NEWS TIP: MUSLIM-AMERICAN VALUES NOT REFLECTED IN FORT HOOD SHOOTING, DUKE EXPERT SAYS
Note to editors: Jen’nan Read can be reached for additional comment until 7 p.m. Friday at (949) 266-4249.
Thursday’s deadly shooting at Fort Hood in Texas “should not be viewed as reflective of the Muslim-American population, nor do these actions represent Muslim-American values,” says a Duke University sociologist who studies the political integration and activity of U.S. Muslims.
The accused gunman has been identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim American from the Washington, D.C., area. Jen’nan Read, an associate professor of sociology and global health at Duke, says she cannot speculate what led the gunman to open fire on Thursday.
“But I am not surprised that leaders of the Muslim-American community are horrified and saddened by what happened. That’s because Muslim-Americans have similar values and beliefs as other Americans,” said Read, the author of “Culture, Class and Work Among Arab-American Women” (LFB Scholarly Publishing, 2004).
A Carnegie scholar studying the economic, political and cultural integration of Muslim and Arab Americans, Read says Muslims Americans are highly diverse and politically integrated, and in step with the rest of the American public on today’s most divisive political issues.
Read finds the majority of both Muslim Americans and the general public oppose gay marriage and favor increased federal funding for the needy. According to her research, Muslim Americans are slightly more conservative than the American public with regard to abortion and are generally “diverse, well-integrated, and largely mainstream in their attitudes, values and behaviors.”
Read says Muslim Americans are not uniformly religious and devout. Like Christians, Jews and members of other faith groups, Muslims represent widely varying levels of religious devotion, mosque attendance and frequency of regular prayer.
On average, Muslim Americans tend to be highly educated, politically conscious and fluent in English. On average, this group shares similar socio-economic characteristics with the general U.S. population in terms of education, income and employment: one-fourth has a bachelor’s degree or higher; one-fourth lives in households of $75,000 or more; the majority are employed.
Yet, despite the similarities between Muslim Americans and the general public, “we can’t deny that the Muslim-American experience, particularly since 9/11, has been ‘exceptional’ in a country marked by a declining salience of religious boundaries and increasing acceptance of religious difference,” Read said. “Muslim Americans have been largely excluded from this ecumenical trend.”
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Note to broadcast editors: Duke provides an on-campus satellite uplink facility for live or pre-recorded television interviews. We are also equipped with ISDN connectivity for radio interviews. Broadcast reporters should contact Scott Wells at (919) 660-1741 or James Todd at (919) 681-8061 to arrange an interview before 7 p.m. Friday. Previous video of Read can be viewed at http://news.duke.edu/2009/09/read.html
Washington (CNN) — Ibrahim Hooper knows the drill.
When news first broke Thursday that a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, killed and injured U.S. soldiers, the national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote a statement of condemnation.
He only sent it out later, when reports emerged that the alleged shooter’s name was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
“As soon as we saw what appeared to be a Muslim name, we issued our statement,” Hooper said. “Until that time, we were praying that no Muslim would be involved.”
That’s the reality of crisis management for the Muslim-American community, said Hooper, who handles communications for the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.
Even without confirmation that the alleged gunman was Muslim — there was no immediate determination of any religious affiliation for Hasan — the mere reporting of a possible Muslim name required an immediate comment, he said.
“That’s unfortunately the world we live in nowadays,” Hooper said. “So often, Muslims are accused of not condemning these kind of acts.”
The CAIR statement said: “No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer Army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”
In a separate statement, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles, California, condemned what it called the “heinous incident.”
“We are in contact with law enforcement and U.S. federal government officials to gain more facts from this tragic incident and work together in dealing with its aftermath,” the group said. [more]
U.S. Muslims Condemn Attack at Fort Hood
CAIR
Posted 11/5/2009 6:15:00 PM
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/5/09) – A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group tonight condemned an attack on Fort Hood military base in Texas that left at least 12 people dead.
In a statement, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:
“We condemn this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law. No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”
Along with innumerable condemnations of terror, CAIR has in the past launched an online anti-terror petition drive called “Not in the Name of Islam,” initiated a television public service announcement (PSA) campaign against religious extremism and coordinated a “fatwa,” or Islamic religious ruling, against terrorism and extremism.
(Washington, DC, Nov. 5, 2009) The Islamic Society of North America condemns in the strongest terms the attack on soldiers at Fort Hood, resulting in the murder of at least a dozen soldiers and the wounding of many others. We express our deepest condolences to the victims and their families.
Although many details of the shooting are unknown at this time, it appears that the attack was led by a career soldier, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The soldier who led this attack was either mentally unstable, or was motivated by a perverted ideology for which there can be no justification.
ISNA is proud of the many Muslim men and women who serve loyally in the United States military. We are grateful for the sacrifices made by all US soldiers, who represent the religious, racial and ethnic diversity of America, to defend the Constitution and our national security. ISNA, a faith endorser of US Muslim military chaplains, is proud of the service they provide, offering comfort and support to people of all faiths and beliefs. Just today, ISNA’s chaplain endorser, Dr. Louay Safi, conducted a workshop at the US army base in Fort Bliss, Texas.
ISNA will be holding a press conference with national Muslim leaders to address this incident tomorrow morning. Time and location will be announced later tonight.
For more information, please contact
Imam Mohamed Hagmagid Ali, Vice President of ISNA at: 571-437-4734 or 571-437-9566 or,
Dr. Louay Safi, ISNA’s Director of Communications and Leadership Development and chaplain endorser at: 317-679-6350.
MSA Condemns Tragic Shooting at Fort Hood
Nov. 6, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MSA NATIONAL VEHEMENTLY CONDEMNS TRAGIC SHOOTING AT FORT HOOD, TX
November 6, 2009 – Washington, DC- Yesterday, a tragic act of violence at Fort Hood, Texas, left nearly a dozen men and women dead, and dozens more wounded. MSA National vehemently condemns this senseless act, and extends its deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those who have lost their lives or were wounded.
Whether this tragedy is the result of mental instability, or a wanton act of violence, remains unknown. Regardless, the need for open dialogue within all American communities is imminent. Just as many Muslim Student Associations across the United States have engaged in forward-thinking, positive, and productive “Peace…not Prejudice” campaigns this month, we encourage all universities to take the time to host two-part “Campus Conversations”, starting with frank and open discussions, in which participants will express their deepest and most sincere thoughts regarding this and other tragedies worldwide. These dialogues should then be followed by solution-based conversations that shall seek to establish reasonable steps toward respect and understanding, tragedy prevention, and a lasting peace within all American communities, that can emanate worldwide.
We also urge our university communities, as well as America’s Muslim communities in general, to dedicate next week’s traditional Friday prayer to the condemnation of this wanton violence within the teachings of Islam.
While nothing will bring back the lives of those who have been lost, we recognize that a peaceful national dialogue will serve as a blockade to any individual who wishes to do harm unto others, as well as a sincere teaching moment for all.
-END-CONTACT: Ms. Asma Rehman, MSA National Political Action task Force Chair, 703-820-7900 Email:patfchair@msanational.org
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The Muslims Students Association (MSA) National is the largest Muslim Students group in the United States and Canada. Its mission is to serve the individual Muslim student as well as the chapter through sponsorship of educational programs, through offering students chances to learn, network and grow at zonal and annual conferences, as well as through management training programs. As a broad platform for students from all backgrounds, MSA National works with all organizations whose agenda includes a special focus on students and issues of concern to them during their college career.
MANA Condemns Fort Hood Shooting
Lexington, KY (11/06/09) – The Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA) is saddened by the Fort Hood incident in which 13 people were killed and others injured. We extend our condolences to the families who were impacted by this tragedy and we join other Muslim groups to condemn the unconscionable violence that took place.
