that the confiscation of the fishing boats from Gaza comes within the broader context of the Israeli maritime blockade on the Strip, which is imposed by force of arms by the Israeli navy. Fishermen are exposed to serious rights violations that tread on their dignity and undermine their ability to work, even while fishing in permitted areas. Dozens of fishermen have been killed, injured and detained, their property has been illegally seized, and many of them have been driven into poverty and unemployment. Attorney An Nahhal argued that these practices constitute grave violations of international law, and form part of the collective punishment that is imposed on Gaza. They further violate the prohibition on targeting civilians and their livelihoods in the context of Occupation and armed conflict. She further stated that Adalah and Al Mezan would continue to work together on these cases to gain justice for the fishermen.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/gaza-fishermen-refuse-return-confiscated-ships-stripped-motors-equipment

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Why is the Most Wasteful Government Agency Not Part of the Deficit Discussion?

Published on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 by On the Commons

Republicans ignore incompetence, bloat and corruption at the Pentagon
by David Morris

In all the talk about the federal deficit, why is the single largest culprit left out of the conversation? Why is the one part of government that best epitomizes everything conservatives say they hate about government—- waste, incompetence, and corruption—all but exempt from conservative criticism?

Of course, I’m talking about the Pentagon. Any serious battle plan to reduce the deficit must take on the Pentagon. In 2011 military spending accounted for more than 58 percent of all federal discretionary spending and even more if the interest on the federal debt that is related to military spending were added. In the last ten years we have spent more than $7.6 trillion on military and homeland security according to the National Priorities Project.

In the last decade military spending has soared from $300 billion to $700 billion.

When debt ceilings and deficits seem to be the only two items on Washington’s agenda, it is both revealing and tragic that both parties give a free pass to military spending. Representative Paul Ryan’s much discussed Tea Party budget accepted Obama’s proposal for a pathetic $78 billion reduction in military spending over 5 years, a recommendation that would only modestly slow the rate of growth of military spending.

Indeed, the Republican government battering ram appears to have stopped at the Pentagon door. This was evident early on. As soon as they took over the House of Representatives, Republicans changed the rules so that military spending does not have to be offset by reduced spending somewhere else, unlike any other kind of government spending. It is the only activity of government they believe does not have to be paid for. Which brings to mind a bit of wisdom from one of their heroes, Adam Smith. “Were the expense of war to be defrayed always by revenue raised within the year … wars would in general be more speedily concluded, and less wantonly undertaken.”

The Tea Party revolution has only strengthened the Republican Party’s resolve that the Pentagon’s budget is untouchable. An analysis by the Heritage Foundation of Republican votes on defense spending found that Tea Party freshmen were even more likely than their Republican elders to vote against cutting any part of the military budget.

What makes the hypocrisy even more revealing is that the Pentagon turns out to be the poster child for government waste and incompetence.

In 2009 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found “staggering” cost overruns of almost $300 billion in nearly 70 percent of the Pentagon’s 96 major weapons. What’s more, the programs were running, on average, 21 months behind schedule. And when they were completed, they provided less than they promised.

The Defense Logistics Agency had no use for parts worth more than half of the $13.7 billion in equipment stacked up in DOD warehouses in 2006 to 2008.

And these are only the tips of the military’s misspending iceberg. We really don’t know how much the Pentagon wastes because, believe it or not, there hasn’t been a complete audit of the Pentagon in more than 15 years.

In 1994, the Government Management Reform Act required the Inspector General of each federal agency to audit and publish the financial statements of their agency. The Department of Defense was the only agency that has been unable to comply. In fiscal 1998 the Department of Defense used $1.7 trillion of undocumentable adjustments to balance the books. In 2002 the situation was even worse. CBS News reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted, “we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions.”

Imagine that a school district were to reveal that it didn’t know where it spent its money. Now imagine the Republican response. Perhaps, “Off with their desktops!”

How did Congress’ respond to DOD’s delinquency? It gave it absolution and allowed it to opt out of its legal requirement. But as a sop to outraged public opinion Congress required DOD to set a date when it would have its book sufficiently in order to be audited. Which the Pentagon dutiful did, and missed every one of the target dates. The latest is 2017 and DOD has already announced it will be unable to meet that deadline.

Adding insult to injury, last September, the GAO found that the new computer systems intended to improve the Pentagon’s financial oversight are themselves nearly 100 percent or $7 billion over budget and as much as 12 years behind schedule!

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Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II

Muslims putting their lives at risk to save Jews during Hitlers insanity in Europe.



The Persecution of the Jews has existed for thousands of years. This act in Europe was not the first and won't be the last. When hate is the core driving force that wishes to enforce it's way of life, then well most of us see the suffering globally.

Muslim's have had a very long history of living with Jews and Jews living amongst Muslims openly. This has been ongoing for thousand plus years as well. Interesting enough and very important to point out is that the Albanian Muslims did what history teaches us that a vast majority of Muslims did the same thing and that is gave a shelter to the displaced Jews, regardless of where they were forced to leave from.

The Albanian people did something that was truly heroic, by actually putting their own lives, even their own families as well. How much will does that take ? does anyone think even to tamper with a Nazi soldier, they took a major risk and many Jews live today because of their good deeds/action.

Iran second to only Israel in the region, has the next highest concentration of Jewish population. Hmmm and they want to do what to Jews ?? Never believe the lies about Iran's relationship with the Jewish identity for it existed for hundreds of years, before Iran was even Iran. The relationship is very deep amongst the communities.

Islam and the Quran are crucial to understanding how deep giving and sacrifice can lead to. The Jihad the Albanian Muslims was extra ordinarier, but to them it was a duty.

"Whoever saves a human life has saved the life of all mankind"(Quran S5:A32)

Peace be with you along with God's Mercy and blessings.

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Why Did DC Cancel Superman’s Team-Up with a Muslim Hero?

Ever since it was solicited three months ago, DC has been billing Superman #712 as a story where Superman goes to Los Angeles and meets the West Coast’s newest super-hero, Sharif, a young man dealing with a public that might not want his help. If you go to your local comic shop and pick the issue up today, however, that’s not the story you’re going to get. Instead, the issue now contains a completely different story.

At first glance, this might not seem like a big deal, because after all, fill-ins happen all the time. But given that writer Chris Roberson has said that the entire issue has been completed, it seems like there might be a deeper reason that this story got the axe — and it’s hard to believe it doesn’t have something to do with the fact that Sharif is a Muslim.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for DC Comics gave the official reason for the switch as follows:

“This fill in issue contains a lost classic, Lost Boy: A Tale of Krypto the Superdog, set shortly after Superboy died in Infinite Crisis and Superman went missing.

DC Comics determined that the previously solicited story did not work within the ‘Grounded’ storyline. However, Chris Roberson, will be back for the final two issues of Superman’s year long walk across America. As we near the conclusion, catch up with Superman next month as he makes stops in Portland and Newberg, OR.”

The statement that it “doesn’t work within ‘Grounded’” is vague enough to raise questions all by itself, because — fittingly enough for a series about Superman walking across America — that story has been all over the map in terms of tone. That’s to be expected with a story that has two writers as different as J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Roberson (and a third if you count the fill-ins G. Willow Wilson did before Straczynski’s official departure), but there’s no getting around it. In the past year’s worth of Superman comics, we’ve seen stories about Superman smugly lecturing passers-by about Thoreau, burning down drug dealers’ houses with his heat vision, helping space aliens build a factory to revitalize the economy, visiting the extradimensional headquarters of a team of Superman-inspired heroes from the future and fighting an army in Tibet with Batman.

