PassionIslam June 2010

Issue: 27 June 2010

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Brutal, BarbaricIsraeli Terrorist

Israeli troops used tear gas and electroshock weapons during their brutal attack against civilians onboard an international aid convoy, a Greek activist says.

“They fired rubber coated bullets, tear gas and then used electroshock weapons on some activists,” pro-Palestinian activist Michalis Grigoropoulos told a press conference.

The Greek campaigner made the remarks after Israel deported him along with five other activists from Greece to the capital of Athens.

The Freedom Flotilla aid convoy was carrying hundreds of activists and journalists and thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to the impoverished people of Gaza.

Nearly 500 activists were detained and taken to the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while 48 others will be taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be deported to their countries.

The Greek campaigner also talked about the brutal behavior of the Israeli police, saying they had beaten up two Greek activists.

He added that those in detention were suffering wretched conditions at Ashdod prison.

“They made me sign papers on my expulsion, without me knowing what was on the papers because I did not have the right to a translator, a lawyer or to communicate with my family,” Grigoropoulos said.

Israel has not released any information about those dead, injured, or detained in the brutal incident, a Press TV correspondent reported. Upto 48 british activist were involved in the attack.

2 I LOCAL & NATIONAL NEWS Passion Islam I June 2010

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t h e P a s s i o n by Ahdaf Soueif

A flotilla of relief boats attacked in international waters. Armed commandos boarding a vessel carrying supplies for a besieged civilian population. More than 10 peace activists reported killed. This has to be made to count.

The dead have joined Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall, James Miller and Brian Avery in giving up their lives for the Palestinians. None of these young men and women went out to die or wanted to die or was accepting of death. Each and every one of them ultimately believed that they were safe; that there was a boundary – call it a boundary of legality, a boundary of civilisation – that Israel would not cross. They were wrong. And in proving them wrong, Israel has revealed, once again, its true face to the world.

This face, of course, the Palestinians know well. They see it every day in the teenage soldiers of the occupation chewing gum as they dish out humiliations, in the settlers shooting young Palestinians with impunity, in the soldiers firing gas canisters at the heads of demonstrators. The world saw that face in January last year when Israel unleashed the might of its air force on Gaza – the only time in modern warfare that a civilian population was

sealed in as it was being bombed and shelled. Now Israel is out on the high seas killing internationals.

So never mind the multimillion-dollar public relations campaign – actions speak louder than words, and the murder of these peace activists is Israel’s message to the world. It does not matter what Mark Regev or any other Israel spokesperson says. It does not matter what spin the Israeli government tries to put on this; the only link between Israeli words and Israeli deeds is this: Israel uses words as a decoy and an obfuscation and a cover for its deeds. It has done so for 62 years. These internationals, dead now, murdered, have ensured that anyone who does not see this is wilfully blind.

Western governments are fond of holding up Israel as the “only democracy in the Middle East”. So should we assume that the Israeli people are behind their government? That they approve these killings? Last month I was at al-Quds University in Abu Dis. Israel’s wall shaved the edge off the campus. On it, in tall blue letters, a Palestinian student had written: “My Israeli sisters: this is not the answer.”

A few days ago, young Jewish

Israeli activists told me they saw that the only hope for their country lies with the international community. Israel is on a path to self-destruction, they said, and it will take the region with it. It will not stop, they said, until the price it pays for its actions becomes too heavy. This price has to be a moral and economic price imposed by the world.

My anger and my sadness are so great that I have to deliberately draw a deep breath from time to time to ease the bands I feel around my chest. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that millions of people in the world are feeling the same. People everywhere see and understand what is happening. Many of us feel that Palestine is nearing its South Africa moment. This latest outrage must push it closer. And it will.

Donations will, I’m sure, flood in to the other relief boats waiting in harbour. More and more people will take the boycott to heart. More civil bodies will insist on divestment from companies that do business with Israel. The time has come for the governments that represent us to stop engaging with Israeli lies and excuses. The price of Israel’s action today has to be to put the issue of sanctions squarely on the table.

Israel reveals its true faceThe murder of these peace activists will count. Sanctions must surely be the price

Passion Islam I June 2010 NEWS I 3

The Turkish prime minster says Israel must be punished for the ‘massacre’ it committed aboard the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla aid ships.

“The bloody massacre Israel carried out against ships carrying aid to Gaza deserves condemnation,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

The premier who was addressing lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party added that “nobody should test Turkey’s patience.”

The Israeli navy assaulted the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy killing at least 20 activists, mostly Turkish nationals, and injuring 50 others, Palestinian sources reported.

The invasion took place as the convoy was still in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, 150km (90 miles) off the Gaza coast.

Denouncing the Israeli raid, the Turkish premier also urged the international community to punish the Israeli regime for the “bloody massacre.”

“The insolent, irresponsible and impudent attack by Israel, which went against law and trampled human honor underfoot, must definitely be punished,” he charged.

Erdogan promised a proper response to the Israeli attacks on the international convoy.

The Freedom Flotilla was carrying hundreds of activists and journalists and thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to the impoverished people of Gaza, which is under blockade for three years.

Some 487 activists were detained and taken to the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while 48 others will be taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be deported to their home countries.

Turkey: Punish Israel for massacre

British Foreign Secretary William Hague stressed again that the international community needs to work

with Israel to try to find a way of lifting the blockade on Gaza that the flotilla was trying to break.

He told the BBC that “somehow the restrictions on Gaza need to be lifted without compromising Israels security”. Hague underlined that there is clearly a strong united international demand for this to be done, for UN Security Council resolution 1860 to be implemented, allowing access for aid and indeed access for commercial goods in to Gaza. “I think that the strength of that demand is greater than ever before.

We will all have to work together to find the mechanisms that allow

that to happen, to ensure that there is such access to Gaza while not access for the smuggling in of weapons in to Gaza. So, should Israel expect us all to come up with ideas about that, to try to find mechanisms for that,” he said.

But he made it clear that “the important thing, above all, is that they lift the restrictions that are counterproductive from Israels point of view, that are not contributing to Israels security, but quite probably damaging her long term security”. KUNA

Hague calls again for liftingIsraeli blockade on Gaza


A high court judge has ordered the Home Office to halt the deportation of foreign nationals with almost no warning after a legal challenge argued the process denies people access to justice before they are removed.

Immigration lawyers say officials have used the policy, introduced in 2007, to swoop late at night and escort people to flights leaving only a few hours later, meaning they cannot speak to a lawyer and challenge the order.

In one recent case, a seriously ill Cameroon national was arrested at 10.30pm scheduled to be put on board a charter flight leaving at 6.30am. A friend managed to call

the man’s solicitor, who in turn found a barrister to apply to a duty judge. The judge – roused from his bed – granted an injunction at 1.30am, calling the manner of the deportation “completely unconscionable”.

“It was pure chance that I was up late working on another case and received the call,” said the solicitor, Hani Zubeidi. “Otherwise I’d have got to the office the next day to find my client had already left the UK without me knowing about it.”