The act committed at Fort Hood was a criminal act and should not be associated with the religion of Islam, nor should it serve as another excuse for the castigation or demonization of Islam and Muslims. Islam does not condone such killings. We pray for justice. It is disheartening and perplexing that a psychiatrist who was trained to provide counseling to troubled soldiers was himself very troubled. Perhaps this is yet another indication of the far-reaching tragedy of war and the horrific toll it takes on the lives of all who are affected by it.
In a recent statement, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, “the protracted military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq – and the repeated deployments of much of America’s ground forces – have brought a new focus to the signature wounds of these wars and on the psychological health of the force and their families.”
For the Fort Hood families, we mourn their losses and the loss of many innocent lives lost at home and abroad.
He and three other soldiers, including a corporal from Washington Heights, were killed in Baquba after a bomb detonated while they were checking abandoned houses for explosives. They served in the Stryker Brigade combat team of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, based in Ft. Lewis, Washington.
Mr. Khan graduated from Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin in 2005, and enlisted in the Army a few months later, spurred by his memories of the 9/11 terror attacks. “His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go. It never stopped him,” his father, Feroze Khan, told the Gannett News Service in a story printed shortly after his death. “He looked at it that he’s American and he has a job to do.”
Mr. Powell mentioned Mr. Khan’s death to underscore why he was deeply troubled by Republican personal attacks on Mr. Obama, especially false intimations that he was Muslim.
Mr. Obama is a lifelong Christian, not a Muslim, he said. But, he added, “The really right answer is, what if he is?”
“Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? No, that’s not America,” he said.
Mr. Khan’s death came to his attention, Mr. Powell said, when he saw a photo essay in a magazine about the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. One picture showed a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her fallen son in Arlington cemetery. It was the grave of 20-year-old Mr. Khan, engraved with his name, his military awards, and the Muslim symbol of the crescent and star.
Note from Rafik Beekun: When a Muslim dies, all Muslims who hear of his/her death are to say:
“To God do we belong, and to Him is our return.”
We say these words for Kareem R. Khan.
Some other Muslim soldiers buried at Arlington National are:
Finally, First Lieutenant, Ali Jivanjee, of USAF also made the ultimate sacrifice when he died this week in a mid-air collision while conducting training exercises outside Eglin Air Force Base.
Note from Rafik Beekun:Very few commentators of an international stature like Maureen Dowd have examined at length Powell’s statement about the Islamophobic statements made by many in the Republican party over the past year. My wife is a Navy veteran. My son is now serving in the Navy. My father-in-law served in the Army. My sister-in-law was career Air Force. Are we less American because we are Muslims or related to Muslims? I commend General Powell for speaking out on this issue on National TV, and I thank Maureen for talking about this issue.
By MAUREEN DOWD, Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times
Published: October 21, 2008
Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his party’s campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Governor Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words “community organizer”; the Republicans’ argument that using taxes to “spread the wealth” was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palin’s insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were “the real America.”
But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.
“I stared at it for an hour,” he told me. “Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?”
Please click here to read the whole column from Maureen.
Muslims in many parts of Switzerland have invited the public into mosques – three weeks before a vote on whether to ban the construction of minarets.
Muslim organisations say they hope their open day will counter what they say are fears and prejudices.
The conservative group that initiated the vote – the largest party in the Swiss parliament – says minarets are a symbol of Muslim political power.
Opinion polls suggest the proposed ban will be rejected by voters. [...]
The open day was held on Saturday in 12 cantons, including Geneva, Vaud and Freiburg. [...] The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes, who visited a mosque in Zurich, says the many non-Muslims who came enjoyed themselves.
[more[
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — Assistant Sub Inspector Anwar Ali starts his day with a prayer. He needs all the help he can get.
Anwar is a police officer — part of Pakistan’s increasingly vulnerable “thin blue line.” Pakistan’s men in blue are a police force under siege.
When he sets out for work on a small motorcycle, his family watches from the terrace of his small, three-bedroom apartment, praying he will come back in one piece.
“My family doesn’t go to sleep until I return home from being on duty,” Anwar says.
Militants have attacked the Pakistani police with car bombs and suicide bombs more than 300 times in the past three years, said Sajid Kiani, superintendent of police in Islamabad. The Islamabad police have been particularly hard hit.
“During the last two and a half years we had around 41 martyrs who laid [down] their lives in different attacks and more than 40 were injured,” Kiani said, listing the casualty statistics for Islamabad’s police force.
Anwar knows the risks all too well.
Last summer he almost died when a suicide bomb was detonated in Islamabad’s Rescue 15 police station, the compound where police units deploy on emergency calls coming from the public.
“I was taking off my uniform to unwind because my shift had just ended,” Anwar recalls. “Suddenly there was a blast. Two of my comrades died and I was wounded and taken to the hospital. I woke up three days later in the intensive care ward.”
The US House of Representatives has rejected as “irredeemably biased” the findings of a UN-sponsored report which says Israel committed war crimes during its military assault on the Gaza Strip.
The house on Tuesday voted 344 to 36 in favour of a non-binding resolution calling on Barack Obama, the US president, to maintain his opposition to the report, which was written by a panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge.
The report accused Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group, which has de facto control of Gaza, of war crimes during the 22-day conflict in December and January.
But most of its criticism was directed towards Israel’s conduct during the offensive, in which human rights organisations say about 1,400 Palestinians – many of them women and children – were killed.
Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed over the course of the war, Israel has said.
Steny Hoyer, the Democrat House majority leader, said it was important to adopt an official resolution against the Goldstone report as it “paints a distorted picture”.
It “epitomizes the practice of singling Israel out from all other nations for condemnation,” he said on Tuesday.
UN assembly pressure
The US house vote came a day before the United Nations General Assembly is expected to debate its own resolution endorsing the findings of the Goldstone report.
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the UN in New York, said that while the majority of the assembly’s member nations were expected to vote in favour of the resolution, the US vote on Tuesday, although non-binding, was likely to dampen its impact
Some of the most influential Muslim scholars in India have passed a resolution condemning all forms of violence in the name of Islam.
The Deoband is an influential Islamic school inspiring tens of thousands of religious study centres across the world, which some say has even inspired the Taliban’s ideology in Afghanistan.
Prerna Suri reports on the weight of the school’s declaration.
To those who critically analyze world news coverage, it is clear that the mainstream media often reports just one side of world issues. The Palestine-Israel conflict is no exception, as footage of attacks on innocent Israelis is shown repeatedly, yet the coverage of attacks on Palestinian civilians often misses the news. Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American woman, presents a first-hand look at the true condition of Palestine, and provides key insight into daily life under occupation from her own experiences in the territory.
Part 1
Video 1 of 3:
Video 2 of 3:
Video 3 of 3:
Anna Baltzer is a 29-year-old Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. She is a three-time volunteer with the International Womens Peace Service, where she documented human rights abuses in the West Bank and supported the nonviolent movement against the Occupation. She has spent most of the past few years in Palestine or on tour with her book, Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, and her acclaimed presentation, Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos
Note from Rafik Beekun: You are at work late one night, and as you walk out into the parking lot, you see a co-worker from another department being sexually harassed by a manager. Several other co-workers are standing and watching. Do you stand and watch too? Do you keep silent? Do you intervene to stop it? Let us say now that the person being harassed is not just another co-worker, but a friend of yours. Would this additional information make any difference as to your decision whether to intervene or not? What if the person being harassed is a relative of yours?
Islam is very clear on this topic: “Whosoever of you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart – and that is the weakest of faith.” Hadith in al-Bukhari. Unfortunately, many (including Muslims) fall victim to the bystander effect.
cnn.com
CNN) — For more than two hours on a dark Saturday night, as many as 20 people watched or took part as a 15-year-old California girl was allegedly gang raped and beaten outside a high school homecoming dance, authorities said.
As hundreds of students gathered in the school gym, outside in a dimly lit alley where the victim was allegedly raped, police say witnesses took photos. Others laughed.
“As people announced over time that this was going on, more people came to see, and some actually participated,” Lt. Mark Gagan of the Richmond Police Department told CNN.