Even if you accept “it doesn’t work within the story” as a reason to kill the issue, it’s hard to imagine what it was about this particular issue “didn’t work” if all of that did, a point underlined by Roberson himself in a reaction he gave exclusively to ComicsAlliance:

“As much as I look forward to seeing an unpublished Kurt Busiek Superman story, it’s a shame that DC didn’t determine that the story we prepared for Superman 712 didn’t work in the Grounded storyline in time for us to do a different story. As it happened, the Sharif story was included in the outline for the remaining issues of Grounded that I submitted in November. The outline was approved, and in February the issue synopsis that I provided was used to draft the solicitation text, to work up character designs for Sharif (the grown up version of Sinbad from the early 90s), and for cover art to be pencilled, inked, and colored. The script for the issue was accepted in April, and was drawn, inked, and lettered. Unfortunately, when the issue was ready to be sent to the printer in the third week of May I was informed that the decision had been made not to print it.”

While Roberson may have been informed in May, the change to the issue wasn’t announced to the public until this week, and it’s not just readers and retailers that were taken by surprise. George Perez, who is actually slated to take over as the writer of Superman this September, was not only surprised, but very upset that a variant cover he created for the issue that was dedicated to the memory of a friend was canned with the rest of the book:

“I have just received word from my editor at DC that DC decided to pull the original story slated for issue #712 and replace everything with another story and replacement covers ALL WITHOUT EVEN HAVING THE COURTESY OF TELLING ME! Considering the personal nature of this cover, and their knowledge of its significance, I am both extremely upset and personally embarrassed. My deepest apologies especially to Scott Mills and all of Rob Morrisroe’s friends and family and the Moonlight Players. I’ve been told that the cover has been rescheduled to appear as the cover for Issue 714 (the last of the classic SUPERMAN run, meaning that I draw the last of the old and the first of the new), but this doesn’t assuage my consternation and disappointment at the way this has been handled. I’m awaiting a call back from my editor but please don’t expect me to discuss any particulars about it on a public forum. Just know that I feel horrible about all this and and can only apologize to all those who may have been inconvenienced or disappointed by this unexpected (and totally preventable) turn of events.”

Clearly, even people directly involved with the issue weren’t aware that it “didn’t work” until very recently.

It’s worth noting that, as Roberson says above, the character that was to become Sharif in Superman #712 isn’t a new character, which isn’t a surprise. Throughout his run on the title, Roberson — a lifelong Superman fan — has been bringing back bits of the past to illustrate his points, ranging from the Superwoman of the ’70s to the short-lived “Electric Blue” costume from 1997. Sharif, formerly known as Sinbad, is no exception.

Created by William Messner-Loebs and Curt Swan in 1990, Davood Nassur was an immigrant from the fictional Arab country of Qurac — DC’s go-to stand-in for the Middle East — who came to America and discovered that he possessed super-powers. After meeting Superman, he was inspired to use those powers for good, to the point where even as a kid, he was one of the characters who stepped up to protect Metropolis in the aftermath of Superman’s (temporary) death.

With that in mind, it’s pretty easy to see where Roberson was going with this. Since he took over the book, Roberson has focused on the idea of what Superman means to people and the character’s legacy of inspiration, most notably in the aforementioned sequence with his heroic “descendants” in the Fortress of Solidarity. What’s more, given the original solicitation — which, as of this writing, is still up on DCComics.com, serving as an advertisement for a comic that’s never coming out — and its promise of Superman “aiding Sharif and quelling a prejudiced public,” the connections are right there.

Source : http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/06/23/why-did-dc-cancel-supermans-team-up-with-a-muslim-hero/

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Terrorism is not a Muslim monopoly

"All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." This comment , frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. The facts are very different.

First, there is nothing new about terrorism. In 1881, anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901, anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy.

World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. These terrorist attacks were not Muslim. Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of civilians for political reasons.

Going by this definition, the British Raj referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikh rather than Muslim.

Guerrilla fighters from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro killed civilians during their revolutionary campaigns. They too were called terrorists until they triumphed.

Nothing Muslim about them. In Palestine, after World War II, Jewish groups (the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state, bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians.

The British, who then governed Palestine, rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists. Many of these terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel — Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon.

Ironically, these former terrorists then lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very same nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier.

In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatisation agency. In Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former prime minister.

The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this. Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/sa-aiyar//Terrorism-is-not-a-Muslim-monopoly/articleshow/1794203.cms?curpg=1

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Inspiring Quotes From The Qur'an And Sunnah...

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Rep. Keith Ellison on Tea Party Anti-Muslim Bigotry and the Firing of NPR's Juan Williams

A prominent leader of the Tea Party movement recently said he was working to unseat Minnesota Democrat Rep. Keith Ellison in part because he is a Muslim. Judson Phillips, the founder of the Tea Party Nation urged Minnesota voters to elect Ellison's independent challenger, Lynn Torgerson, on Tuesday. "A majority of tea party members, I suspect, are not fans of Islam," Phillips said. On Democracy Now!, Rep. Ellison, the first Muslim congressman, responds to these comments and on-going attacks against Muslim and Arab communities. He also discusses the recent firing of NPR analyst Juan Williams.

For the transcripts and more information, visit www.DemocracyNow.org.

Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit www.DemocracyNow.org/donate

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ARAB DEMOCRACY Islam-ophobia, Glenn Beck Egypt Conspiracy Theory Colbert Show Jon Stewart

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CNN Poll: Most Americans ‘OK’ with a mosque in their community

Would you be “OK” with a mosque in your community?

According to a new national poll, most Americans say yes, they would.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday found that 69%of Americans would be “OK” with a mosque in their area while 28% would not.

But there are big differences depending on where you live. Half of rural Southerners say they disapprove of a mosque in their neighborhood, while 42 % say they would be “OK” with it.

That rises to roughly three-quarters among those who live in cities and suburbs.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, anti-mosque activity across the country, ranging from vandalism to lawsuits, has occurred in 21 states over the past five years.

Positive views of Muslim Americans are on the rise since 2002, according to the new poll, which found 46% of all Americans have a favorable view of American Muslims today, and 26% say they have an unfavorable view.

“Overall, positive views of American Muslims have risen since 2002, when memories of 9/11 were still fresh in most Americans’ minds,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “In 2002, as the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, only 39 percent of all Americans said they had a favorable view of Muslims.”

Americans in the South and rural communities are far less likely to have a favorable view of American Muslims, with just 32% saying they hold such views.

Thirty seven percent of rural Southerners say they don’t know enough to have an opinion.

When it comes to attitudes towards the Muslim faith itself, however, American opinions haven’t changed much.

“In 2002, 28 percent of all Americans had a favorable view of Islam and 33 percent feel that way today,” Holland says.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey was conducted March 11-13, with 1,023 people questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/03/24/cnn-poll-most-americans-ok-with-a-mosque-in-their-community/

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The Triple Filter Test - Avoid suspicions and backbiting

During the Abbasid period one of the scholars in Baghdad was greeted by an acquaintance who said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

Scholar: "Hold on a minute, before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

The Man: "Triple Filter Test?"