UK Border Agency regulations guarantee those facing deportation a minimum 72-hour notice. But in March 2007 officials were allowed to waive this for unaccompanied children – who cannot be detained

before removal and were thus seen as likely to abscond – or those viewed at risk of self-harm or suicide.

In January this year three other exceptions were added: people seen as being a threat to others, who might cause serious disruption or who have given permission for their own deportation.

The so-called zero-notice removal policy was challenged in the high court by the campaign group Medical Justice. Mr Justice Cranston ordered the Home Office to halt it before a full hearing next month.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We will implement the court’s order with immediate effect.”

The Guardian

Zero-notice removal challenged

The eight-year-old identity card scheme will be scrapped within 100 days under the first piece of legislation introduced by the coalition Government.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said that abolishing the scheme would save Britain £1 billion over ten years but she refused to give full details of the costs of cancelling contracts for the production of the cards.

The Home Secretary confirmed that there would be no refunds to 15,000 people who paid £30 to purchase the card. Ms May told a press conference at the Home Office they would at least have a souvenir of the scheme.

Mrs May said that the Government intended to have the Bill passed and enacted before the August parliamentary recess.

“With swift parliamentary approval we aim to consign identity cards and the intrusive ID card scheme to history within 100 days.”

The Government said that scrapping the identity card scheme would save £86 million over four years and avoid £800 million in costs that would have been paid by

Identity card schemeto be scrapped

SCRAPPED

the public purchasing the cards. A further £134 million will be saved by the decision to end moves towards a new generation of passports containing digital fingerprints as well as photographs.

The biometric resident permit will continue to be issued to foreign nationals living in the UK.

The Bill will scrap identity cards and the national identity register, the database that was to hold biographical and biometric details of people applying for the card.

All identity cards will be cancelled within a month of the Identity Documents Bill receiving Royal

Assent this summer. The previous Government spent

more than £257 million preparing for the scheme, which was estimated to cost £4.5 billion over ten years.

Shami Chakrabarti, of the human rights group Liberty, said: “Liberty thanks the Government for the bonfire of the ID cards and the junking of the National Identity Register. We have spent many years arguing that this grand folly would cost our freedom, privacy and race relations dearly and the public agreed. We hope that scrapping ID cards for foreign nationals will soon follow.”


Plans to recruit more Muslim volunteers to the scouting movement have come under attack from secular campaigners.

Currently, there are 24 Muslim Scout groups in the UK and the Scouts Association says more adults are needed to cut long waiting lists.

But the National Secular Society, which campaigns to reduce the role of religion in public life, say such groups are “sectarian”.

It says they reinforce a perception UK Muslims are outside the mainstream.

The Scouts Association has traditionally had strong links to several different faith groups in the UK, with churches and synagogues providing practical and financial support for local groups.

It said this allowed communities to use the scouting ethos as a template to instil broad religious values such as honesty and integrity into young people.

But the National Secular Society said separating young people on the basis of religious belief discouraged

integration. The society said

although they wanted to see an end to all ties between religion and the scouts, they were particularly concerned about Muslim scout groups.

Of the 28 million scouts around the world, there are more Muslims than

Christians. The Scout Association

hopes its campaign to recruit more volunteers will help to address a waiting list of more than 33,000 UK children who want to join the movement.

Membership in the UK has risen for five consecutive years, taking levels to nearly 500,000.

Qatar royal family buys Harrods store

Egyptian-born businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed has sold prestigious London department store Harrods to the investment vehicle of the Qatar royal family in a deal reported to be worth around 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion)

A spokesman for Lazard, which

advised the Fayed family trust, declined to confirm the value of the deal which was reported by Sky News, citing unnamed sources.

Qatar Holding is the prime vehicle for strategic and direct investments by the State of Qatar. It is an arm of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen its economy by diversifying into new asset classes.

“What I can assure you is Qatar Holding will do their best to upgrade this monument, to make it even greater and better for the tourism and the British people,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told reporters in an impromptu news conference in the store in London’s Knightsbridge area.

Al Fayed, 77, is retiring as chairman of Harrods and believed Qatar Holding would continue to promote it as one of the world’s foremost brands, Lazard International chairman Ken Costa said in the statement.

“After 25 years as chairman

of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed has decided to retire and to spend more time with his children and grandchildren,” Costa said.

“He has built Harrods into a unique luxury brand with worldwide recognition” and wanted to ensure this legacy would continue, he added.

“Qatar Holdings was specifically chosen by the Trust as they had both the vision and financial capacity to support the long term successful growth of Harrods.”

Fayed, who also owns English soccer club Fulham, bought Harrods in 1985 for about 615 million pounds at a time when the group also owned the House of Fraser department store chain, which was later spun off.

A colorful figure, Fayed waged a long campaign claiming his son Dodi and Princess Diana, who died together in a Paris car crash in 1997, were murdered in a conspiracy.

Qatar Holding will be the fifth owner of Harrods since its creation in 1840. Credit Suisse advised it on the deal.

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Muslim scout volunteer drive criticised


The new UK coalition government is committed to setting up a “judge-led inquiry” into allegations of British security services complicity in torture overseas, the Foreign Secretary confirmed.

William Hague said details of the probe were being worked on by the power-sharing parties and would be published “pretty soon” but declined to say whether it would be a judicial inquiry.

Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats called for such an investigation of a number of recent claims before the election - including those by former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed.

He said he was tortured in Pakistan while held by the CIA, with the knowledge of the British.Hague told the BBC, “We will be setting out in the not-too-distant future what we are going to do about the allegations that have been made

about complicity in torture.

“We have said again in the coalition agreement that we want a judge-led inquiry.“So will there be an inquiry of some form? Yes, both parties in the coalition said they wanted that. Now we are working on what form that should take. Proposals on this will follow pretty soon.” In fact there was no explicit mention of the issue in the coalition agreement document, beyond a commitment that, “We will never condone the use of torture.”

The UK’s human rights watchdog, campaigners and two influential House of Commons committees all called for an independent inquiry.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown insisted in February that the work of the security services “does not undermine the principles and values that are the best guarantee of our future security. We condemn torture without reservation. We do not torture, and we do not ask others to do so on our behalf. We are clear that officials must not be complicit in mistreatment of detainees.” - KUNA

UK gov’’t to set up inquiry into torture complicity claims

Britain has no immediate plans to speed up the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Liam Fox was quoted as saying

Fox told the Times of London newspaper the government hoped to speed up the pull-out, saying Britain was “not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country.”

In remarks published in Arabic by Bahrain’s Al Wasat daily, he said his visit to Afghanistan this week was not a prelude to a troop withdrawal but meant to help assess the success of its troops.

“(The remarks to the Times) were neither a slip of the tongue nor a change in policy but confirmed to our

troops’ families that we are present in Afghanistan to protect our interest and keep away danger from our country,” he said.

Fox added: “And then we leave, we are not a colonial power, we are part of an alliance trying to ensure Afghans have a government to protect them and a leadership to achieve their goals as an

independent state.”During their visit to Kabul, Fox

and other ministers of Britain’s new coalition government said

they would not set a deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, where some 285 British soldiers have died since 2001.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government formed after Britain’s May 6 election says its top foreign policy priority is the strategy for Afghanistan, where the country has about 9,500 troops battling insurgents.