The witnesses failed to report the crime to law enforcement, Gagan said. The victim remained hospitalized in stable condition. Police arrested five suspects and more arrests were expected.
So why didn’t anyone come forward?
Criminology and psychology experts say there could be a variety of reasons why the crime wasn’t reported. Several pointed to a problematic social phenomenon known as the bystander effect. It’s a theory that has played out in lynchings, college riots and white-collar crimes.
Under the bystander effect, experts say that the larger the number of people involved in a situation, the less will get done.
“If you are in a crowd and you look and see that everyone is doing nothing, then doing nothing becomes the norm.” explains Drew Carberry, a director at the National Council on Crime Prevention.
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma man complains about losing his job after allegedly receiving a hateful phone call at work. A former Sprint worker says he was let go from Oklahoma City’s call center after he hung up on a customer who told him he ‘could go to hell’ because he’s Muslim.
The employee claims he was fired because Sprint policy forbids employees from hanging up on customers for any reason.
That is sparking calls for Sprint to change their policy.
“The customer is not always right. If discrimination occurs for race, religion or ethnicity, that’s where you need to draw the line,” says Razi Hashmi.
A complaint has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
A corporate spokesman for Sprint said they’re not allowed to comment on any specific cases.
Off a major desert highway that connects Egypt’s capital to the coastal city of Alexandria, drug users gather at a hidden exit to score heroin, free from the prying eyes of the authorities.
Yasser, 25, has to drive 20km on the Alexandria highway to ensure his almost daily supply. One sharp turn to the left puts him on the series of unpaved roads that take him to his dealer.
Upon arriving, he finds a man dressed in Bedouin clothing armed with a rifle guarding two cars, one of which has an open trunk filled with bricks of heroin.
Yasser parks his car alongside 10 others packed with young men sharing syringes. He knows the meeting point is temporary.
“The place where dealers and users meet changes every month or so, and when they do, people learn of these new meeting points by word of mouth … so this stuff [heroin] is really not that hard to find,” he says.
Trap of addiction
Yasser represents the growing number of Egyptian youth who have fallen prey to drug abuse; he began using heroin three years ago.
According to Egypt’s National Council on Fighting and Treating Addiction (NCFTA), at least 8.5 per cent of the country’s population, or six million people, are addicted to narcotics. The majority of them are between 15 to 25 years old and the number of users is growing rapidly.
“I can’t physically function without it,” Yasser says, describing the drug rush as a pervasive warm and pleasurable feeling. But the sensation is temporary and comes at a price.
Shortly afterwards, he will succumb to the usual symptoms heroin addicts experience during withdrawal. [more]
Impact on Egyptian Women Due to Drug Addicted Husbands
Substance abuse in Egypt is rampant. This video clip discussed how women deal with their families when their husband gets hooked on drugs.
Hasheesh Drug Dealer House in Egypt
This video shows a drug dealer store house in Egypt. At the end of the video, the camera person shows more than $10 million or about 55-60 million pounds Egyptian in dirty drug cash money being counted by drug dealers.
Lebanon
Drug Growing in Lebanon
Morocco
Saudi Arabia
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Iran
Public burning of drugs and Public punishment of drug dealers in Somalia
Islam as a Solution to Drug Addiction
1. American embraces Islam to escape drugs
2. British embrace Islam to get away from drugs
3. Anti-Drug Nasheed (Islamic Song)
4. British Muslims Stand Up Against Drugs
This is Mohammed Shafiq Chief Executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, a leading Muslim organisation along with various friends and colleagues from United Against Drugs in Rochdale on BBC 5 Live report broadcasted in October 2007. The campaign was set up by young Muslims to confront drug dealers and clear the streets of Rochdale from drug dealers, the campaign goes on in Rochdale with United Against Drugs running self defence classes, More at http://www.ramadhanfoundation.com
5. Anti-Drug Rap Song by Rashid Bhikha
Anti Drug song performed by Rashid Bhikha, written by Abdul-Malik Ahmad of Native Deen from the album Allah Knows by Zain Bhikha Available to purchase at http://www.jamalstore.com
6. Islam Saved the Life of Hadj from Drugs and Alcohol
Following reports published by The Electronic Intifada on the use of Volvo equipment in the demolition of Palestinian houses in 2007, the Volvo Group stated that it did not condone the use of its equipment for such purposes. Claiming to have no control over the use of its products, Volvo affirmed that its Code of Conduct decries unethical behavior. In spite of these claims, The Electronic Intifada has found that through its Volvo Buses branch, the Volvo Group is providing armored buses to transport Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Volvo Buses is co-owner of Merkavim Ltd., an Israeli transport technology company. Another shareholder in the company is Mayer’s Cars and Trucks, the exclusive Israeli representative of companies from the Volvo Group. According to Merkavim’s website, the company was chosen by Volvo as “its major body builder in the Middle East.” However, the Who Profits from the Occupation? project recently reported that Merkavim manufactures an armored version of Volvo’s Mars Defender bus for the Israeli public transport company Egged. Egged uses the Mars Defender to provide bus services for illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Merkavim proudly announced on its website that the Mars Defender offers protection and ultimate comfort when traveling through war zones or routes susceptible to terrorist attacks. In a promotional video the armored bus is shown driving along Israel’s wall in the West Bank and crossing checkpoints
(http://www.merkavim.co.il/upload/defender.wmv, accessed 6 October). In another video on Merkavim’s homepage, Volvo’s Senior Vice-President of Business Region Europe, Lars Blom, declares that “Three core values that are very important to us are quality, environmental care and safety. … [T]he products we are developing with Merkavim also deliver these three core values plus reliability” (http://www.merkavim.co.il/movies_library/merkavim.wmv, accessed 7 October 2009) [...]
The 2004 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on Israel’s wall in the West Bank confirmed that settlements violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 49 explicitly states that the Occupying Power is not allowed to deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Bus services with Volvo subsidiary’s Mars Defender armored buses facilitate the maintaining of illegal settlements in the OPT.
In its Code of Conduct, the Volvo Group commits itself to support and respect the protection of human rights and to ensure that it is not complicit in human rights abuses. However, by providing construction and transportation equipment that facilitates Israel’s occupation, the company violates this Code of Conduct on a daily basis. With increasing calls for boycott of and divestment from companies that support Israel’s occupation, Volvo Group can expect activists around the world to put pressure on responsible investors to divest from the company and to call on public bus companies not to buy Volvo buses. [more]
Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate based in Switzerland.
The lead-up to the first U.S.-Iran talks in three decades saw a replay of the same modus operandi that induced the U.S. and its allies to invade Iraq in March 2003. Then as now, the invasion of Iran is consistent with a regime change agenda for Greater Israel described in a 1996 strategy document prepared by Jewish-Americans for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As with Iraq, the threat of weapons of mass destruction is again marketed as a causa belli. As with Iraq, the claim is disputed by weapons inspectors and intelligence analysts. The Iraqi program had been shut down a dozen years before the invasion. In Iran, there is no evidence that uranium is being enriched beyond the low levels required for energy and medical purposes.
Reports of a “secret” processing plant failed to note that Iran suspended uranium enrichment from 2003 until 2005. Seeing no change in the political climate except more sanctions and more Israeli threats to bomb its nuclear sites, Iran began building and equipping a new facility.
As with Iraq, there is no direct threat to the U.S. As with Iraq, mainstream U.S. media focused not on Israel—the only nation in the region known to have nuclear weapons—but on Iran. Enrichment is relatively easy compared to the steps required to design, build and reliably deliver a nuclear warhead. Activity around each of those steps can be readily detected.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that even if Iran were attacked, that does nothing to alter Iran’s nuclear prospects—except provoke them to develop the very weapons that the evidence suggests are not now being produced. Is this a calculated move to exert pressure on Tehran? Or to provoke them? Or is this a move by Washington to buy time from an “ally” that threatens an attack—with disastrous effects on U.S. interests and those of its genuine allies?