Scholar: "That's right, before you talk to me about my friend it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

The Man: "No, actually I just heard about it and ..."

Scholar: "All right, so you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

The Man: "No, on the contrary..."

Scholar: "So, you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: The filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

The Man: "No, not really."

Scholar: "Well, if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"


Let's pass our intended speech through the triple filter test before we madly utter our every thought. And lets subject others to the triple filter test too before we hear any number of damaging things from them.

The Quran teaches us

: "O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion, indeed some suspicions are sins. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you like to eat the flesh (meat) of his dead brother? You would hate it (so hate backbiting). And fear Allah. Verily, Allah is the One Who accepts repentance, the Most Merciful." [Quran 49:12]

The prophet Mohammad-pbuh said: “

Keep away from ill-thinking/suspicions because ill-thinking is the greatest falsehood.” [Sahih Bukhari]

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The Effect of Prayer on the Human Body

The Effect of Prayer on the Human Body
By : Dr Noha abo-krysha
Translated By : Nassim Dhaher
Revised By Magdy Abd Al-Shafy

In fact , prayer is a strong connection to God . In prayer , one can find many meanings that beggar description , man can find out the basic reason behind his existence . Allah the Exalted says in the Holy Quran what means :

{ Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah. for without doubt in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find satisfaction} Sura Arraadverse28

Establish regular prayers - at the sun's decline till the darkness of the night, and the morning prayer and reading: for the prayer and reading in the morning carry their testimony. 79-And pray in the small watches of the morning: (it would be) an additional prayer (or spiritual profit) for thee: soon will thy Lord raise thee to a Station of Praise and Glory!} Sura Al-israa verses 78,79

Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to say , when somthing distress him : (Oh Bilal(the prayer caller ), call for the prayer, relax us by it) [Sunan Abi Dawud]

The Scientific Study

It has become clear , through the results of several studies, the great effect that prayer and devotion have on brain stability and mode of function, and it has also become clear that several changes occur in the body ;among these is the effect that happens during blood systematization to certain parts in the brain

prayer effect on cerebral activities

This research was carried out by Dr. Newberg, the assistant Professor at X-Ray division of the Pennsylvania University Medical Center, on a group of faithful people who have faith in God , practice their prayers and come from different religious backgrounds.

This as done using Single Photon C.T. scan that shows the flow of blood in the cerebrum using colors which are based on brain activity where the color Red represents high activity and Yellow and Green represent low activity.

The First Image

The image shows the brain before meditation and prayer(on the left) and during prayer (on the right) where we see that during the envolvement in prayers and meditation, blood flow has increased , frontal lobe region is responsible for controlling emotions and agitations in humans and a region also important for the acquisition and practice of complicated percetion-movement abilities.

Terms used in the image

Baseline: normal state without meditation

Meditation: as name implies

The Second Image

The image shows a a blood flow decline in the the Parietal lobe at the region where humans sense their time and space limits. It was concluded from these results that during prayer, contemplation and seeking Allah, the limits of self-conciousness dissapear and a feeling of peace and freedom starts in the person and one feels closer to Allah in a way that no words can describe.

Verses from The Quran

Many are the verses that talked about the importance of prayer (Assalat), devotion and praise Allah the Almighty. The Quran has made a link between patience and prayer to make sure one does not get agitated.

Allah The Exalted Says in the Holy Quran what means:

{Nay, seek (Allah's) help with patient perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except to those who bring a lowly spirit} SuraAl-Baqara verse 45

There are other verses that linked between prayer and tranquility.

Allah The Exalted Says:

{When ye pass (Congregational) prayers, celebrate Allah’s praises, standing, sitting down, or lying down on your sides; but when ye are free from danger, set up Regular Prayers: For such prayers are enjoined on believers at stated times.} Sura An-Nisa verse 103

{Successful indeed are the believers , Who are humble in their prayers} Sura Al Muminun verses 1,2

Source : Answering-Christianity

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Truth About Terrorism

By James Corbett

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Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney

Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.

State lawmakers have passed nonbinding resolutions to end the war in Iraq and impeach Bush and Cheney, and several towns have also passed resolutions of impeachment. None of them have caught on in Washington.

Bush has never visited the state as president, though he has spent vacations at his family compound in nearby Maine.

Roughly 12,000 people live in Brattleboro, located on the Connecticut River in the state's southeastern corner. Nearby Marlboro has a population of roughly 1,000.

(Writing by Andy Sullivan, editing by David Wiessler)

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/05/us-usa-politics-vermont-idUSN0454699420080305

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Robert Fisk in Manama: Bahrain – an uprising on the verge of revolution

B

ahrain is not Egypt. Bahrain is not Tunisia. And Bahrain is not Libya or Algeria or Yemen. True, the tens of thousands gathering again yesterday at the Pearl roundabout – most of them Shia but some of them Sunni Muslims – dressed themselves in Bahraini flags, just as the Cairo millions wore Egyptian flags in Tahrir Square.

But this miniature sultanist kingdom is not yet experiencing a revolution. The uprising of the country's 70 per cent – or is it 80 per cent? – Shia population is more a civil rights movement than a mass of republican rebels, but Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa had better meet their demands quickly if he doesn't want an insurrection.

Indeed, the calls for an end to the entire 200-year-old Khalifa family rule in Bahrain are growing way ahead of the original aims of this explosion of anger: an elected prime minister, a constitutional monarchy, an end to discrimination. The cries of disgust at the Khalifas are much louder, the slogans more incendiary; and the vast array of supposedly opposition personalities talking to the Crown Prince is far behind the mood of the crowds who were yesterday erecting makeshift homes – tented, fully carpeted, complete with tea stalls and portable lavatories – in the very centre of Manama. The royal family would like them to leave but they have no intention of doing so. Yesterday, thousands of employees of the huge Alba aluminium plant marched to the roundabout to remind King Hamad and the Crown Prince that a powerful industrial and trade union movement now lies behind this sea of largely Shia protesters.

Yet Crown Prince Salman talks more about stability, calm, security and "national cohesion" than serious electoral and constitutional reform. Is he trying to "do a Mubarak" and make promises – genuine ones for the moment, perhaps, but kingly pledges do tend to fade with "stability" and time – which will not be met?

In an interview with CNN, he acknowledged the Belfast parallels, exclaiming that "what we don't want to do, like in Northern Ireland, is to descend into militia warfare or sectarianism". But the crazed shooting of the Bahraini army on Thursday evening – 50 wounded, three critically, one already pronounced brain dead – was a small-size Bloody Sunday and it didn't take long for the original civil rights movement in Northern Ireland to be outrun by a new IRA. Clearly, the royal family has been shocked at the events of the last week. Sultan al-Khalifa's admission that "this is not the Bahrain I know, I never thought I would see the day that something like this would happen" proves as much. But his words suggest that this huge manifestation of public fury was merely provoked by television pictures of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. For the record, the Shia rebellion against the country's Sunni rulers has been going on for years, with hundreds of political prisoners tortured in four prisons in and around Manama, their tormentors often from the Jordanian army – just as many Bahraini soldiers come from the Punjab and Baluchistan in Pakistan. Yesterday, there were repeated demands for the release of political prisoners, banners carrying photographs of young men who are still in jail years after their original sentencing: they run into the hundreds.