The United States is sending more troops to Afghanistan to seize insurgent-held areas before a planned withdrawal starting in July 2010. (Reporting by Frederik Richter; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Britain’s Defense Secretary saysno change in Afghanistan policy

Passion Islam I June 2010 LOCAL & NATIONAL NEWS I 9

A British author and peace activist says he doubts the new British government led by David Cameron would take a “single step” in favour of Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

John Rees told IRNA on the anniversary of the establishment of the illegitimate regime of Israel (Nakba) that supporting Israel has been the “traditional stance of the Conservative Party” for years.

“The new Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has already made it clear that he is very close to Israel. So I think that we could expect them to be very strong supporters of Israel and not the friends of Palestinians,” he said.

Referring to the support given

to the Palestinians by peace organisations such as the Stop the War Coalition and the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Rees said the Palestinians will have to rely on “their friends in the anti-war movement”.

He reiterated that the Conservatives have “always been a party closest to the military and the political establishment so I think they will do exactly what the Americans want them to do with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“The Labour government policy was very bad and unfair. I expect the Conservatives policy to be worse,” he said, referring to the advertisement published by the Conservative Party during the recent election campaign in support of

Israel. The newspaper advertisement

which was published in the “Jewish Chronicle” made seven pledges to Israel and Britain’s Jewish community in favour of the Israeli war criminals to be able to “visit UK without fear of arrest and imprisonment”. In it, the Tories vowed to “amend” the universal jurisdiction “at the earliest opportunity to enable Israelis to visit the UK.”

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Saturday gathered outside David Cameron’s office demanding his support for the Palestinians on the 62nd anniversary of Nakba.

Protestors also handed a letter in to the PM Office in the 10 Downing Street to urge the new British government to pledge support to the Palestinian cause and peace in the Middle East.

Peace activists want an end to British arms trade with Israel, suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and an end to the Israeli siege on Gaza as well as a promise by the new British government to support bringing Israeli war criminals to justice. - IRNA

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A man has been charged with a public order offence after Baroness Warsi was pelted with eggs in the street, police said.

The attack took place when Lady Warsi, now chair of the Conservative Party, visited Luton on November 30 last year.

Then shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, she was touring the Bury Park area with a Tory election

candidate when she was targeted.

After the incident, she conducted a question and answer session with local residents with egg still in her hair.

Gavin Reid, 23, of Green Close, Luton, was charged with an offence under the Public Order Act, Bedfordshire Police said.

Lady Warsi, who became minister without portfolio last

week, is the first female Muslim Cabinet minister.

The Dewsbury-born former solicitor replaced Eric Pickles as chair of the Tory party after the General Election.

Nigel Huddleston, the Conservatives’ prospective Parliamentary candidate for Luton South who was with Lady Warsi at the time of the egg attack

UK author doubts Cameronsupport for Palestinians

Man charged overWarsi eggs incident Urdu

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New British Prime Minister David Cameron says he will impose an annual limit on the number of non-EU immigrants admitted into Britain, a report says.

According to All Headline News (AHN), the cap on the number of

immigrants coming into Britain is likely to affect Indian professionals along with trade and industry in the country.

The Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats had already agreed on the issue in principal, but

the coalition government released the full text of the official agreement on May 21.

The government’s newly launched coalition program seeks to impose “new measures to minimize abuse of the immigration system, for example via student routes, and will tackle human trafficking as a priority,” although it believes “immigration has enriched our culture and strengthened our economy,” AHN reported.

The Conservative Party hopes the new policy will reduce the total number of immigrants to Britain, which now stands at around 150,000, to the level of the 1990s, around 70,000.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 4.9 million people who live in Britain, 8.3 percent of the total population, were born overseas. This is more than double the 2.1 million (4.2 percent) in 1951.

Cameron to ‘minimize’immigrants to UK

A South Yorkshire Police officer is facing a misconduct hearing after being found guilty of racially abusing a Sheffield taxi driver who refused to take him home after a night out.

PC Paul Dawson, aged 28, was convicted by magistrates of using racially threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour following a trial.

He was fined £250 at Rotherham Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay £400 in costs.

PC Dawson was charged by South Yorkshire Police after Sheffield taxi driver Abdul Rafiq filed an official complaint about his behaviour.

Mr Rafiq, aged 30, of Ecclesall, contacted the police to complain he had been racially abused when he

stopped to pick up the officer and some pals from Carver Street in Sheffield city centre.

He claimed the PC, of Chaffinch Mews, Gateford, near Worksop, used offensive racist language when he refused to take him home without receiving a payment first.

Mr Rafiq said he asked the passengers to pay the £30 fare upfront before he would set off to drive the 20 miles to Worksop, but claimed they would not hand any money over and racially abused him.

The taxi driver said: “I was furious and did not want him to be able to get away with talking to me like that.”

Mr Rafiq later discovered a mobile in his cab, which he identified as belonging to PC Dawson after finding

a picture of the officer in his uniform stored on the handset.

The PC later rang his missing telephone and left a voicemail message on it for the cab driver, which was examined by his bosses.

He denied the allegations when quizzed by police, but was charged after an investigation involving the professional standards department.

PC Dawson has been suspended from work on full pay since the complaint was made in May last year.

A police spokeswoman said: “PC Dawson remains suspended from duty and will face a misconduct hearing in due course. The full range of disciplinary sanctions would be available at any hearing.”

South Yorkshire policemanguilty of racial abuse

Passion Islam I June 2010 n LOCAL & NATIONAL I 11

Britain announced for the first time that it had set a limit on its nuclear weapons stockpile, at 225 warheads, and said it would re-examine its policy on using nuclear weapons.

Britain’s new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government said the announcement, timed to coincide with a UN nuclear non-proliferation conference in New York, was intended to build trust between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states and to contribute to worldwide nuclear arms reduction efforts.

Britain had until now disclosed only the number of operationally available nuclear warheads for its Trident missile-armed submarine fleet, and had given no figure for the overall stockpile.

“In the future our overall stockpile will not exceed 225 nuclear warheads,” Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament.

The ceiling on operationally available warheads would stay at 160, he said. The extra warheads allow for “processing, maintenance and logistic management”, officials said.

Hague said the new government would review Britain’s policy on when it would consider using nuclear weapons as part of a defense and security review launched by the new government, which took office after the May 6 election.

Britain had long said it would consider using nuclear weapons only in “extreme circumstances” of self-defense, including the defense of NATO allies, but had been deliberately ambiguous over the precise circumstances of use, he said.

“The time is right to look again at our policy as the US has done,” Hague said, making clear his government remained committed

to maintaining a “credible minimum nuclear deterrent”.

President Barack Obama last month unveiled a new policy restricting US use of nuclear weapons.Britain and other nuclear weapons states are trying to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to countries such as Iran. Those countries often argue that established nuclear powers are doing nothing to reduce their arsenals as the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) urges.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute think-tank said Hague’s disclosure “brings the UK into line with what the US and France have already done”.