To catalyze a climate of insecurity among Jews, pro-Israelis periodically claim that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposes to “wipe Israel off the map.” A correct translation confirms that what he urged is that “this occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the pages of time.” Akin to the widely sought demise of the oppressive Soviet regime, that proposal enjoys the support of many moderate, secular and non-Zionist Jews who have long recognized the threat that Jewish extremists pose to the broader Jewish community.
No one can explain why Iran, even if nuclear armed, would attack Israel with its vast nuclear arsenal estimated at 200-400 warheads, including several nuclear-armed submarines. In mid-July, Israeli warships deployed to the Red Sea to rehearse attacks on Iran. As in the lead-up to war with Iraq, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is again beating the war drums. This is the same adviser who, four days after 9-11, advised G.W. Bush to invade Iraq.
Citing Iran’s “covert” facility, Wolfowitz claims it is “clear that Iran’s rulers are pursuing nuclear weapons.…Time is running out.” [more]
Jeff Gates
A widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide, Jeff Gates’ latest book is Guilt By Association—How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008). His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. For two decades, an adviser to policy-makers worldwide. Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee (1980-87).
Recently, Judge Goldstone filed a report with the UN Human Rights Commission about potential war crimes committed by Israel during its invasion of Gaza. Here are videos that document such war crimes.
Potentially responsible for War Crimes Against Gazan Palestinians, Olmert is allowed to speak without challenge at Columbia
Al Jazeera Blog
When President Ahmadinejad of Iran spoke to students at Columbia University in September 2007, the students, the faculty and the media were all given front row seats to condemn and to vilify.
Even the President of the University, Lee Bollinger, took the opportunty to get a dig in, telling Ahmadinejad:
““Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator”
The New York Times reported:
“Mr. Bollinger praised himself and Columbia for showing they believed in freedom of speech by inviting the Iranian president, then continued his attack.”
The entire event generated reams of press coverage.
Contrast this with the experience faced by Ehud Olmert when he spoke to students at Chicago University this week.
In a letter to students, the university expressly forbade any video or audio recording equipment, barred members of the media from attending, told students they needed to be there 2 hours before the speech for security screening, and stipulated that questions should be pre-submitted, presumably also for screening.
Rachel Maddow Exposes Anti-Muslim Extremists in Congress
Media Matters and CAIR
The Council of American-Islamic Relations has recently come under attack from four Congressional Republicans who accuse the group of attempting to plant spies in key Congressional offices in order to affect policy. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) held a press conference yesterday accusing the Muslim advocacy group of “trying to infiltrate the offices of members of Congress by placing interns in the offices.” The accusations against CAIR are in large part frivolous and are based on a new book written by authors known for their history of deception and bigotry.
Author and Publisher Of Book Have Track Record Of Derogatory Statements; Book’s Publisher Known For Advancing Conspiracy Theories
Book Published By Group Known For Pushing Conspiracy Theories.World Net Daily, the publisher of the book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America, has been at the forefront of a campaign to question the legitimacy of President Barack Obama, writing: “California attorney Orly Taitz, who has filed a number of lawsuits demanding proof of Barack Obama’s eligibility to serve as president, has released a copy of what purports to be a Kenyan certification of birth and has filed a new motion in U.S. District Court for its authentication.” The article added: “WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical.” [World Net Daily, 8/2/09]
Author Of Book Muslim Mafia Known For History Of Anti-Muslim Statements. According to Politico: “The proclamation from the four Republicans came in advance of a book, entitled Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America, which includes a forward by [Rep.] Myrick. The author of the book, Dave Gaubatz, an anti-Islam activist who wrote last year that ‘a vote for Hussein Obama is a vote for Sharia Law.’” [Politico, 10/14/09]
CAIR Criticized Gaubatz For Past Affiliation With Group Attempting To Outlaw Islam. In an October 14 post, CAIR stated that Gaubatz is a “former employee of the racist group Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE). On its now members-only website, SANE offered a policy proposal that would make it illegal to be a Muslim: ‘Whereas, adherence to Islam as a Muslim is prima facie evidence of an act in support of the overthrow of the US. [sic] Government through the abrogation, destruction, or violation of the US Constitution and the imposition of Shari’a on the American People…It shall be a felony punishable by 20 years in prison to knowingly act in furtherance of, or to support the, adherence to Islam.’” [CAIR, Who Is Dave Gaubatz?, 10/14/09]
At the heart of this issue is whether or not diverse populations are given a fair shot at representing their legitimate political interests in Congress, either as interns, as staff or as Members. The climate in Congress is clearly not as conducive as it should be in encouraging democratic representation, as exemplified by recent fear-rousing antics.As a result of the innumerous obstacles facing Muslim-Americans in this post-9/11 environment, their political participation is stifled and often stymied. More channels for Muslim participation are sorely needed, as well as a friendlier climate that embraces, not discourages, diversity. These fallacious allegations implicate the existence of a society still struggling with anti-Muslim sentiment. My Muslim colleagues in the House of Representatives, along with the highly qualified, patriotic and committed Muslim staffers and interns that have worked with my office and with CAPAC, contribute mightily to our democratic process. Any slander against these fellow patriots is slander against democracy and religious freedom.
Other Congressional Representatives Condemn Islamophobic Attack Against Muslim Congressional Interns
“I am appalled by this request [for an investigation of Muslim ‘spies’ in Congress], and the insinuation that Muslim-Americans are somehow conspiring against this country through their work on Capitol Hill. As a strong advocate for diversity and religious freedom, I find these claims to be outrageous and offensive. I urge the rest of my colleagues to join me in denouncing this witch hunt, which is clearly intended to create fear and distrust in our Capitol Hill community,” stated Representative Loretta Sanchez.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. added, “It shouldn’t need to be said in 2009, and after the historic election of our first African-American president, but let me remind all my colleagues that patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and beliefs have the right – and the responsibility – to participate in our political process, including by volunteering to work in Congressional offices. Numerous Muslim-American interns have served the House ably and they deserve our appreciation and respect, not attacks on their character or patriotism.”
“These unwarranted, ludicrous calls for terrorism investigations into political activist groups based on their constituencies’ nationality and religion are eerily similar to accusations of “terrorism” made 50 years ago against peace activists and civil rights groups, like the NAACP,” stated former Department of Justice ethics attorney Jesselyn Radack.
Radack is widely known as the whistleblower that exposed the Bush Administration’s misconduct in the case of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban”; one of the most prominent prisoners of the Afghan war, who’s naked, blindfolded, tied-up and bound to a board image in December of 2001, became the nation’s first glimpse of American-led torture.
Dave Gaubatz Under Disguise at CAIR Leadership Conference
Dave Gaubatz discusses how he served the national leadership of CAIR a summons at their 14th Annual Dinner in Virginia. He describes the precautions he took (including a disguise) to serve Nihad Awad personally.
The lawsuit against CAIR by former clients alleging racketeering, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duties. The lawsuit also alleges that CAIR’s corporation status in the District of Columbia was REVOKED. “The organization is no longer a valid corporation,” attorney David Yerushalmi said. “The District of Columbia delisted it on Sept. 8, 2008.”
“Where is the ummah; where is this Arab world they tell us about in school.”
Those words will forever remain etched on my brain. They were spoken by a 10 year old girl in a bombed out ruin in Gaza in March. She had lost her almost her entire family in the 22-day Israeli bombardment earlier this year. The second time she spoke, it was to the back of my head. I had to turn away; what answer could you give her?
While Hugo Chavez expelled the Israeli ambassador to Venezuela, the leaders of the Arab League, with a handful of exceptions, spent those murderous weeks in December and January scarcely summoning even the synthetic indignation that has so often attended previous bloody episodes in the Palestinian tragedy.
Piles of Dead Babies in Gaza After Israeli Attack
But that was not so of public opinion, not only in the Muslim world, but mobilized on the streets of Western capitals. In Britain, over 100,000 people took to the streets and night after night we blockaded the Israeli embassy. Above all, the Gaza onslaught produced in the US an unprecedented outpouring. There have, for sure, been protests before, but this has turned out to be more than an ephemeral release of impotent rage. Something is changing.
