Only in Islam
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->13-year-old-girl marries her 75-year-old 'heartthrob'
Tuesday August 22 2006 15:01 IST
IANS
PATNA: <b>Despite opposition from her family a 13-year-old girl in a Bihar village married her 75-year-old "heartthrob". </b>
Asir Ansari, father and grandfather to many, married Raveena Begum in Purnea district, 450 km from here.
"The 'nikah' (Islamic ritual of marriage) was solemnised a few days ago and as per customs the girl will shortly move into the groom's house," Nasir Miyan of the same village told IANS on Tuesday.
Ansari insists that he did not force the girl to marry him. "We fell in love and decided to marry," he said. He also claimed that his bride is not a minor.
Similarly, Raveena Begum claims that it was her decision to marry Ansari. "I don't care about what people say," she said.
Shahzadi Begum, the bride's mother, who vehemently opposed this bizarre marriage said, "We agreed to the marriage when my daughter threatened to commit suicide. But I think it was a foolish decision."
But Shahzadi also blames the villagers for agreeing to the wedding. <b>"The village society helped her and Ansari marry," </b>she said.
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Why Indian or state govt are sitting silently? They should arrest grand father ansari. Last I heard, minimum marriage for females is 18 yrs in India.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Aug 22 2006, 09:18 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Aug 22 2006, 09:18 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Why Indian or state govt are sitting silently? They should arrest grand father ansari. Last I heard, minimum marriage for females is 18 yrs in India.
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I presume you are refering to India having a Uniform Civil Code. The last time I checked, there was no such code. Anything Islamic is acceptable and unquestionable. If the same thing was done by a Hindu, it would be a different issue.
A united minority will decimate a divided majority.
Oh sorry!! I forget, Every religion except Hindus have religious freedom in India.
NGOs, one attached with Karkat, normally goes into deep comma when it comes to Muslim woman rights.
They are letting baby to marry and live with a grand father. Makes me sick.
Islams rules and descrimination against babies and women are no surprise.
The European commission's vice president Franco Frattini called for
the emergence of a "European Islam", in London last Wednesday.
He told journalists, after a meeting of European ministers gathered to
discuss the foiled plot to bomb transatlantic flights, "We want a
European Islam". His comments reflected the problematic integration of
Muslims in Europe and their inability to integrate into western
societies. Before discussing the different levels of assimilation for
each community and especially the Pakistani complex, I feel it is
necessary to examine European Islam more closely.
Some of us might believe that Frattini's call is part of the fight
against Muslim identity, in a post September 11 world, and seeks to
dissolve "our Islam" in order to transform it into a pawn between East
and West.
This might be true if it weren't for the presence of a real problem,
with social and security implications for the Muslim communities in
the West, especially after members have committed terrorist acts.
Calling for the emergence of a European Islam does not mean that the
religion should be torn down because <b>its main principles, the Quran
and the Hadith, will remain as is and are non-negotiable</b>. It does
mean, however, that religious and community leaders should be aware
they are living in Europe, are subject to laws other than those of
their countries of origin, and should not be the only social outcasts.
Some might ask: How can Chinese, Indian and Mexican immigrants live in
the west and preserve their identity, which is what Muslims are
demanding? This is a harsh but necessary question that we ought to ask
ourselves before others do so.
I thought about these issues as I read about the British group
implicated in the foiled terror plot to bomb commercial jetliners and
the Pakistani link, headed by Rashid Rauf, an alleged key mastermind
behind the plot, and his brother, both from Birmingham.
According to press reports, Rashid Rauf led a complicated life in
Britain and suffered from the contradicting influences of two
cultures, as Pakistan continued to lure him. He eventually moved there
in 2002, after his uncle was stabbed in murky circumstances and joined
a radical Islamist group.
His youngest brother, Tayyib, also visited Pakistan, as the family led
an isolated existence, away from mainstream British society.
Is this because of racism against them in Britain? Perhaps, but blacks
and Asians also suffer from racism. Why is the Pakistani response
different?