“The wider significance is that the Western powers want, as part of their contribution to the nuclear disarmament process, to get all the nuclear weapons states to be more transparent, including Russia and China,” he said.

The United States disclosed for the first time this month the size of its nuclear arsenal, saying it had 5,113 warheads.

In 2008, France said it would leave its submarine missile arsenal

in place while cutting its stock of air-launched weapons by a third to around 290 warheads.

China and Russia have not revealed their total number of warheads, although Moscow and Washington recently agreed to limit operationally deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550.

Hague’s announcement may ease strains within Britain’s new coalition government over a decision to spend billions of pounds on updating Britain’s nuclear deterrent at a time when the country needs to cut a huge budget deficit.

The center-right Conservatives support plans to build a new nuclear-armed submarine fleet.

The center-left Lib Dems, the junior coalition partner, wanted to look at cheaper alternatives but have agreed to opt out of any vote on the issue.

Britain has the smallest arsenal of the five legally recognized nuclear weapons states — the United States, Russia, China and France.

The previous Labor government said it could consider reducing Britain’s warheads further as part of a multilateral negotiation.

UK has 225 nuclear warheadsreveals new government

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12 I WORLD NEWS Passion Islam I June 2010

The Organization of Islamic Conference says Israel’s occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights poses a threat to global security, report says.

The continued Israeli threats against Syria, meant to escalate regional tensions, are endangering global peace and security, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted a draft resolution of the international body’s summit as saying.

Participating foreign ministers at the OIC in Dushanbe wrote in the resolution, “The OIC Ministerial Council asserts that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and has no legitimate or judicial value, and constitutes a flagrant violation of the UN Charter

and its related resolutions and rules of international law,” SANA reported.

The OIC’s ministerial convention also slammed Israel for failing to abide by a 1981 UN Security Council resolution in which Tel Aviv was required to refrain from its “continued alteration” of the judicial, demographic, and civil features of the occupied Syrian territories.

The OIC members reiterated Syria’s right to restore full sovereignty of the occupied Golan Heights, calling on Israel to withdraw fully to the pre-June 4, 1967 borders.

The participants also called on all countries not to supply Israel with any military, economic, financial, technical or human assistance that might prolong the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, the report added.

They also called on the international community to help step up pressure against Israel and urge Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories of 1967.

In addition, the OIC’s 37th session threw its weight behind the Palestinian Cause, naming it as the central cause for the Islamic Nation. Press TV

Dennis Blair, the US Director of National Intelligence, has announced his resignation after frequent clashes with White House officials.

His resignation came as he was put under pressure from the White House, ending a tumultuous 16-month tenure marked by intelligence failures and spy agency turf wars.

The administration has been interviewing candidates for the job for several weeks now. The likely candidate to replace Mr. Blair is James R. Clapper Jar a retired Air Force lieutenant general and the Pentagon’s top intelligence official,

the New York Times reported. In addition to Clapper, other likely

candidates to replace Blair include John Hamre, undersecretary of defense from 1993 to 1997; Chuck Hagel, a former senator who co-chairs Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board; Michael Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center; and Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the September 11 Commission, Reuters reported.

In his 16-month tenure as the DNI, Blair had angered the White House several times.

He was widely criticized in the

case of the failed Christmas Day bomber, Abdulmuttalab, in which the White House laid particular blame on the National Counterterrorism Center, an agency supervised by Mr. Blair.

A recent Senate report on this plot was also particularly critical of the NCTC’s failures to piece together the information that could have prevented Abdulmuttalab from boarding the plane.

Dennis Blair is the first high-ranking member of the Obama national security team to leave.

passionislam.com

Top US intelligence official resigns

‘Israel’s land-grabthreat to peace’


The US House of Representatives has endorsed President Barack Obama’s plans to give Israel over $200 million for an anti-missile system.

The lawmakers have overwhelmingly supported the bill that gives Obama a free hand to fund Israel’s plans for deploying a controversial short-range missile system called the “Iron Dome.”

The House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman has described the vote as an important step.

Howard Berman says Washington must make sure its most important ally can defend itself.

Israel completed tests on its Iron Dome missile system in January.

It is planning to integrate the

system into the army. White House spokesman

Tommy Vietor said that Washington recognizes Israel’s need to have such a system.

News of the representatives’ support for the bill comes as US envoy George Mitchell wraps up his Middle East visit without making any progress in “proximity talks” with the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

passionislam.com

Lawmakers in Australia’s most populous state voted against banning the burka, with one accusing the Christian MP who moved the bill of stigmatizing Muslims, as city authorities in Brussels banned a protest against a ban against wearing the full-face Islamic veil in public.

Fred Nile, of the right-wing Christian Democrats Party, urged the New South Wales parliament to vote in favor of banning the full Islamic veil for security reasons and to “set women free from domination of males.”

But his bill was quashed in the state’s upper house by 26 to three votes, with the center-left Labor and more radical Greens parties condemning it as racist.

“There is no urgency in spreading further fear and hatred in our community,” said Islamic Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane.

Nile’s real intent was “stigmatizing an entire community,” added Greens MP John Kaye.

It follows heated public debate sparked earlier this month by calls from conservative national Senator Cory Bernardi for a ban on the burka, which he claimed was “emerging as the preferred disguise of bandits and ne’er-do-wells.”

Bernardi’s comments, prompted by the use of the Islamic veil in an armed robbery in Sydney, led both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his opposition counterpart Tony Abbott to declare that such a ban was not current policy.

Muslims make up about 1.7 percent of Australia’s heavily Christian population of 22 million.

Australia lawmakersvote down burka ban

US House backsIsrael missile aid bill A new mosque that is one of the

largest in Germany was officially opened in Berlin’s Kreuzberg quarter, which has a strong Turkish presence.

The mosque, which can hold around 1, 000 people, is part of a complex that media reports said cost around 10 million Euros (12.5 million dollars) to build and was entirely financed by private Lebanese and Palestinian donors.

The mosque is topped by a glass dome and four small minarets, and is part of a six-storey, 5,000-square-metre building that includes commercial and social centres and a library.

Germany’s largest mosque can accommodate 2, 500 people and is in the city of Mannheim in the west of the country.

The construction of mosques in Germany has prompted debate -- as it has in other European countries -- notably among the extreme right.

Germany’s LargestMosques Opens

Passion Islam I June 2010 WORLD NEWS I 15

Egyptian authorities opened its borders with Gaza to allow departure of Palestinians who have been stranded in the enclave for more than 70 days in a row, the deposed Hamas’ government of Gaza said.

In a statement sent to the media, Hamas’ ministry of interior said that about 8,000 Palestinians, mostly patients, students and holders of foreign passports or residency permissions in other countries, have

applied to travel.The only crossing that Gaza’s

can travel through to the outside world is initially set to remain open for three days and Hamas authorities doubt that all the registered people could make their way out.

Egypt shut down the crossing in 2007, when Hamas took over the coastal enclave after routing security forces loyal to President Mahmoud

Abbas.A U.S.-brokered agreement,

signed in 2005 when Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza, stresses that the crossing can operate regularly only when pro-Abbas forces and European Union (EU) monitors be present. However, Egypt opens the crossing from time to time before humanitarian cases and people who had got security clearance from Egyptian authorities.