That has become more and more apparent to me over the last two months as I’ve spoken on Palestine at packed meetings and fundraisers across the US. The opinion polls in January showed a plurality of Americans against the Israeli onslaught. It may not have been a surprise to those of us who witnessed Ariel Sharon’s leveling of Beirut in the late summer of 1982, but the sight of white phosphorous – which forms a gaseous cloud – being used against civilians in Gaza stunned the senses of millions or people who had up to that point been led to believe that it was somehow the Palestinians who were occupying Israeli land rather than the other way round.
Palestinian legs shredded by unidentified Israeli weapon
Seasoned activists in the Palestinian cause confirm that there is now a window of opportunity to take this case beyond the ghetto and into the mainstream of political life – in the US and in Britain, which between them bear the heaviest responsibility for the suffering in Palestine: the US as the cashier for Israeli colonization; Britain, as the author of the tragedy in 1917, when a leader of one people, British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour (an anti-Semite), gave to the purported leaders of another people, the Zionist movement, the land belonging to a third people, the Palestinians. And all without asking any of the people, which even by the standards of British imperialism is quite a triumph.
Buried Alive During Israel’s Attack on Gaza
How then to bring to the cause of Palestine the kind of political movement that helped shatter apartheid, between the hammer of the ANC resistance and the anvil of international solidarity? This is the question that has led to me flitting backwards and forwards across the Atlantic, between lectures and fundraisers here, and the unfolding of an extraordinary political crisis at home. It was the question we asked ourselves as we marched past the Israeli embassy on those cold days in January. [more]
Peaceful Jew Supporting Palestine After Being Shot by Israeli Forces
Textbook injustice in Gaza
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 13:14
Mohammed Omer
As the 456,000 schoolchildren in the Gaza Strip start their academic year, they face chronic shortages of everything from paper, textbooks and ink cartridges to school uniforms, school bags and computers, the result of the Israeli blockade. At the same time, severely overcrowded classrooms are having to accommodate students whose schools were destroyed or damaged in the last siege, early this year. The only supplies on the market are smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt.
Yet even when materials are available, many cannot afford them: 80 per cent of Gaza’s 1.5 million people live below the poverty line. The ministry of education has instructed teachers not to expect pupils to have “too many textbooks”, but Ahmed Abdelhameed, who has eight school-age children, says that “teachers still ask for the full quota of school supplies, as if we were living in Sweden”.
“I can no longer understand why we need to suffer, why textbooks and pencils are not allowed,” he says. “Does Israel see these as threatening weapons, too?”
Shared stationery
The paper available is of poor quality. Abdelhameed says one of his daughters is just starting school and he has bought smuggled notebooks for her. But “when she uses an eraser, the paper tears”, he says. “This makes a mess of the next page, too.” With such quality problems, supplies run out fast, which raises the cost. “What gets through is never enough,” he explains. “I will have to continue next week to roam around the Gaza Strip looking for stationery and school bags for the kids.
“I am lucky enough to be able to afford some notebooks, but I hear stories from my daughter about kids in her class having to use pieces of palm leaves as rollers and garbage bags as school bags.”
A maths teacher from Khan Younis says that “some of the students share stationery. Others use old notebooks.”
The deputy director of the chamber of commerce, Mahmoud al-Yazji, says Gaza faces a grave problem in getting supplies to students. He estimates that 90 per cent of the student population is affected. “Israel is deliberately aiming not to allow stationery into the Gaza Strip,” he says. “Occupation forces blocked 1,750 containers of school supplies and stationery worth US$150m.”
Merchants in the occupied territory have ordered tens of thousands of school bags from foreign suppliers, but Israel is still blocking all imports. Opening the Israeli-controlled crossings to Gaza, he points out, is the way to secure supplies for the students. [Please click here tor read the remainder of this article.]
After less than a year in office, Barack Obama, the US president, won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for what was described as his ‘extraordinary efforts in international diplomacy’.
The Nobel committee praised him for giving people hope of a better world.
Obama was one of over 200 nominees for the peace prize. The deadline for nominations closed just 12 days after he took office.
The award has been greeted with both praise and scepticism and even Obama was stunned and humbled by the decision of the Nobel committee.
We discuss the motives behind granting the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama and ask: Does he deserve it? What peace has he achieved? Or was the award granted in the hope he would succeed in the future?
Inside Story presenter Nick Clark is joined by Ambassador Richard Murphy, a former US diplomat, Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for the UK-based newspaper Independent, and Azzam Tamimi, a political analyst and director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought.
Muslim scholars have questioned plans by the head of Egypt’s most famous university to ban female students from veiling their faces on its premises and affiliated educational establishments.
Shaikh Ali Abu al-Hasan, the former head of the Fatwa Council at the Islamic Studies Institute (ISI) in Cairo, said although it was not required by Islam for women to cover their faces, Al-Azhar University should allow women to chose what they want to wear.
“No official has the right to order a young lady to remove a form of dress that was sanctioned by none other than Umar ibn al-Khattab, except for the purposes of identification for security reasons,” he said.
“The niqab [face veil] is not in contravention of the sharia or Egyptian law.”
Shaikh Safwat Hijazi, a scholar and preacher, said he would personally sue anyone who prevented his daughter or wife wearing full niqab from going about her daily life, including entering government offices.
“Preventing a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime,” Hijazi said. “Whoever says the niqab is a custom is not respectable.”
Husam Bahgat, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the series of government decisions against the niqab are “arbitrary” and while designed to combat extremism, only end up being discriminatory against women.
“[Veiled female students] are barred from government subsidised housing and nutrition because they are considered extremists,” he said.
Other opinions
But other Egyptian scholars, such as the ISI’s Abd ul-Hamid al-Atrash, said there would be nothing wrong with such a ruling at a time when the anonymity afforded by the face veil was being abused by people intent on causing trouble.
“There have even been instances of men entering [schools for girls] under cover. So there is no reason why a ruling that benefits the people and the nation cannot be issued”, al-Atrash said.
And Abd ul-Moati Bayumi, a scholar in an al-Azhar affiliated research centre, said most scholars would back Tantawi if he issued the order.
“We all agree that niqab is not a religious requirement,” Bayoumi said. “Taliban forces women to wear the niqab … . The phenomena is spreading” and it has to be confronted.
Turkey expressed anger at Israel’s offensive against Hamas which left hundreds of civilians dead [AFP]
Turkey has said that it banned Israel from an international air exercise due to begin last week because of its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last December.
The Turkish foreign ministry had earlier said “a technical matter” had prompted a delay in the sixth annual Anatolia Eagle drill.
The event was due to take place from October 10-23 with air forces from the US and Italy, but the drill was cancelled after both Washington and Rome withdrew their participation following Turkey’s request to ban Israel from the exercise.
In response to a question from CNN, the US broadcaster, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said: “We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track.
“And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well.
“But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticizing this approach, [the] Israeli approach.”
Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, reported that Israel’s foreign ministry had convened an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss Turkey’s decision.
A senior source at the ministry told Haaretz that there were concerns that strategic ties with Turkey were in jeopardy after Operation Lead Cast in the Gaza Strip which began in December 2008.
Danny Ayalon, deputy Israeli foreign minister, seemed to be trying to temper tensions on Sunday, calling Turkey a “very important strategic anchor in the Mideast”.
Tensions over Gaza
Turkey and Israel have been long-term allies but ties have deteriorated dramatically since Ankara condemned the Gaza assault, which left hundreds of Palestinian civilians dead in addition to Hamas members.
In particular, tensions soared after Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, stormed out of a conference during the Davos summit this year where he confronted Israel’s President Shimon Peres over the Palestinian casualties.
Turkey’s surprise cancellation of drill is the first time its criticism of Israel has been translated into concrete action.
A brief statement posted on the Turkish military’s website said the drill had been cancelled after “international negotiations conducted by the Turkish foreign ministry”.