Then there are the disturbing stories of the refrigerated trucks which reportedly took dozens of corpses for secret burial, perhaps in Saudi Arabia. These could be part of the carapace of rumour that has settled over the events of the past few days, but now some of the names of the disappeared – men who were present at the shootings near the Pearl roundabout last week – are known.

Twelve of their names have just been released. So where is 14-year-old Ahmed Salah Issa, Hossein Hassan Ali, aged 18, Ahmed Ali Mohsen, 25 and Badria Abda Ali, a woman of unknown age? And where is Hani Mohamed Ali, 27, Mahdi al-Mahousi, 24, Mohamed Abdullah, 18, Hamed Abdullah al-Faraj, 21, Fadel Jassem, 45, and Hossein Salman, 48? English residents of a nearby apartment block were warned before the shooting that if they took photographs of the soldiers, they would be shot.

Matar Ibrahim, one of 18 Bahrain Shia MPs, agrees that there is an increasing gap now between demonstrators and the official political opposition that is being sought out by Crown Prince Salman.

"We are waiting for an initiative from the Crown Prince," he told me. "He has not mentioned reform or constitutional monarchy and a fully elected parliament. If people have a properly elected government, including the prime minister, they will blame their representatives if things go wrong. Now, they blame the King.

"What we are suggesting is a removal of the barriers between the people and the ruling family. When Hillary Clinton came to Bahrain, I told her that we don't want to see the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain [its military headquarters] as an obstacle to change, but currently, Bahrain is the worst strategic ally for the US."

The head of the Alba factory trade union, Ali Bin Ali – who is a Sunni – warned that his members could go on strike if they wanted to. "Now that people have been shot down on the roads, we will be political," he said.

Which, of course, is not what the Crown Prince wants to hear.

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High-ranking members of US military part of ‘Knights of Malta,’ ‘Opus Dei,’ reporter claims

Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has broken some massive stories in his day, but uncovering secret societies within the highest echelons of America's military would probably be the biggest of his career.

Well, get ready for the media storm, because that's essentially what Hersh told an audience in Doha, Qatar recently, according to a report published earlier this week by Foreign Policy.

Speaking at a campus operated by Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, Hersh said he was working on a new book that details "how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government."

"It's not only that the neocons took it over but how easily they did it -- how Congress disappeared, how the press became part of it, how the public acquiesced," he continued, according to the published quotes.

Hersh also lamented President Obama's continuance of the Bush administration's worst abuses.

"Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn't get one," he reportedly said.

The Foreign Policy report added that in 2003, those "in the Cheney shop" were not concerned about the havoc the invasion of Iraq was destined to cause.

"[The] attitude was, 'What's this? What are they all worried about, the politicians and the press, they're all worried about some looting?" Hersh was quoted as saying. "Don't they get it? We're gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."

He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta" and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.

"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally," Hersh reportedly continued. "They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."

He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture war" between religions.

It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.

The "Knights of Malta" were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.

"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.

Doubts, denials and a distinctive trend

Raw Story reached out to Hersh and The New Yorker to confirm the accuracy of his quotes, placing this report on hold until they responded. Both declined to make any further statement, neither confirming nor denying the quotes.

However, one source close to Hersh who spoke to Raw Story off the record, suggested that Foreign Policy's report was indeed correct.

Raw Story followed-up on the quotes due to a widely-reported false claim attributed to Hersh in May 2009, where he'd allegedly said former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

The report, which appeared to have originated in Pakistan, was picked up by The Wall Street Journal and the conservative-leaning American Spectator, but both removed the links after Raw Story published a denial from Hersh. A link to Raw Story's original report was unavailable due to a database malfunction.

Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning author and reporter, has previously reported that the JSOC was set up by former Vice President Cheney as something of an "executive assassination squad" that operated outside of congressional authority.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who resigned after Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings quoted him mocking the US civilian command, led JSOC before taking command of America's war effort in Afghanistan.

In an email to the military's Stars and Stripes publication, McChrystal's spokesman, David Bolger, panned Hersh's claim.

“The allegations recently made by Seymour Hersh relating to General McChrystal’s involvement with an organization called The Knights of Malta are completely false and without basis in fact,” he reportedly wrote. “General McChrystal is not and has never been a member of that organization.”

The religious indoctrination of US soldiers has been in headlines in recent weeks as soldiers who "failed" the "spiritual fitness" portion of the "comprehensive soldier fitness" test claimed they were forced to attend Christian ceremonies and become "born again" by professing love for the Christian deity.

Similarly, GQ magazine uncovered last year a series of top-secret military briefings prepared by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that included passages from the Bible.

Trijicon Inc., a defense contractor, was also discovered last January to have been for years placing scriptural references on gun sights used by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Their actions revealed Trijicon was forced to provide the Pentagon with kits to remove the codes.

Source : http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/21/highranking-members-military-part-knights-malta-opus-dei-reporter-claims/

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Libya protests: 140 'massacred' as Gaddafi sends in snipers to crush dissent

Snipers shot protesters, artillery and helicopter gunships were used against crowds of demonstrators, and thugs armed with hammers and swords attacked families in their homes as the Libyan regime sought to crush the uprising.

"Dozens were killed ... We are in the midst of a massacre here," a witness told Reuters. The man said he helped take victims to hospital in Benghazi.

Libyan Muslim leaders told security forces to stop killing civilians, responding to a spiralling death toll from unrest which threatens veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi's authority.

Mourners leaving a funeral for protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi came under fire, killing at least 15 people and wounding many more. A hospital official said one of those who died was apparently struck on the head by an anti-aircraft missile, and many had been shot in the head and chest.

The hospital was overwhelmed and people were streaming to the facility to donate blood. "Many of the dead and the injured are relatives of doctors here," he said. "They are crying and I keep telling them to please stand up and help us."

Saturday's new deaths are in addition to the 84 people believed to have been killed by Friday night, in the brutal government response, with fears that the eventual toll will prove much higher.

The five-day uprising in eastern Libya has been the greatest challenge to the 42-year rule of Col Gaddafi, the world's longest-serving ruler. With internet and phone lines to the outside world disrupted, it was unclear whether the revolt inspired by the revolutions in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt was spreading from the impoverished east of Libya to the capital Tripoli, or whether it was being successfully extinguished.

It was centred on Benghazi, 600 miles east of the capital, where a human rights activist lawyer was arrested on Tuesday. Chanting crowds, tens of thousands strong, filled the streets and police reportedly fled or joined the protesters, as unrest spread to surrounding towns. Fighting also broke out in the cities of Al-Bayda, Ajdabiya, Zawiya, and Darnah, with witnesses reporting piles of dead. Hospitals made frantic appeals for blood to treat wards full of wounded people.

Libyan special forces launched a dawn attack on Saturday against hundreds of protesters, including lawyers and judges, camped in front of the courthouse in Benghazi. "They fired tear gas on protesters in tents and cleared the areas after many fled carrying the dead and the injured," one protester said by phone from the city.

Video clips on the internet showed jubilant crowds at the start of the protest smashing down concrete statues of their ruler's Little Green Book, containing his sayings, and fighting running street battles with security forces. There were smaller protests in Tripoli, a stronghold of the Gaddafi family whose population received a much better share of Libya's oil wealth.