French Muslims celebrate a milestone when building work begins on a mega-mosque in Marseille, the nation’s biggest and a potent symbol of Islam’s place in modern France.

A day after the French government approved a bill banning the full Islamic veil, Muslim leaders will join politicians for a ceremony to lay the cornerstone at a dusty construction site in northern Marseille.

France’s second city is home to 250,000 Muslims, many of whom flock to makeshift prayer houses in basements, rented rooms and dingy

garages to worship.With a minaret soaring

25 meters (82 feet) high, the Grand Mosque will hold up to 7,000 people in its prayer room and the complex will also boast a Quranic school, library, restaurant and tea room when it opens in 2012.

For more than 60 years, Muslim leaders have campaigned for a mega-mosque as a prominent gathering place that would bring Islam out of the basements and allow it to thrive under Marseille’s Mediterranean sun.

The turning point came in 2001 when Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin, a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing party, decided to

back the 22-million-euro ($27 million) project, overriding objections from the far-right.

Like Sarkozy, Gaudin has argued that supporting new mosques will help France’s large Muslim minority integrate into the mainstream and foster a form of moderate, modern Islam that shuns burkas.

“This is the real face of Islam in France,” said Nourredine Cheikh, president of the association that has lead the campaign for the Grand Mosque, as he pointed at the architect plans for the massive new complex.

“This is recognition. This is what tells me that I have the same status as Catholics and other religious people in this country.”

The grand mosque will be built in the Saint-Louis area of Marseille, an ethnically mixed neighborhood where Nasir’s pizzeria and Bernard’s driving school share the same street.

The building permit was formally handed over to Muslim leaders in November, despite court challenges from the far-right who have dubbed the new building a “cathedral mosque” meant to rival Marseille’s Catholic churches.

Home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at between five and six million, France has for years been debating how far it is willing to go to accommodate Islam, now the country’s second religion.

Soon after Switzerland voted to ban minaret construction last year, Sarkozy warned French Muslims to “avoid ostentation” in the practice of their religion and he has declared the face-covering veil “not welcome” in France.

With parliament now set to debate a bill that would bar women from wearing the full Islamic veil, Muslim leaders worry about a surge of Islamophobia in France.

Last month, gunmen sprayed bullets across the facade of the Arrahma mosque in Istres, a town a few dozen kilometers from Marseille, raising alarm among Muslims.

France new mega-mosque

Egypt authorities opens Rafah crossing with Gaza


Prosecutors attached to the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid are reportedly requesting that Judge Ismael Moreno issue an order for the arrest of thirteen CIA agents involved in an extraordinary rendition operation from 2004, the newspaper El País reports, citing sources within the court.

The case relates to Khaled El-Masri, a greengrocer from Neu-Ulm, Germany, seized by the United States as a result of mistaken identity while he was on vacation in the former Yugoslavia. El-Masri was placed on a CIA-chartered jet that arrived in Macedonia from Palma de Majorca in January 2004, en route ultimately to Afghanistan.

It appears that Majorca was used regularly as a refueling and temporary sheltering point for the CIA, with the knowledge of the prior conservative government. While held in the notorious CIA prison

known as the Salt Pit, El-Masri was apparently tortured during extensive interrogations before intelligence officers realized that they had seized the wrong man.

The Washington Post reported that CIA agents, fearing the consequences of releasing him, argued for his continued detention and in fact held him for at least several weeks after his release had been ordered. Condoleezza Rice, then national security advisor to President Bush, intervened and directed his release. El-Masri’s CIA abductors entered Spanish territory using forged British passports, according to the prosecutors. They are seeking James Fairing, Jason Franklin, Michael Grady, Lyle Edgar Lumsen III, Eric Matthew Fain, Charles Goldman Bryson, Kirk James Bird, Walter Richard Greensbore, Patricia O’Riley, Jane Payne, James O’Hale, John Richard

Deckard and Héctor Lorenzo, according to information provided by the Spanish Guardia Civil. The case is also under investigation in Germany.

The Spanish prosecutors have been closely studying the prosecution in Italy of 23 American agents in connection with another extraordinary rendition, involving an Egyptian cleric known as Abu Omar, who was seized off the streets of Milan and taken to Egypt, where he was tortured. The Italian proceedings occurred in absentia after the Americans fled to avoid arrest. The trial resulted in the conviction of 23 Americans, 21 of them intelligence operatives. A criminal proceeding relating to the kidnapping and torture of El-Masri is also underway in Germany.

By Scott HortonHarper’s Magazine

Arrest of 13 CIA Agents sought in Spain


An Invitationto add us

One month after the Palestinian Authority moved to boycott goods produced in Israeli settlements, hundreds of volunteers launch a similar campaign in the West Bank.

University students began to distribute a list of 500 goods produced by Israelis living in the occupied territories, calling on Palestinian consumers to boycott them.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas made a move in April to prohibit the buying and selling of settlement commodities.

The boycott also aims to encourage 27 members of the European Union to ban trade with enterprises located in the illegal Israeli settlements.

The campaigners are expected to visit 427,000 Palestinian households and

ask residents to sign a pledge not to buy settlement products.

The move came as Israel continues to defy international calls for a halt to its illegal settlement construction in the West Bank, occupied by the Israelis in 1967 and later annexed. The Palestinian side says Tel Aviv has to completely halt the settlement expansions in order for peace talks to resume. - Press tv

The Maldives has offered to take two detainees from the US facility in Guantanamo Bay, the Indian Ocean state’s president has said.

President Mohamed Nasheed said there was “no harm” in the offer, and said it would not violate any laws.

But the move is being resisted by an opposition party, which is reported to be taking legal action against the government over its plans.

Neither of the two detainees have been named.

More than 180 detainees remain in the controversial US prison for foreign terrorism suspects in Cuba.

The Obama administration, which aims to shut down Guantanamo, has struggled to relocate detainees deemed to no longer pose a threat to US interests.

Among the latest to be moved were two who were transferred to

Switzerland in March. Georgia also took two the same month.

Speaking in his weekly radio address, President Nasheed said: “It would show that we are a people who care about others as much as we can.

“I believe that refusing to help illegally imprisoned inmates, especially Muslims, when we have the chance would not be in accordance with the constitution, Islamic values and our Maldivian identity,” he was quoted as saying by the Maldives newspaper Haveeru.

The government had initially denied that the US and Maldives had had official talks on a Guantanamo Bay transfer, it is reported. But the president said it was not a secret.

The state minister for foreign affairs, Ahmed Naseem, told AFP news agency: “It’s an offer on humanitarian grounds, for two prisoners of the Muslim faith who don’t have formal terror charges against them.”

But opposition parties have objected.

The Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) is to file a case against the government over the plan.

The party claimed the government was not authorised under the constitution or the country’s laws, Haveeru reports.

In a statement, the party said: “Because of President Nasheed’s actions, the tourists’ paradise would become a paradise for terrorists.”

Another opposition party, the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), has submitted a case to the parliamentary National Security Committee.