Israeli defence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in response to Turkey’s decision against Israel, the US pulled out of the exercise, forcing Ankara to cancel the drill. [more]
Note from Rafik Beekun: In an amazing show of self-serving naivete and double standards, Obama who has vociferously attacked Iran for its nuclear program has agreed to allow Israel to keep its vast arsenal of nuclear weapons without being subject to international inspections. And now he has been anointed with the Nobel Peace Prize!!!
Washington Times, Eli Lake, Oct 2, 2009
President Obama has reaffirmed a 4-decade-old secret understanding that has allowed Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections, three officials familiar with the understanding said.
The officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were discussing private conversations, said Mr. Obama pledged to maintain the agreement when he first hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May.
Under the understanding, the U.S. has not pressured Israel to disclose its nuclear weapons or to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which could require Israel to give up its estimated several hundred nuclear bombs.
Israel had been nervous that Mr. Obama would not continue the 1969 understanding because of his strong support for nonproliferation and priority on preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. and five other world powers made progress during talks with Iran in Geneva on Thursday as Iran agreed in principle to transfer some potential bomb fuel out of the country and to open a recently disclosed facility to international inspection.
Mr. Netanyahu let the news of the continued U.S.-Israeli accord slip last week in a remark that attracted little notice. He was asked by Israel’s Channel 2 whether he was worried that Mr. Obama’s speech at the U.N. General Assembly, calling for a world without nuclear weapons, would apply to Israel.
“It was utterly clear from the context of the speech that he was speaking about North Korea and Iran,” the Israeli leader said. “But I want to remind you that in my first meeting with President Obama in Washington I received from him, and I asked to receive from him, an itemized list of the strategic understandings that have existed for many years between Israel and the United States on that issue. It was not for naught that I requested, and it was not for naught that I received [that document].”
The chief nuclear understanding was reached at a summit between President Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir that began on Sept. 25, 1969. Avner Cohen, author of “Israel and the Bomb” and the leading authority outside the Israeli government on the history of Israel’s nuclear program, said the accord amounts to “the United States passively accepting Israel’s nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon.”
There is no formal record of the agreement nor have Israeli nor American governments ever publicly acknowledged it. In 2007, however, the Nixon library declassified a July 19, 1969, memo from national security adviser Henry Kissinger that comes closest to articulating U.S. policy on the issue. That memo says, “While we might ideally like to halt actual Israeli possession, what we really want at a minimum may be just to keep Israeli possession from becoming an established international fact.” [...]
The secret understanding could undermine the Obama administration’s goal of a world without nuclear weapons. In particular, it could impinge on U.S. efforts to bring into force the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, two agreements that U.S. administrations have argued should apply to Israel in the past. They would ban nuclear tests and the production of material for weapons.
A Senate staffer familiar with the May reaffirmation, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said, “[...]. However, it calls into question virtually every part of the president’s nonproliferation agenda.The president gave Israel an NPT treaty get out of jail free card.”
This site is the best site for reading about the most recent research and findings about the safety of the H1N1 swine flu virus from a physician’s point of view. Here is an excerpt from their website:
Is the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Safe?
H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Safety: Hype, Myths, and Facts
What do we really know about the 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine? What do we really not know?
Questions about the safety of the vaccine persist. Surf the Internet or flip through TV stations and you’ll encounter a multitude of myths and a whole lot of hype.
What are the facts? Straightforward answers follow these questions:
Isn’t the 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine too new to trust?
Why should I believe what government scientists say about swine flu?
Does the H1N1 swine flu vaccine contain thimerosal?
The 1976 swine flu vaccine wasn’t safe. Why should I trust this one?
Do we really know what drugmakers are putting in the swine flu vaccine?
Is the 2009 H1N1 swine flu vaccine safe?
No vaccine is 100% safe for everyone. People with allergies to eggs, for example, can’t take flu vaccines because eggs are involved in the manufacturing process.
And flu vaccines cause mild but common reactions. About one in three people get a sore arm from the shot, some with a little redness or even swelling. Some 10% to 15% of people feel tired or get a headache; some may even run a low fever.
And vaccines can trigger rare but serious reactions, even among people with no apparent allergies or sensitivities. [more]
The World Health Organisation says getting vaccinated is the best protection against any pandemic flu as the northern winter approaches.
But with more than a dozen H1N1 vaccines in production, each with different ingredients, finding the best and safest can be hard work.
Al Jazeera’s Dan Nolan goes beyond the fear and hysteria to explain what you need to look for to make an informed decision.
Do I need the H1N1 vaccine?
While the overall fatality rate of H1N1 is not much different to the seasonal flu, some people are affected much worse if they catch this one. Unlike seasonal influenza which mainly kills the elderly, the current pandemic influenza strain has affected younger people.
Vaccination is strongly recommended for pregnant women and those with underlying chronic conditions, including:
- heart disease;
- asthma and other lung diseases;
- cancer;
- diabetes;
- kidney disease;
- neurological disease;
- other chronic conditions (talk to your family doctor)
It is also recommended that the vaccine be administered to parents and guardians of infants up to six months old, children between the ages of six months and four years of age, those who are severely obese, and frontline health workers.
Is the H1N1 vaccine safe?
If you have had a bad reaction (i.e. more than a sore arm or a headache) to a vaccine before then the H1N1 vaccine may not be right for you. But generally the H1N1 vaccine will be very similar to seasonal flu shots which have a long history of providing good protection with very few nasty side effects.
In an effort to quickly get large amounts of the H1N1 vaccine out to the world, some pharmaceutical companies have added extra ingredients that may not normally be used in their flu vaccines.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), these ingredients are safe. But you should find out exactly what is in the H1N1 vaccine being made available to you and discuss with your doctor whether it’s right for you.
GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) restated its confidence in the H1N1 flu vaccine on Tuesday, calling it the most important tool against the pandemic.
Mild adverse side effects such as muscle cramps or headache are to be expected in some cases, but everyone who has access to the vaccine should be inoculated, it said.
Mass vaccination campaigns against the swine flu virus are underway in China and Australia and will be starting soon in the United States and parts of Europe, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
“It is important to remember that the vaccines, which have already been approved, have been used for years and years and years in their seasonal vaccine formulation and have been shown to be among the safest vaccines that exist,” he told a news briefing.
Hartl, asked whether WHO was concerned by reports that some people were reluctant to be injected with the new vaccine, said:
“Certainly we have seen the reports. Again, we would restate that the most important tool that we have to fight this pandemic is the vaccine.” [more]
7. US Department of Health and Human Services Discussion on the Safety of the Swine Flue Vaccine
Ahmad Wais Afzali, Queens Imam and FBI Informant Now Arrested and Accused of Lying to Authorities
Probes Test Trust That Authorities Strove to Win From U.S. Muslims
By Carrie Johnson and Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 5, 2009
Investigators seeking to uncover terrorist plots for years have walked a fine line between keeping tabs on the Muslim community and alienating the same people who could serve as an early warning signal.
That tenuous balance has been tested again in what law enforcement authorities say is one of the most worrisome terrorism investigations in decades, the unfolding case against Denver shuttle bus driver Najibullah Zazi, who has been charged with conspiracy to unleash weapons of mass destruction in the form of hydrogen peroxide bombs.
A Queens man [Ahmad Wais Afzali] who had been a power broker in his Muslim community — and a source for the New York City Police Department — allegedly tipped off Zazi of the police interest early last month. That complicated the ongoing investigation of what investigators say were al-Qaeda operatives on American soil, and led to the indictment of the Queens man on criminal charges.
Tension among the FBI, local police and members of the Islamic community has flared several times in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes. Earlier this year some Muslim charities and advocacy groups threatened to cut ties with the FBI amid concern that investigators were infiltrating mosques in California and elsewhere.
FBI leaders say they have tried to strengthen ties to Muslims through advisory councils, community group meetings and other contacts. Building such relationships is important because investigators, who often lack language skills and deep understanding of immigrant enclaves, must rely on insiders to help guide them through the maze of cultural issues.