Colonel Gaddafi himself was shown on state-run television driving in a motorcade through Tripoli, surrounded by cheering supporters pumping their fists in the air and chanting slogans of support.

The pro-government Al-Watania newspaper praised Colonel Gaddafi, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1969, and insisted the people were uniting with the government against "traitors of the West". Foreign media were exaggerating the scale of the violence, it said.

Reports from Benghazi gave a very different picture of the crisis, describing how the city's residents battled brutal security forces sent from the capital. One man, who gave his name only as Mohammed, told the BBC: "The army are joining the people, the people are going out of their homes and fighting street by street and they are winning."

A Benghazi cleric, Abellah al-Warfali, said he had a list of 16 people who had been killed, most with bullet wounds to the head and chest. "I saw with my own eyes a tank crushing two people in a car," he said. "They didn't do any harm to anyone."

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8335934/Libya-protests-140-massacred-as-Gaddafi-sends-in-snipers-to-crush-dissent.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d6160096b34e051%2C0

Libya ruling dictator has been in power for over 42 years and says he is for the people. The obvious lie is clear and his tactics against the protesters show how much he is there to serve the people.

Sending snipers and ordering to shoot to kill, many of the protesters consider him insane and libya is not the beautiful place Gaddafi wishes to display.

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Cairo protesters: 'we're not Muslim Brotherhood'

The Telegraph reports from Tahrir Square in Cairo where, despite the violence this week, Egyptian demonstrators are determined to continue their protest until they see the back of President Hosni Mubarak.



Adrian Bloomfield talks to the demonstrators about the motivations behind their protests to end President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-rule why they are prepared to put their lives on the line to bring change to their country.

Egypt has now faced from 11 days of unrest and protests, with more than 100,000 anti-government demonstrators filling Cairo's giant Tahrir Square chanting after Friday prayers "today is the last day" for President Hosni Mubarak.

Source

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Settlers kill 2 Palestinian teens, soldiers attack funeral

Iraq Burin

An Israeli settler allegedly from the illegal Barkha settlement shot and killed 19-year-old Uday Qadous after they engaged in a verbal altercation, on 27 January in the northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus.

Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq investigated the shooting and stated that Uday and his cousin, Umar, were working in their fields when Uday went looking for some of their sheep that had gone missing ("Updates on the Killing of Udayy Qadoush by a Settler in Iraq Bourin," 1 February 2011).

"Shortly after, Umar became worried about his cousin and went to look for him in the fields," Al Haq stated. "He found Uday standing near an unpaved military road (connecting Barkha settlement and the local military base) and a settler was standing opposite him, about 10 meters away; the two were quarreling verbally."

"As they moved away, Umar could no longer see them but heard a bullet shot and saw the settler running away from the scene of the incident. The settler had a light-complexion, blonde hair and wearing a Kippa, carrying a black backpack and a pistol on the side of his waist," Al Haq reported.

The shooting was caught on Israeli military cameras, and was made public on YouTube (IDF Camera 28-Jan-2011: Israeli Settler Kill a Palestinian (Uday Qadous) in Iraq Burin). The brief video appears to show Uday fall to the ground suddenly as he is moving away from the settler.

Medical officials in the Rafadiya hospital in Nablus confirmed that Qadous was shot at point-blank range in the upper torso, with a bullet ripping through his lung, Ma'an news agency reported ("Autopsy on teen slain by settler completed," 28 January 2011).

Beit Ommar

The next day in the southern West Bank village of Beit Ommar, a large group of Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal Bat Ayn settlement descended on the outskirts of the village and opened fire. Yousef Fakhri Ikhlayl, aged 17, was shot in the head while standing in his family's vineyard.

Another 16-year-old boy from Beit Ommar was shot in the arm, but survived the attack.

Ikhlayl remained brain-dead in a hospital in Hebron before succumbing to his wounds early the next morning, according to Beit Ommar-based activism group Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP). PSP reported that at least 100 settlers took part in Friday's attack, which began when armed members of the group began firing at Palestinian homes in the Saffa area adjacent to Beit Ommar. At the same time, PSP added, other settlers opened fire in the Jodor neighborhood, where Ikhlayl was standing ("Beit Ommar youth killed by Israeli settlers," 28 January 2011).

Dozens of villagers from Beit Ommar and nearby Surif immediately came to the area "to defend their communities," PSP stated, adding that seven Israeli military jeeps arrived and "escorted the settlers back to Bay Ayn [settlement]."

Ikhlayl was recently a participant in a youth photography class sponsored by the village-based Center for Freedom and Justice, and had been active with PSP in educational projects and community service-oriented initiatives.

Bekah Wolf, co-founder of PSP, worked closely with Ikhlayl and stated in the press release that "Yousef was a kid who hoped for a better future for Palestine."

Wolf continued, "His life was ended prematurely by right-wing extremists. People around the world should be outraged by his shooting, and should work to bring his attackers to justice."

Approximately 10,000 people filled the streets of Beit Ommar as residents carried Ikhlayl's body and held Palestinian flags in his funeral on 29 January, PSP reported.

As the crowd marched closer to the Israeli sniper tower at the entrance to the village, on their way to the cemetery, Israeli soldiers attacked the funeral procession with sound grenades and tear gas canisters, while some residents threw stones at the fortified tower ("Funeral of Yousef Ikhlayl attacked by Israeli military, dozens injured," 29 January 2011).

Soon afterwards, Israeli military jeeps arrived and soldiers "began shooting live [ammunition] and rubber bullets," PSP added. "Most of the crowd dispersed at this point, carrying the injured people away. Several residents stayed and continued to confront the occupying army with stones."

Dozens were wounded in the attacks.

PSP reported that Israeli soldiers also fired on a Palestinian ambulance attempting to give medical relief to an injured person.

Days before Ikhlayl's killing, settlers from the same illegal settlement destroyed several hundred olive trees in Beit Ommar, PSP stated ("Settlers destroy more trees in Beit Ommar," 28 January 2011).

Earlier in the week, on 27 January, the Israeli military arrested two young boys from Beit Ommar. PSP reported that 11-year-old Hamza Ahmed Abu Hashem and 12-year-old Bilal Mahmood Awad were arrested while they played soccer near their homes ("Israeli forces arrest two Palestinian boys ages 11 and 12 in Beit Ommar," 27 January 2011).

"Bilal and Hamza were taken to the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur and then transferred to the police station in Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron," PSP stated.

Hamza is the son of a community activist with the Beit Ommar-based National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, a group that organizes weekly unarmed demonstrations against the Israeli occupation and the encroaching settlements.

At press time, PSP said that Hamza was released but Bilal was still being held in Israeli detention.

Bekah Wolf told The Electronic Intifada that on 3 February, another two Palestinian youths were arrested by Israeli soldiers, who detained them at Karmei Tsur settlement. Both of the boys are 17 years-old, according to Wolf.

Family members of one of the youths were badly beaten, she reported, when the soldiers entered their house. PSP members were also assaulted by Israeli soldiers when they attempted to find out information about the two boys. Another 26-year-old man was arrested also on 3 February by Israeli soldiers at the entrance to Beit Ommar, Wolf added.

Nabi Saleh

Israeli soldiers also arrested several Palestinian children in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh last week according to a report from The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC). On Sunday, 23 January, Israeli forces arrested 14-year-old Islam al-Tamimi in a pre-dawn raid, IMEMC reported ("An-Nabi Saleh Popular Committee Leader Beaten, Two Children Arrested," 26 January 2011).