Maldives offers relocationto two Guantanamo men

The Third Conference for European Imams and Religious Advisers concluded with a call for a better of understanding of Islam in order to defuse Islamophobia.

The final communique, read by head of the Authority of Muslim communities in Austria Anas Al-Shaqfa, called for addressing problems that were really posing as a threat to Europe, pointing out that Europeans should not be fearing Islam and should concentrate on finding solutions for current economic problems which were sweeping Europe.

The final communique called on Imams and religious advisers to spread the true message of Islam which called for co-existence with people of other faiths and religions, adding that Muslims in Europe should be working on the same page regarding shifting the image of Muslims there.

The three-day gathering, organized by the Islamic Religious Authority in Austria, explored ways to improve the situation of the Muslim communities in Austria and Europe at large.

The agenda also included how to clarify the Muslim positions towards current and future European issues, and how to build relations between European Muslims and their fellow citizens by promoting dialogue and peaceful social interaction. - KUNA

Austria Conferencecalls for better understanding of Islam

Israeli goods boycott gains momentum

Passion Islam I June 2010 WORLD NEWS I 19

Armed men attack and torched a UN-run summer camp for boys and girls of the Gaza Strip

Dozens of masked men have broken into a UN-run Gaza summer camp for children and set it on fire, after beating up the guard and destroying the plastic tents.

The men blocked Gaza Strip’s main coastal highway before destroying the facility, one of the largest of several summer camps across the occupied Palestinian territory run by UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

“The militants gave the guard three bullets and a letter warning the UN to stop having summer camps like these,” Al Jazeera’s Nicole Johston, reporting from Gaza, said.

John Ging, UNRWA’s Gaza

director, said: “UNRWA will not be intimidated by these attacks. UNRWA will repair this location.”

He said that the attack was carried out by people with an “extremist mentality” and vowed to continue his agency’s work in Gaza.

No one claimed the attack, but it appeared to have been carried out by Muslim groups who may be opposed to the camps because they allow boys and girls to mingle.

Gaza’s police force was investigating the incident, and Ihab al-Ghussein, the interior ministry spokesman, said “the action is strongly condemned and those behind it will be held accountable”.

Our correspondent said that although this was the first time the camp had been attacked, there was concern that parents may not send their children to the camp due to safety concerns.

“Usually around 250,000 children attend this camp over summer. This one is the biggest of the four ”.

Gaza children’s camp destroyed


Syrian Ministry of Tourism launched an advertising campaign in Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain to promote Syria as a tourist destination.

Promotion Director at the Syrian Tourism Ministry Dr. Ahmad Al-Yousef said in a press statement that advertising promotional campaign

in Jordan and GCC included ads in newspapers, television, magazines and billboards.

He pointed out that the ministry launched similar campaigns in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey since last year.The Ministry will participate in Riyadh Travel Exhibition 2010 for Tourism

investment and promotion of tourist destinations, to be held in the Saudi capital in June, he added.The Ministry also participated in a number of exhibitions in Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Tunisia.The number of GCC tourists in Syria during 2009 exceeded 764,000 compared to 659,000 in 2008.-Kuna

The top US military commander in the Middle East signed a secret order in late 2009 that set the stage for an increase in covert operations to counter militants and other threats across the region, defense officials said.

Gen. David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, signed an order in September authorizing Special Operations forces to deploy to both allied and hostile nations in the Mideast, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to conduct surveillance missions and partner with local forces, two officials said on condition of anonymity because it involves clandestine forces.

The seven-page order also appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country’s nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive, according to The New York Times, which first disclosed the directive in its editions. Also citing anonymous sources, the newspaper said that the new order does not authorize offensive action, but rather its goal is to build new networks to “penetrate, disrupt, defeat or destroy” militant groups, including Al-Qaeda, and “prepare the environment” for future attacks.

As such, the Joint Unconventional Warfare Task Force Execute Order of Sept. 30 to a large extent is aimed at codifying established activities — some of which have been

under way for years — and more systematically align them and fund them under Central Command’s special operations component, one defense official said.

One such major escalation in the region is the work already under way with Yemen, the country where Al-Qaeda linked militants planned the failed Christmas Day airliner attack over Detroit by the so-called underwear bomber. In that case, the Defense Department plans to more than double to $150 million this year the money spent on helicopters, weapons and other counterterrorism efforts to help local security forces go after the group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Aside from that expansion, it was unclear precisely what other operations or missions in recent months might have stemmed from the new order.

Officials said that many top commanders, Gen. Petraeus among them, have advocated an expansive interpretation of the military’s role around the world, arguing that troops need to operate beyond Iraq and Afghanistan to better fight militant

groups.The order, which an official said

was drafted in close coordination with Adm. Eric T. Olson, the officer in charge of the United States Special Operations Command, calls for clandestine activities that “cannot or will not be accomplished” by conventional military operations or “interagency activities,” a reference to American spy agencies.

While the CIA and the Pentagon have often been at odds over expansion of clandestine military activity, most recently over intelligence gathering by Pentagon contractors in Pakistan and Afghanistan, there does not appear to have been a significant dispute over the September order.

A spokesman for the CIA declined to confirm the existence of Gen. Petraeus’ order, but said that the spy agency and the Pentagon had a “close relationship” and generally coordinate operations in the field.

During the Bush administration, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld endorsed clandestine military operations.

passionislam.com

US expands counterterroroperations in hot spots

Syria launches tourism campaign

Passion Islam I June 2010 SPORT I 21

France and Bayern Munich’s Franck Bilal Ribéry is the standout performer who could make World Cup glory possible for the French. An attacking forward, he has the pace and the dribbling skills to outwit any international defence in the World Cup. A lot will depend on him, as the current French squad is an average set-up with internal problems rife. Ribéry has been recognised on the world stage as one of the best French players of his generation. The previous talisman of Les Bleus, Zinedine Zidane, has called Ribéry the “jewel of French football”.

Nicolas Anelka alas Abdul-Salam Bilal, has rejuvenated himself at Chelsea alongside Drogba. A lot will depend on him to score the goals created by Ribéry.

Samir Nasri the French international footballer plays his club football for the English Premier League side Arsenal. He usually plays as a wide centre forward for Arsenal but has also been used in central and defensive midfield roles when needed. He has been likened by many to Zidane after impressing at his boyhood club Marseille.

The Real Madrid trio of Karim Benzema, Lassana Diarra and Mahamadou Diarra will be hoping to make a major impact in South Africa.

Benzema has not lived up to the hefty price tag since moving to the Bernabaeu from Lyon but his talent alone justifies his inclusion in Les Bleaus squad on a regular basis. He has often been compared to Algerian counter-part Zidane but Benzema has refuted the comparison on a regular basis stating they are different players.

Lassana Diarra and Mahamadou are holding midfielders in the Claude Makalele mould and will fight it out for one position in the French team. Lassana has the upper hand as he has been a regular for the Madrid giants this season.

Barcelona’s Eric Abidal has often vied for the best left-back tag with Ashley Cole. His performances for Barcelona have been nothing short of exemplary. An attacking fullback he has made the position his own since the retirement of legendary Bixente Lizarazu. A lot will depend on Abidal exploiting the left hand side for France to create the goals that would see them have a good chance of succeeding in South Africa.