“Your job is to know everything that’s going on in that mosque — everything,” said Jack Cloonan, a retired special agent for the FBI who worked in the Afghan community in Queens from the late 1980s until 2002. “What is going on in this community? Do I know what’s going on within the mosque? Do I know who’s coming in? Do I know what’s going on in terms of criminal activity? Who will know this?” [...]
“People are scared,” said a 36-year-old Flushing man who declined to give his name. “They’re scared that if they work with the police they’ll get hurt, and if they don’t work with the police they’ll get hurt.”
The civil liberties concerns resounded again after the FBI released its Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide on Sept. 25 as part of a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Muslim Advocates. The guidelines amount to a road map for agents who are conducting investigations, but some of the most sensitive material, about agents’ undisclosed participation as informants stationed in mosques and churches, was blacked out in the report.
Nadhira al-Khalili, national legal counsel at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement that the guidelines could “inevitably lead to violations of the Constitution and the right of all Americans to practice their faith without fear of government intrusion or intimidation.”
CAIR and the American Civil Liberties Union called upon the Justice Department and Congress to overhaul the guidelines to ensure that FBI agents are acting in line with the law. But supporters of the guidelines say they were developed in consultation with religious and civil liberties groups, and were the subject of three congressional hearings. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. made a point to visit a mosque during a trip to the Los Angeles area in July, where he emphasized the administration’s desire to work with the Muslim community and protect civil liberties. [Please click here to read the remainder of this article.]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged UN members to “come to their senses” and reject the Goldstone report into Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
He said UN endorsement of the strong criticism of Israel would deal “a fatal blow” to peace efforts.
Deliberate Terror
Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel during Gaza Invasion and War
[...] The 574-page UN Human Rights Council report was written by a four-judge commission led by South African judge Richard Goldstone.
The report accuses Israel of using “disproportionate force” in Gaza
It accused both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants of deliberately terrorising and killing civilians on the other side.
It urged the UN Security Council to refer allegations to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if either side failed to investigate and prosecute suspects.
The report has been widely praised by human rights groups, but Israeli allies like the US have criticised its conclusions.
Mr Goldstone has rejected Israeli protestations that it was Hamas which put Gazans in harm’s way during the three-week bombardment in December and January.
“Israel has said that given the density of the population in Gaza – they did the best they could to avoid civilians,” he said in an interview with the US network CNN.
“We certainly looked for proof (that Hamas put their weapons near civilians) but didn’t find it.”
He added that some of the killing… “was certainly intentional. There was no mistake in bombing factories”.
Israeli military action destroyed thousands of homes, hundreds of factories and 80 official buildings.
Ehud Barak,Israeli Defense Minister During Gaza Invasion and War
Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed in the violence between 27 December and 16 January, more than half of them civilians.
[more]
Degenerate Capitulation of Palestinian Delegation at UN
Michael Hoffman
Today the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations’ Human Rights division withdrew its push to have the Security Council consider the Richard Goldstone war crimes report against “Israel.” This degenerate capitulation comes on the same day that Former President of Argentina Carlos Menem is charged with obstructing the relentless Israeli-led investigation of the 1994 bombing of the Judaic Association in Buenos Aires which killed 85 Judaic people.
Ten months after 1400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, their leaders are already consenting to burying the investigation. 15 years after 85 Judaics were killed in Argentina, Israeli leaders are relentlessly pursuing the investigation, bringing it to every forum, hot on the trail of perpetrators, collaborators and every conceivable clue.
Once again, the Palestinians are repeatedly outfoxed and outmaneuvered by their Israeli enemies. Being only human, after a time I confess to becoming exceedingly exasperated with the almost unimaginable torpor of dull-witted Arabs and the contrasting dynamic energy of shrewd Israelis. I admit that this is a generalization; fallout from my exasperation.
Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister, during Gaza Invasion and War
But there is a kernel of truth in it. Sometimes, in my darker moments, I am given to wonder, short of a miracle of God, if the Palestinian nation will ever be anything other than a stateless, occupied territory, due to their own gross ineptitude.
Intellectually, they don’t think or fight like the Israelis. Many people will reply, thank God for that. I am not referring to military fighting, however, but to “warfare” in terms of strategic public relations psychology, which includes relentless, one-track mind, pit-bull tenacious, pursuit of war criminals without an inch of compromise or retreat. This is the Israeli way. It has paid huge dividends for their statecraft, not all of it sinister.
Whether it is 85 innocent dead in Argentina, or hundreds in Gaza, the dead are entitled to justice, i.e. bringing the killers to trial, whether it be months or years later. After 60 years, wonder of wonders, at long last the Palestinians have a respected Judaic jurist, Richard Goldstone, to step forward in an international United Nations human rights forum, and courageously announce that Israelis committed war crimes in Gaza and then lied about it. [Please click here to read the remainder of this article]
“[It} is the responsibility of the entire Umma to protect and safeguard this holy place from Zionist plots and evil designs," Dr. Sheikh Ikrma Sabri, the Imam of Aqsa Mosque
9/28/2009
By Khalid Amayreh
Dozens of Palestinians were hurt, two seriously, on Sunday, September 27, when crack Israeli policemen attacked worshipers who had just repulsed an attempt by Jewish extremists to hold Talmudic rituals at al-Haram al-Sharif.
"When the zealots were repulsed rather peacefully, the police became very outraged," Mahmoud Abu Atta, an eyewitness, told IslamOnline.net.
"As many as 70 policemen attacked us indiscriminately, young and old, with full force, using rubber-coated bullets, truncheons, tear gas and even poisonous gas."
Pictures and Videos of Palestinians being Attacked by Israeli Policement During the Al-Aqsa Storming Attempt
Video 1:
Video 2:
An elderly man, identified as 73-year-old Muhammed Joulani, was hit with a rubber-coated bullet in the eye and his condition was described as "very serious."A young Palestinian, 22, was badly hurt in the head.
Dozens others suffered from tear gas inhalation as well as brutal beating by police which, eyewitnesses said, employed "exaggerated force."Eyewitnesses said tension began when dozens of Jewish religious zealots, disguised as tourists, stealthily entered Aqsa esplanade through its western gate, known as Bab el-Majles.
The intruders soon began, under police protection, performing Talmudic rites and making slogans calling for the destruction of the Islamic holy shrine.Muslim guards as well as ordinary worshipers chased the Jewish zealots out.
"The police chased worshipers inside Aqsa Mosque, where the soldiers fired heavily into the holy place, causing many people to suffocate as a result of gas inhalation," said Atta."I saw the police gang up on young people, beating them mercilessly. The police were not out to maintain law and order. They just wanted to retaliate and punish us for repulsing the fanatical settlers."
Atta said the worshipers sought desperately to defend themselves against police brutality, using little stones, shoes and chairs. Efforts by Jewish zealots to storm the Aqsa Mosque esplanade coincide with Yom Kippur holiday or Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.It coincides with then opposition leader Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to al-Aqsa esplanade nine years ago which sparked off the al-Aqsa Intifada. [Please click here to read the remainder of this article.]
Al-Aqsa Mosque being attacked from below by Zionists with the blessing of the Israeli government
Al-Aqsa: Captive in the Eye of the Storm
Khalid, Amayreh, Islamonline.net
When Israel occupied the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, the Israeli army Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren tried meticulously to convince one prominent commander of the conquering army to blow up the Aqsa Mosque “once and for all.” The story was mentioned elaborately in Avi Shlaim’s book “The Iron Wall-Israel and the Arab world.”
“There was an atmosphere of spiritual elation. Paratroopers were milling around in a daze. Narkis was standing for a moment on his own, deep in thought, when Goren went up to him and said ‘Uzi, this is the time to put a hundred kilograms of explosives in the Mosque of Omar-and that’s it, we’ll get rid of it once and for all.’ Narkis said ‘Rabbi, stop it.’ Goren then said to him, ‘Uzi, you’ll enter the history books by virtue of this deed.’ Narkis replied, ‘I have already recorded my name in the pages of the history of Jerusalem.’ Goren walked away without saying another word.”