The report added that this was the second time in three weeks that Islam was arrested, and was interrogated for eight hours during his detention last week.

Islam was "denied access to legal counsel for the first five hours, during which he confessed to throwing stones during the weekly protest against the annexation wall," IMEMC reported, "and his parents were denied access to their son during the interrogation; their legal right." Islam's brother, 10-year-old Karim al-Tamini, was arrested on Tuesday, IMEMC reported, but was released after seven hours in custody.

On 26 January, the Israeli military arrested two 15-year-old boys along with Bassem Tamimi, leader of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Nabi Saleh, IMEMC stated.

Joseph Dana, independent journalist, contributor to The Electronic Intifada, and media coordinator for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, reported that Israeli forces applied torture techniques on Islam al-Tamimi during the interrogation ("Harsh interrogations of children escalate in Nabi Saleh," 31 January 2011).

Jordan Valley

Israeli soldiers beat and arrested a 19-year-old Palestinian farmer in the Hadidiya region of the northern Jordan Valley as he grazed his livestock, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Project (JVSP) reported on 2 February ("A young man beaten and kidnapped by soldiers in Hadidiya").

After being beaten by the soldiers, Ghazi Bsharat was taken to a nearby military detention center and released several hours later.

JVSP also reported that approximately 30 Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Maskiyot attacked Palestinians in Ein al Helwe, also in the northern Jordan Valley, on 29 January. A woman and her 11-year-old daughter were beaten and threatened with future violence in what residents say are attempts by settlers to force Palestinians to leave the area ("New settler aggression in Ein Il Hilwe," 29 January 2011).

Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center (SILWANIC) reported that Israeli forces set a Palestinian home on fire on Friday, 28 January, after they fired rounds of tear gas canisters inside the house, located in the Baten al-Hawa area of Silwan ("Palestinian home set ablaze under volleys of tear gas," 28 January 2011).

Following the destruction of the home, Israeli security services, including police, opened fire on Palestinian residents who protested the presence of the armed forces. SILWANIC reported that a 12-year-old boy was injured when a rubber bullet hit him in his face.

Later on, as protests intensified in the Baten al-Hawa area, SILWANIC reported that Israeli settlers "joined the violence" perpetrated by the Israeli armed forces, while Palestinian youth threw molotov cocktails at soldiers who had occupied the roof of a nearby home. Fire bombs were also hurled at the illegal Beit Yonatan settlement inside the neighborhood ("Youth aim Molotovs at soldiers on occupied roof," 28 January 2011).

Gaza Strip

Israeli snipers stationed along the Gaza boundary opened fire on a 21-year-old Palestinian man on 31 January, The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported (""Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," 27 January - 2 February 2011).

Israeli soldiers inside sniper towers near Beit Lahiya town "fired at a number of Palestinian workers who were collecting scraps of construction materials from a site where the evacuated Israeli settlement of 'Elli Sinai' used to stand," PCHR reported.

"Mohammed Zakaria Halawa, 21, from Jabalya, was wounded by a bullet to the left leg, when he was nearly 150 meters away from the border," PCHR added. Rising poverty and the 4-year-long Israeli blockade in the occupied Gaza Strip has forced many Palestinian laborers to collect raw industrial material and rubble from areas near the "buffer zone," a 300-meter-long militarized area along the northern, eastern and maritime boundaries.

As The Electronic Intifada has reported, Israeli planes hit Gaza tunnels, no casualties," 2 February 2011).

Dhammash

Finally, in the village of Dhammash, near Tel Aviv, Israeli police arrested and severely beat members of the Shaaban family on 22 January, accusing them of "harboring illegal workers," according to a report by independent journalist Max Blumenthal ("'The days of '48 have come again.' 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, Israel creates a new refugee camp," 26 January 2011).

Police in the town of Lydd, "violently arrested Ali, Farida, and five members of [the Shaaban] family," Blumenthal reported, adding that their detention was unknown until the following Monday, two days later. A judge then extended their imprisonment until the following Thursday "on the grounds of secret evidence the Shaaban family's lawyer was not allowed to view -- a tactic familiar to Israel's military courts in the West Bank."

A mobile phone video posted on YouTube showed Israeli police beating members of the Shaaban family.

For more than a year, the Palestinian residents of Dhammash have been living under regular police harassment and constant threat of losing their homes in their village, which has been "unrecognized" by the State of Israel since 1948. Residents of Dhammash are Israeli citizens and pay taxes, but do not receive any services as the state refuses to acknowledge their presence.

The Electronic Intifada has reported on the situation for Palestinians inside Dhammash and the adjacent segregated city of Lydd, where recent demolitions of Palestinian homes have left entire families homeless.

Source : http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11780.shtml

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An Islamic view of the return of Jesus (pbuh)

In the Qur'an, there is an explicit reference to the "second coming of the Jesus to the world" which is heralded in a hadith (Prophetic narration).

The realization of some information revealed in the Qur'an about Jesus can only be possible by Jesus' second coming... His return will be a great turning point in history, an act will unite all the believers in God, will give an end to all the pains and turmoil of disbelief and will bring peace and happiness to mankind.

Despite this, however, many people assume that Jesus (as) passed away some thousands of years ago and that thus it is unlikely that he will return. This is a misconception arising from lack of knowledge about the Qur'an and the Sunnah. A careful scrutiny of the Qur'an will render an accurate understanding of the verses about Jesus (pbuh) possible.

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) told us that Jesus (as) will be sent back to earth and related that in that time, which is called "the end of time", there may be a period in which the earth will attain unprecedented peace, justice and welfare

In this lecture Maulana Imran Hosein takes us through Prophet Jesus birth, life, apparent death (Prophet Jesus never died) and shows his return in the context of today's world.

We know that Issa/Jesus son of Mary was indeed a very righteous individual accepted as a messenger and the Messiah. Begotten through God's word be and he became a sign for mankind.
We will find that even he was tempted by Satan and with his faith given to him he was among the closest to God.

The picture refers to Satan tempting Jesus in the story it is mentioned that Satan attempts to have Jesus (pbuh) sin against God. Satan told Jesus(pbuh) your faith is strong and if you jump of the cliff for certain God will save you. Jesus(pbuh) in turn said to Satan "God is who tests Man, not man who tests God".

For the believers it's important not to test God for God is the one who is testing us.

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Numerical facts in the Quran. The signature -19 and The strength of the believers.

It is very important in the 21st Century to educate our Muslim youth about the miracles of the Quran. Among thousands of miracles in the Quran, if he/she really believes that the Quran and these specific miracles could not have come from our Beloved Prophet (PBUH) alone and it was revealed to him by Allah (SWT), then he would have a firm belief that Allah (SWT) does exist. He/she would believe that the Quran is the revelation by Allah (SWT). He will then follow the Quran for success in this life and salvation in the life after death.

In the computer age of the 21st Century, our youth are very impressed by modern technology and the Internet so the numerical miracle of the Quran is most impressive for them. There are a few books that have been written on numerical miracles of the Quran. We can mention a few items and you may review the books for more detail.

Number 19: Sura 74 – The Hidden Secret (Al-Muddath-thir) Ayat 30 to 35. “We appointed 19 angels to be guardians of hell, to disturb the disbelievers, to convince the Christians and Jews (that this is a divine scripture) to strengthen the faith of the faithful, to remove all traces of doubt from the hearts of Christians, Jews as well as believers.”