The imposing Younas Kaboul, of Moroccan descent, has been a late developer to football after starting off brightly for Auxerre in France. Despite moving around England between clubs he has finely shown his stature as an imposing defender. He has not been able to cement a permanent position for Les Bleus but a strong finish to the season could book him a place in the French squad. The French have not entirely filled the central defensive position since the retirements of the holy trinity of Marcel Desailly, Lillian Thuram and Laurent Blanc but Kaboul could be in with a strong case come the end of the season.

Ivory Coast are many people’s favourites to be the dark horses of the tournament. With Didier Drogba in the set-up anything is possible. But the two players who could make the difference between success and failure are the Touré brothers, Yaya and Kolo.

Yaya was nicknamed “the new Patrick Vieira” by his older brother Kolo. He has lived up to his tag with lion-hearted performances for Barcelona and Ivory Coast.

Kolo, who played for Arsenal in the historical undefeated, now plays his trade for Saudi rich Manchester City. Touré is known for his pace and power, which enables him to force weaker attackers off the ball and to keep up with pacy strikers. He possesses good marking ability and most of his tackles are well timed which has contributed to his relatively good disciplinary record. Although relatively short for a centre-back, he makes up for it with an impressive vertical leap. A lot will depend on the performances of the brothers alongside Drogba and Arouna Koné currently playing for Sevilla in Spain.

The perennial underachievers at the world stage have been Holland. A team full of talent and panache, since the 1970s of Johan Cruyff. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He was typically dubbed as one of the three football “Legends” along with Diego Maradona and Pele. Yet the team did not win a major tournament even with a team full of exceptional footballers.

The current crop have as good a chance as any team, yet team unity will

and always is the key. Race has always been an issue with the Dutch. Many of the players are descendents of Surinam, an ethnic issue that always arises when a major tournament is in progress.

The key will be the fitness of Robin van Persie. An elegant, left-footed player, he has missed the majority of the season with an ankle injury.

Many readers will not have heard of Ibrahim Afellay, who plays for PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch league. He has played for the Dutch national youth team and is now part of the senior Dutch national team. He usually plays as the centre attacking midfielder for PSV but can also play at the right or left side due to his creative qualities. He is one to watch from the younger generation of footballers at the World Cup.

Khalid Boulahrouz another Dutch footballer, is of Moroccan descent and plays for the Netherlands and VFB Stuttgart. His nickname is “Khalid the Cannibal” for his ability to “eat up” his opposition.

Just as Islam is a growing religion around the world, so is the introduction of Muslim footballers to the world stage.

Many players do not identify themselves as Muslims due to the impact and rebuke they might experience through the media and supporters. Mido comes to mind when he played for Tottenham. However slowly and surely, through the media, they will bring a shining light to the religion with their exploits on the football field and not on the battlefield of Kandahar and Peshawar.

By: Shmoun Maqsoodwww.therevival.co.uk

There will be no shortage of world class players in South Africa and a lot of them will have one thing in common - the faith of Islam!

Muslim StyleWORLD CUP 2010

22 I SPECIAL FEATURE Passion Islam I June 2010

Allah revealed to ‘Eesa ibn Maryam the Injeel (Gospel) as guidance and light, confirming that which had come before it in the Tawraat:

“and We gave him the Injeel (Gospel), in which was guidance and light and confirmation of the Tawraat (Torah) that had come before it, a guidance and an admonition for Al-Muttaqoon (the pious)”[al-Maa’idah 5:46 – interpretation of the meaning]

‘Eesa (peace be upon him) foretold the coming of a Messenger from Allah after him, whose name would be Ahmad. This is Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And (remember) when ‘Eesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), said: ‘O Children of Israel! I am the Messenger of Allah unto you, confirming the Tawraat [(Torah) which came] before me, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad.’ But when he (Ahmad,

i.e. Muhammad) came to them with clear proofs, they said: ‘This is plain magic’”[al-Saff 61:6]

‘Eesa (peace be upon him) called the Children of Israel to worship Allah alone, and to obey the rulings of the Tawraat and Injeel… He started to dispute with them and to explain the error of their ways. When he saw how stubborn they were and how the signs of kufr were manifest among them, he stood among his people, saying, Who will be my helpers in the cause of Allah? The disciples believed in him, and their number was twelve. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Then when ‘Eesa (Jesus) came to know of their disbelief, he said: ‘Who will be my helpers in Allah’s Cause?’ Al-Hawaariyyoon (the disciples) said: ‘We are the helpers of Allah; we believe in Allah, and bear witness that we are Muslims (i.e. we submit to Allah).’

Our Lord! We believe in what You have sent down, and we follow the

Messenger [‘Eesa (Jesus)]; so write us down among those who bear witness (to the truth, i.e. Laa ilaaha illAllah — none has the right to be worshipped but Allah)”[Aal ‘Imraan 3:52-53]

Allah supported ‘Eesa with great miracles which remind us of the power of Allah, lift the spirit and promote faith in Allah and in the Last Day. He made something like the shape of a bird from clay, and blew into it, and it became a bird, by Allah’s leave. He healed the blind and the leper, and brought the death back to life by Allah’s leave. He told the people what they were eating and what they were storing in their houses. So the Jews to whom Allah had sent ‘Eesa became hostile towards him and tried to the people away from him, so they disbelieved in him and accused his mother of immorality.

When they saw that the weak and poor believed in him, and were gathering around him, they formed

Eesa (Jesus)Peace be upon him Part 2

Passion Islam I June 2010 SPECIAL FEATURE I 23

continued next month

a plot to kill him. So they provoked the Romans against him, and they made the Roman governor think that the call of ‘Eesa contained a threat against (Roman) power. So he (the Roman governor) issued orders that ‘Eesa should be arrested and crucified. But Allah caused a hypocrite who had betrayed him to the Romans to look like ‘Eesa. The soldiers arrested him, thinking that he was ‘Eesa, and crucified him. But Allah saved ‘Eesa from the cross and from death, and Allah tells us about the Jews (interpretation of the meaning):

“And because of their saying (in boast), ‘We killed Messiah ‘Eesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), the Messenger of Allah,’ — but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but it appeared so to them the resemblance of ‘Eesa (Jesus) was put over another man (and they killed that man)], and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no (certain) knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely; they killed him not [i.e. ‘Eesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary)]: But Allah raised him [‘Eesa (Jesus)] up (with his body and soul) unto Himself (and he is in the heavens). And Allah is Ever All Powerful, All Wise”[al-Nisaa’ 4:157-158]

So Eesa (peace be upon him) did not die, rather Allah raised him up to Himself, and he will descend before the Day of Resurrection and will follow Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He will prove the Jews to be wrong in their claim to have killed ‘Eesa and crucified him. And he will prove the Christians to be wrong who exaggerated about him and said that he was God, or the son of God, or the third of three. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “By the One in Whose hand is my soul, the son of Maryam will descend among you as a just judge. He will break the cross, kill the pigs and abolish the jizyah, and money will become so widespread that there will be no one who will accept it.” (Agreed upon; narrated by Muslim, no. 155).