On 21 August, 1969, an Australian Christian Zionist, bearing the name Denis Michael Rohan, set the exequiste Minbar of Sallahuddin on fire, using a flammable substance. The Israeli authorities seriously impeded efforts to extinguish the fire and the Minbar was completely destroyed. (a minbar is an elevated platform through which Imams/scholars of Islam give Friday sermons).
On April 11, 1982, a Jewish terrorist by the name of Allan Goodman entered the Dome of the Rock Mosque and started firing indiscriminately at Muslim worshipers, killing and injuring dozens of people.
Goodman, a member of the terrorist Jewish group, the Jewish Defense League, was eventually pardoned by the Israeli government after spending a few years in jail.
Jewish Extremists Today
“Tourist visits” soon turned into occasions for performing Talmudic rituals.
In fact, Jewish terror against Jerusalem’s Noble Sanctuary has never ceased. Indeed, on numerous occasions, extremist groups declared openly that their ultimate aim is to demolish the Aqsa Mosque in order to build a Jewish temple in the area.
While government-backed extremists kept up their terrorist plots against the Muslim sanctuaries, the Israeli government itself has been carrying out widespread excavations right beneath and in the vicinity of the Haram al Sharif which experts assert are destabilizing the foundations of the Aqsa Mosque. More to the point, the opening of an extensive net of subterranean tunnels near the site will also seriously undermine the mosque’s resistance to earthquakes.
Until fairly recently, the Israeli government and Chief rabbinate didn’t allow Jews, especially religious Jews, to enter the Aqsa esplanade for both religious and political reasons.
However, in recent years, Israeli governments began allowing Jews to “visit” in small groups. The Israeli government claimed, rather mendaciously, that the matter didn’t go beyond legitimate tourism and that the Muslim Wakf (endwoment) authorities, which manage the sanctuary, had no right to prevent Jews from visiting.
But the “tourist visits” soon turned into occasions for performing Talmudic rituals and making incessant demands for obtaining “prayer rights”. Eventually, it became crystal clear that Israel was only trying to desensitize Muslim sensibilities in the hope that Muslims would be forced to come to terms with “Jewish rights” to worship at the Islamic holy place. This is how the Israeli occupation authorities did with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron when it in 1994 unilaterally partitioned the erstwhile exclusively Islamic Mosque between Muslims and Jewish settlers, with the settlers receiving the lion’s share of the Mosque.
Obama Agrees to be Silent on Israel’s Nuclear Weapons, but Is Vociferous on Iran’s Nuclear Program
Barack Obama, the US president, has agreed to abide by a 40-year policy of allowing Israel to keep nuclear weapons without opening them to international inspection, according to a US newspaper.
In a report on Saturday, The Washington Times quoted three unnamed sources as saying Obama had confirmed to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, that he would maintain the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
The incident reportedly occurred when the two met at the White House in Washington DC in May.
Neither Israel’s embassy in Washington, nor the White House National Security Council would comment on the claim.
Avner Cohen, an Israeli expert and author, was quoted by the paper as saying that under the deal “the United States passively [accepts] Israel’s nuclear weapons status as long as Israel does not unveil publicly its capability or test a weapon”.
There is no official accounting of the deal, supposedly agreed in 1969 between Richard Nixon, then US president, and Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister at the time.
‘Strategic understandings’
In an interview last week with Israel’s Channel 2 media company, Netanyahu spoke of his confidence that Obama’s recent remarks on a world free of nuclear weapons would not apply to Israel. [more]
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is discussing Iran’s nuclear capabilities just as Israel accused the monitoring body of holding back on its most recent report on Iran.
Israel says it “expects the international community to take substantive and prompt steps to halt Iran’s military nuclear programme.”
But what about Israel’s nuclear arsenal?
It is a well-known secret that Israel has nuclear capabilities and nuclear weapons. Officially, Israel has a policy of not confirming or denying its nuclear capabilities.
Experts and anti-nuclear activists argue that the way in which the West deals with Israel’s programme sets a dangerous double standard that makes it impossible to stem the tide of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East or anywhere else.
Breaking with past precedent, a US state department official recently said that they would like Israel to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but a White House official went on to note that the Israeli and Iranian programmes were unrelated “apples and oranges”. [more]
Shortly after delivering his findings, Judge Richard Goldstone spoke to Al Jazeera on the results of the fact-finding mission and Israel’s response to it.
Frank Gaffney demonstates his ignorance of and his bias towards Islam. He says that according to the Shariah, “Allah’s Will says that you need to force others to submit to Islam”. Clearly, he has never read the Qur’an. Here are two verses and a chapter from the Qur’an that contradict Frank Gaffney and expose his complete ignorance of Islam:
Verse 1: “If it had been the Lord’s Will, they would all have believed all who are on earth! Will you then compel mankind against their will to believe!” The Qur’an, Chapter 10 verse 99.
Verse 2: ” Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out clear from error; whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things.” The Qur’an, Chapter 2, verse 256
Chapter 109, verses 1-6 : “Say: O you that reject Faith! I worship not that which you worship. Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which you have been wont to worship Nor will you worship that which I worship. To you be your Way and to me mine.”
The United Nations has recalled its number two envoy to Afghanistan.
Peter Galbraith was dismissed following a dispute over the country’s recent presidential election.
He was the highest-ranking American working for the UN in Kabul.
[...]
Victim of Afghan Power Struggle
By Alastair Lawson
BBC News
Mr Galbraith is a well connected career diplomat
Peter Galbraith, the senior UN official in Afghanistan who has been removed from his post following a row about the country’s presidential election, is a well connected and influential diplomat.
He counts former US President Bill Clinton and the US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, as his friends. A former US diplomat, he has been second in command of the UN mission in Afghanistan.
Yet despite his connections, Mr Galbraith appears to be the loser in a power struggle with his boss in Afghanistan, UN special envoy Kai Eide.
The Harvard and Oxford University educated Mr Galbraith was at loggerheads with Mr Eide over how to handle voting irregularities in last month’s elections.
Mr Galbraith took an aggressive and outspoken line towards fraud in the 20 August vote, whereas his Norwegian counterpart favoured quietly lobbying behind the scenes.
The two men quarrelled over the issue, reportedly disagreeing over the extent to which vote recounts were necessary. The dispute led to Mr Galbraith’s temporary departure from Kabul earlier this month because of differences over “style”.
Mr Eide acknowledged there had been a row but told the BBC two weeks ago it had been resolved and insisted Mr Galbraith was due to return to Kabul.
“He’s a valuable deputy and I do hope that we can re-establish a good team and work together,” Mr Eide said.
He added it was important to “avoid any impression that there is foreign interference” in Afghanistan’s election.
"That which is on earth We have made but as a glittering show for the earth, in order that We may test them--as to which of them are best in conduct." (The Qur'an, Al Kahf, 18: 7)
"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise each other). Verily the
most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)." (The Qur'an, Al Hujurat, 49: 13)
"Those who believe (in the Qur'an) and those who follow the Jewish (Scriptures) and the Christians and the Sabians and who believe in Allah and the last day and work righteousness shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear nor shall they grieve." (The Qur'an, Al Baqarah, 2: 62)
"[If] anyone slays a human being-unless it be [in punishment] for murder or for spreading corruption on earth-it shall be as though he had slain all mankind; whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved the lives of all mankind. [...] (The Qur'an, Al-Ma'idah, 5: 32)
"Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things."The Qur'an, Al-Baqara, 2: 256)
Do you think you shall enter Paradise without suffering such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? They encountered suffering and adversity and were so shaken in spirit that even the Apostle and those of faith who were with him cried: "When (will come) the help of God?" Ah! Verily the help of God is (always) near! The Quran, Al Baqara, 2:214
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