Why 19 = Allah (SWT) uses 19 as his signature.

1.Sun, moon and earth become aligned every 19 years.

2.Human bones are 209 pieces (19 x 11)

Quran is the Miracle of the Beloved Prophet (PBUH)

Quran is full of Allah’s (SWT) signature: Number 19


1.Bismillah Al Rahman Alrahim in Arabic contains 19 letters

2.Quran contains 114 Sura (6 x 19)

3.Quran contains 6346 (19 x 334) verses

4.Bismillah occur 114 times (6 x 19) in Quran, although Sura 9 has no Bismillah and Sura 27 has Bismillah at the beginning and middle.

5.First Revelation Sura 96 Ayeh 1-5 consists of 19 words

6.First Revelation Sura 96 Ayeh 1-5 consists of 76 letters (19 x 4).

7.Sura 96 First Revelation has 19 verses

8.The Last Revelation (Sura 110) consists of 19 words.

9.Sura Q (No-50) has 57Q (3 x 19)

10.The word Quran has been repeated in the Quran text 57 times (3 x 19)

11.Total count of Allah in Quran 2698 (19 x 142)

12.Total number of verses wherever the word Allah is mentioned, total added together is 118123 (19 x 6217).


There are many other examples that you may find in the books written on this subject. If you think all of these mathematical relations are just a coincidence, then you will never become a believer. If you believe that these mathematical relations are not just a coincidence but a miracle of Allah (SWT), then you will be able to follow the Quran and use it as your guidance and you will be successful in this life and in the life after death.

Source

Al-Hayat (Life)145/Al-Maout (Death)145

Al-Mala'ikah (Angles)88/Al-Shayateen (Satan)88

Al-Rajul (Man)24/Al-Mar'ha (Woman)24

Al-Salihat (Righteous deeds)167/Al-Sayi'at (Evil deeds)167

Al-Dunya (This World)115/Al-Akhira (The Hereafter)115

Al-Yisr (Facility, Relief)36/Al-'Usr (Difficulty)12

Al-Abraar (The Righteous)6/Al-Fujjaar (The Wicked)3

Al-Jahr (Saying Aloud)16/Al-'Alaniyah (in public)16

Al-Mahabbah (Love)83/Al-Ta'ah (Obedience)83

Al-Huda (Right Guidance)79/Al-Rahma (Mercy)79

Al-Salaam (Peace)50/Al-Tayibaat (Delicacies)50

Al-Shiddah (Hardship)102/Al-Sabr (Patience)102

Al-Musibah (Disaster)75/Al-Shukr (Thank)75

Iblees (Satan/Lucifer)11/Al-Isti'azah Billah (seek God's refugee)11

Al-Jazaa' (Reward)117/Al-Maghfirah (Forgiveness)234 (117*2)

Al-Shahr (Month)12/Al-Yahom (Day)365

Al-bahar (Sea)32/Al-bar (Land)13

Source

"We will show them Our Signs in the universe, and in their ownselves, until it becomes manifest to them that this (Qur'an) is the truth. Is it not sufficient in regard to your Lord that He is a Witness over all things?" (Quran 41:53)

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So called Under-wear bomber was set up on the plane

Kurt Haskell Blows Whistle on Underwear Bomber. Government Op



I contend that this story is just the tip of the iceberg into the US government's black operations to further the Patriot Act, funding for Homeland Security and the TSA, and to keep intensity up for the so called War on Terror. Respected lawyer and community leader, Kurt Haskell, has nothing to gain from pointing his finger at the federal government. He witnessed the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, being whisked past security and led onto NorthWest Airlines flight 253, by a well-dressed man with an American accent- all without the passenger's proper visa and passport documentation. What the news piece doesn't mention is that the State Dept did indeed put Mutallab on the plane, at the behest of "an unnamed US intelligence agency." Undersecretary Patrick F. Kennedy (Detroit news article was removed from web!).

THIS is why we are being groped, molested, and body scanned at the airport by the TSA! Because the government claims the underwear bomber is a real threat! Stand up America- the politicians say our rhetoric is dangerous. Maybe the government itself is terribly dangerous....

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News piece aired January 25, 2011 - FOX 2 WJBK Detroit, Michigan

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The Balfour Declaration: Betrayal of Palestine

On November 2, 1917, Lord Arthur Balfour, the then British foreign secretary, promised to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. Known as the Balfour Declaration, the document became the first stepping-stone towards the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel.

Palestine was still under Ottoman rule when it was written. But Britain and its allies were making headway in defeating the ailing Ottoman empire and, when Palestine came under British control just a month later, the document suddenly assumed much greater significance. The Balfour Declaration was presented as equal to a land deed that conferred legitimacy on the plans of the international Zionist movement.

Balfour was keenly aware of the presence of an indigenous Arab population, but in an era that preceded international law, the United Nations charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention, a powerful empire had no qualms about granting a land deed for territories it had no legitimate claim to.

The Balfour Declaration did include a stipulation that "nothing shall be done that may prejudice the religious or civil rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" - a clause that was not exactly heeded by the founders and rulers of Israel. But little more could have been expected as the declaration itself stripped the Arab community in Palestine of its right to land and self-determination.

'Europe's problem'

But the Palestinian Arabs were the last thing on Balfour's mind, or the minds of many other British politicians. He was primarily concerned with solving 'a European problem' and not with addressing the rights of an indigenous people. He also sought to bolster a declining British empire.

Balfour saw the establishment of a homeland for the Jews in Palestine as the best solution to what was commonly referred to as Europe's 'Jewish problem' - a solution that reflected and embodied the central anti-Semitic belief that Jews were an alien body causing problems in Christian Europe.

Balfour was a known anti-Semite who as prime minister supported and pushed for the 1905 Aliens Act that sought to curb Eastern European, particularly Jewish, immigration to Britain.

Over the years, he grew convinced that Zionism - the movement that advocated the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine - offered a convenient solution to the 'Jewish problem'. Like other anti-Semites he did not believe that Jews belonged in Europe and felt that they comprised a separate race and religion that could not live in harmony within their countries of residence.

He expressed these views clearly in an introduction he wrote to a book called ‘History of Zionism’ by Nahum Sokolow. Calling on Europeans to support Zionism, Balfour wrote: "For as I read its meaning it is, among other things, a serious endeavour to mitigate the age-long miseries created for Western civilisation by the presence in its midst of a body which it too long regarded as alien and even hostile, but which it was equally unable to expel or to absorb. Surely, for this if for no other reason it should receive our support."

While many Jews sought assimilation, the Zionist movement established by Theodore Herzl sought a separate entity for the Jews. It did not see the Jewish problem as one of segregation and discrimination that could be addressed through a struggle for universal rights but sought a more radical solution - to take Jews out of Europe.

Jewish opposition

But not all Jews were convinced that this was the answer. In fact there was considerable resistance to Zionism from some European, including British, Jews. Chief among these critics was the British politician Edwin Montagu who forcefully argued that the declaration could produce a backlash against those Jews who chose to remain in Europe. "I wish to place on the record my view that the policy of His Majesty's government is anti-Semitic in result and will prove a rallying ground for anti-Semites in every country of the world," he wrote in an official memorandum.