When ‘Eesa comes down before the Day of Resurrection, the People of the Book will believe in him, as Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And there is none of the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) but must believe in him [‘Eesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), as only a Messenger of Allah and a human being] before his [‘Eesa (Jesus) or a Jew’s or a Christian’s] death (at the time of the appearance of the angel of death). And on the Day of Resurrection, he [‘Eesa (Jesus)] will be a witness against them” [al-Nisaa’ 4:159]

‘Eesa ibn Maryam is the slave of Allah and His Messenger. Allah sent him to guide the Children of Israel and to call them to worship Allah alone, as Allah says to the Jews and Christians (interpretation of the meaning):

“O people of the Scripture (Christians)! Do not exceed the limits in your religion, nor say of Allah aught but the truth. The Messiah ‘Eesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), was (no more than) a Messenger of Allah and His Word, (‘Be!’ — and he was) which He bestowed on Maryam (Mary) and a spirit (Rooh) created by Him; so believe in Allah and His Messengers. Say not: ‘Three (trinity)!’ Cease! (it is) better for you. For Allah is (the only) One Ilaah (God), glory is to Him (Far Exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is All Sufficient as a Disposer of affairs”[al-Nisaa’ 4:171]

Saying that ‘Eesa is the son of God is a monstrous saying and a great evil.

“And they say: ‘The Most Gracious (Allah) has begotten a son (or offspring or children) [as the Jews say: ‘Uzair (Ezra) is the son of Allah, and the Christians say that He has begotten a son [‘Eesa (Jesus)], and the pagan Arabs say that He has begotten daughters (angels and others)].’

Indeed you have brought forth (said) a terrible evil thing.

Whereby the heavens are almost torn, and the earth is split asunder, and the mountains fall in ruins,

That they ascribe a son (or offspring or children) to the Most Gracious (Allah).

But it is not suitable for (the Majesty of) the Most Gracious (Allah) that He should beget a son (or offspring or children).

There is none in the heavens and

the earth but comes unto the Most Gracious (Allah) as a slave[Maryam 19:88-93]

‘Eesa ibn Maryam is a human being, a slave of Allah and His Messenger. Whoever believes that the Messiah son of Maryam is God is a disbeliever (kaafir).

“Surely, they have disbelieved who say: Allah is the Messiah [‘Eesa (Jesus)], son of Maryam (Mary)’”[al-Maa’idah 5:72]

Whoever says that the Messiah is the son of God or the third of three is also a disbeliever:

“Surely, disbelievers are those who said: ‘Allah is the third of the three (in a Trinity).” But there is no Ilaah (god) (none who has the right to be worshipped) but One Ilaah (God —Allah). And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful torment will befall on the disbelievers among them”[al-Maa’idah 5:73]

The Messiah son of Maryam was a human being. He was born from a mother; he ate and drank, got up and went to sleep, suffered pain and wept… and God (Allah) is far above all of that, so how could he be God? Rather he is the slave of Allah and His Messenger:

“The Messiah [‘Eesa (Jesus)], son of Maryam (Mary), was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His mother [Maryam (Mary)] was a Siddeeqah [i.e. she believed in the Words of Allah and His Books]. They both used to eat food (as any other human being, while Allah does not eat). Look how We make the Ayaat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) clear to them; yet look how they are deluded away (from the truth)”[al-Maa’idah 5:75]

The Jews, Christians, crusaders and their followers distorted the religion of the Messiah, and deviated and changed it. They said (may Allah curse them) that Allah sent forth his son the Messiah to be killed and crucified as a sacrifice for mankind – so it doesn’t matter if anyone does whatever he wants, because Jesus will carry all his sins for him… And they spread that belief among all the Christian groups until it became a part of their beliefs. All of this is falsehood and is lies against Allah, and speaking about Him without knowledge. Rather “every soul will be

24 I SPECIAL FEATURE Passion Islam I June 2010

Since the dawn of time, man has forged and tried to advance himself by all manners, be it through capital gains or through technology, to become more civilized.

Allah through time has sent many a person to help mankind become civilized and become more in harmony with his spiritual self. One such personage was our beloved Prophet Muhammad .

The Prophet was sent to help mankind to tread upon the spiritual path, to teach and purify the inner qualities of the people reflected by their moral attitude. After being entrusted with the mission of calling the masses to bring faith upon Allah and to non-other than him, an additional task was given to the Prophet , this was moral conduct.

We have condensed Islam into just faith and worship, whereas in reality Islam is a complete way of life, and moral conduct is an integral part of being a Muslim.

All religions are undoubtedly based on good moral conduct. The teachings of all prophets and reformers have maintained, for example, that speaking the truth is good whereas lying is bad, that justice is right and oppression is wrong, that charity is virtue and theft is evil. As with other aspects of Islam, the teachings of the Prophet in this regard are complete and comprehensive. The Prophet himself said: ‘I have been sent to perfect virtues of courtesy and good

behavior’. In another narration the Prophet’s words are even clearer: ‘I have been sent only for the purpose to complete good behavior.’

The question is what is moral conduct?

Moral conduct relates to those mutual rights and obligations that fall upon human beings, the observance of which is not only proper but also essential.

When a person comes into this world, he forms a relationship, to a greater or lesser degree, with everything that is present here. He forms a relationship with family, friends, in fact with every person and everything connected to him in terms of, for example, gender, neighborhood, homeland, nationality etc. He even has a relationship with animals and the environment. As a result, certain obligations are incumbent upon him.

It is the elegant and beautiful discharge of these that constitutes ‘moral conduct’. It is thus that when entrusted with this task, the Prophet carried out this task. He was still in Makkah when the eminent Companion Abu Dhar sent his brother there to investigate the circumstances and teachings of this new Prophet . After returning he told Abu Dhar : “I saw him exhorting people to develop good manners.

When Abu Sufyan gave the description of the Prophet in the court of the Roman Emperor, whilst still a non-Muslim, about the

reformatory message of the Prophet , he said that in addition to preaching the Unity of Allah and his worship, he also taught people to be chaste, to speak the truth and to keep good relations with kith and kin.

The Prophet has further said, “The believer whose faith is more perfect are those who have the best character”.

In another narration,”A person can attain through moral conduct the same status which is gained by fasting during the day and worshipping all through the night.” We can observe that from the above Ahadith, that achieving perfection of faith in Islam depends upon good conduct, for this is the fruit by which the tree of faith is identified. We can also see that moral conduct is that yardstick by which a person’s status and honour can be measured. There are numerous Ahadith on this topic but from the few shown we can see the very high status that moral conduct holds in Islam. Also there are many verses in the Qur’aan attributing to moral conduct, one of these is following, “O ye who believe! Bow down, prostrate yourselves and do good that ye may prosper”.

This means that after faith in the mission entrusted to the Prophet by Allah, there are two essentials; one is worship, and the other good conduct. The former is the “Rights due to the creator”, and the other is the “Rights due to his creation”. The sum total of the two is Islam.

Islam and moral conduct

Passion Islam I June 2010 CORRESPONDENCE I 27

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