Historians believe that Montagu's criticism led to important changes and additions being made to the original draft of the declaration - with Balfour's promise to support making Palestine "a Jewish homeland" becoming support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people".

The final draft also stipulated that nothing would be done that might prejudice the rights or political status of Jews in any other country - an attempt to allay fears that the establishment of a homeland for Jews would put Jews in Europe at risk by confirming perceptions of them as an "alien" group.

Thus a formula was found to satisfy both anti-Semites and those Jews who preferred assimilation into their country of residence.

But in all of this drama the Palestinians were neither consulted nor seriously considered. It was then much as it is today - except that British imperial power has been replaced by American imperial power.

Lord Balfour was a true representative of the imperial values of his times - an anti-Semitic politician who sought to solve what was then seen as 'Europe's problem' while setting the stage for the creation of a pro-Western entity in the Arab world. His declaration was an embodiment of both imperialism and anti-Semitism, the repercussions of which are still being felt thousands of miles away from where his short policy statement was crafted.

Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs.

Source:
Al Jazeera
Novemeber 6, 2010

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RAHM EMANUEL’S FATHER SPECIALIZED IN BUS BOMBINGS IN PALESTINE

Wikipedia deleted the page about Rahm Emanuel’s father in 2008. Makes you wonder.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) – Note from Publisher:Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel held a top position in our country’s leadership and his example of ethics and integrity is of the highest importance. This is not diminished regardless of his aspirations to leave the national spotlight and become the mayor of Chicago.

But, it seems, some secrets must just be harder to share. This revealing article will leave you with a better understanding of why no one wants to talk about Benjamin Emanuel. And why they should.
- Bonnie King

A well-placed British source informed WMR that Rahm Emanuel’s father, Benjamin Emanuel, specialized in the terrorist bombings of buses carrying British troops and policemen during the British Mandate in Palestine.

British MI-6 files contain information on the elder Emanuel’s participation in the terrorist activities of Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Jewish terrorist organization that targeted British forces, UN officials, and Palestinian Arabs in the lead up to Israeli independence in 1948.

Benjamin Emanuel, a Jew from Russia whose real name was Ezekiel Auerbach, was arrested by British police for terrorist activities in the months prior to Israeli independence. Many of the British policemen killed by Emanuel and his Irgun colleagues between 1947 and 1948 had been transferred to Palestine upon Indian and Pakistani independence in 1947. Irgun saw the increase of British policemen from the Indian subcontinent as a major threat.

The Jewish terrorist murders of British troops and policemen resulted in massive anti-Jewish riots in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, and Cardiff in 1947. In 1946, Emanuel’s Irgun bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people, including 28 British soldiers and policemen.

British intelligence also believed that Benjamin Emanuel may have been related to Vladimir Jabotinsky, a Russian Jew from Odessa who founded Irgun. Jabotinksy, who was an admirer of Benito Mussolini and who secretly negotiated for the expatriation of Jews to Palestine with the Nazi government in Germany and Admiral Miklos Horthy’s pro-Nazi regime in Hungary, died of a heart attack in New York in 1940.

Wikipedia deleted Benjamin Emanuel’s entry in 2008*, shortly after Rahm Emanuel was designated as President Obama’s chief of staff. Wikipedia is a favorite device for the perception management goals of Dr. Cass Sunstein, Obama’s director of the White House Office of Regulatory Affairs.

With a record of terrorist acts contained in his MI-6 files, Benjamin Emanuel was permitted by U.S. authorities to emigrate to Chicago from Israel in the 1950s, becoming a citizen. Rahm Emanuel was born in 1959.

Source

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Palestine: The Arrival of Zionism

Palestine: The Arrival of Zionism

Zionism arrived in Palestine in the late 19th as a colonialist movement motivated by national impulses.

The colonization of Palestine fitted well the interests and policies of the British Empire on the eve of the First World War.

With the backing of Britain, the colonization project expanded, and became a solid presence on the land after the war and with the establishment of the British mandate in Palestine (which lasted between 1918 and 1948).

While this consolidation took place, the indigenous society underwent, like other societies in the rest of the Arab world, a steady process of establishing a national identity.

But with one difference. While the rest of the Arab world was shaping its political identity through the struggle against European colonialism, in Palestine nationalism meant asserting your collective identity against both an exploitative British colonialism and expansionist Zionism.

Thus, the conflict with Zionism was an additional burden. The pro-Zionist policy of the British mandate there naturally strained the relationship between Britain and the local Palestinian society.

This climaxed in a revolt in 1936 against both London and the expanding Zionist colonization project.

The revolt, which lasted for three years, failed to sway the British mandate from a policy it had already decided upon in 1917. The British foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, had promised the Zionist leaders that Britain would help the movement to build a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine.

The number of Jews coming into the country increased by the day - although even at that point, during the 1930s, the Jews were just a quarter of the population, possessing 4 percent of the land.

As resistance to colonialism strengthened, the Zionist leadership became convinced that only through a total expulsion of the Palestinians would they be able to create a state of their own.

From its early inception and up to the 1930s, Zionist thinkers propagated the need to ethnically cleanse the indigenous population of Palestine if the dream of a Jewish state were to come true.

The preparation for implementing these two goals of statehood and ethnic supremacy accelerated after the Second World War.

The Zionist leadership defined 80 percent of Palestine (Israel today without the West Bank) as the space for the future state.

This was an area in which one million Palestinians lived next to 600,000 Jews.

The idea was to uproot as many Palestinians as possible. From March 1948 until the end of that year the plan was implemented despite the attempt by some Arab states to oppose it, which failed. Some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled, 531 villages were destroyed and 11 urban neighbourhoods demolished.

Half of Palestine’s population was uprooted and half of its villages destroyed. The state of Israel was established in over 80 percent of Palestine, turning Palestinian villages into Jewish settlements and recreation parks, but allowing a small number of Palestinian to remain citizens in it.

The June 1967 war allowed Israel to take the remaining 20 percent of Palestine.

This seizure defeated in a way the ethnic ideology of the Zionist movement. Israel encompassed 100 percent of Palestine, but the state incorporated a large number of Palestinians, the people who Zionists made such an effort to expel in 1948.

The fact that Israel was let off easily in 1948, and not condemned for the ethnic cleansing it committed, encouraged it to ethnically cleanse a further 300,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

Source

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'US embassy official Blackwater agent'

Pakistani media say the US embassy official charged with the murder of two Pakistani citizens is an agent for the notorious security firm, Blackwater.


The US official identified by police as Raymond Davis shot dead two men riding on a motorcycle in Lahore on Thursday in what he claimed was self-defense during an attempted robbery.

A third Pakistani was run over and killed in the incident after being hit by a US consulate vehicle rushing to the scene to the American's aid.

The US embassy in Islamabad has confirmed the man involved was a consular official and says it is carrying out an investigation.

Trying to avoid an anti-American reaction, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Thursday that Washington will fully cooperate with Pakistani authorities and will explain about the incident to the Pakistani people.

The issue of American diplomats carrying weapons inside Pakistan was a hot-button subject last year among certain politicians and sections of the media purportedly worried about the country's sovereignty.

Many Pakistanis regard the United States with suspicion or outright enmity because of its occupation of neighboring Afghanistan

http://www.presstv.com/detail/162383.html

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