Friends and colleagues of Abdul Rauf, the men's father, remember him
as a polite, unobtrusive and very devout man who held on to Pakistani
traditions, after coming to Britain in the early 1980s and settling in
Bordesley Green, a south east suburb of Birmingham. He managed a
successful bakery, producing items from Asian sweets to iced sticky
buns. He also founded the Crescent Relief organization to provide
assistance to survivors of the deadly earthquake which shook Pakistan
in October 2005 and the 2004 Asian Tsunami. Questions have been raised
about whether these funds were diverted for terrorist purposes.
Rauf, like many other Pakistani immigrants, visited his village,
Haveli Beghal, in the traditional Mirpur district, on several
occasions. Friends claim he was attending a wedding there when his
sons were arrested. Salma, his wife who never left the house without a
hijab, taught girls the Quran in an outbuilding behind the family home.
If we examine the lives of the young men of Pakistani origin who were
behind the 7/7 attacks in London, we notice a similar story:
individuals living in almost complete isolation from society. Why is
the Pakistani immigrant community unable to integrate into mainstream
British society?
Even Arabs, who are in the spotlight following the September 11
attacks, are more integrated than Pakistanis!
Is Islam from the subcontinent behind this extreme attachment to
identity and the readiness for extremism, considering the large number
of Islamist groups in Pakistan, which have put the government under
pressure? Or are British colonial rule and the partition of India,
following independence in 1947, to blame?
The fall of the Muslim Moghul Empire and the bitter colonial rule that
followed have, undoubtedly, bequeathed the people of the Indian
subcontinent an extremist disposition and the entrenchment of Muslim
identity.
The questions asked above need to be examined if we are to analyze the
characteristics of Islam from the subcontinents and its products,
including the Taliban and Rashid Rauf, as their might be many more
like him.
<i>Mshari Al-Zaydi
A Saudi journalist and expert on Islamic movements and Islamic
fundamentalism as well as Saudi affairs. Mshari is Asharq Al-Awsat's
opinion page Editor, where he also contributes a weekly column. Has
worked for the local Saudi press occupying several posts at Al -Madina
newspaper amongst others. He has been a guest on numerous news and
current affairs programs as an expert on Islamic extremism.</i>
Today, CNN showed OBL footsteps. Lot of new information about Islamic movement and OBL gang.
About Islamic brotherhood movement in 70s in Middle East and its influence.
There was a mention of book on Jihad - Milestones by Syed Qutb. <b>Sayyid Qutb</b>
<b>MILESTONES</b>
It is on new interpretation of Koran and Jihad. OBL was influenced by this book.
According to programme, OBL was poor leader but media savvy.
But his warnings are scary.
As usual they skipped India completly.
<b>âIslamic nations among most corruptâ</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kuala Lumpur, August 28: Islamic nations are ranked as among the world's most-corrupt and the fight to tackle the scourge could be tough due to poverty and poor governance, Malaysia's prime minister said on Monday.
..........
"I believe that many of the development challenges that the Muslim Ummah (community) faces have their roots in problems of poverty, poor governance and limited education opportunities," he said. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Saudi clerics want to restrict women praying at Mecca</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->RIYADH: Saudi clerics want to impose restrictions on women praying in Mecca, one of the few places where male and female worshippers can intermingle. But women activists in Saudi Arabia say the idea is discriminatory and have vowed to oppose it.<b> At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba. Plans by the all-male committee overseeing the holy sites would place women in a distant section of the mosque while men would still be able to pray in the key space.</b> âThe area is very small and so crowded. So we decided to get women out of the âsahnâ (Kaaba area) to a better place where they can see the Kaaba and have more space,â said Osama al-Bar, head of the Institute for Haj Research. âSome women thought it wasnât good, but from our point of view it will be better for them ... We can sit with them and explain to them what the decision is (about),â he said. The decision is not final and could be reversed, he added. Pushing and shoving is common in the tight space around the Kaaba where thousands of pilgrims crowd during Haj. The plans are likely to provoke a furore among Muslim women in countries whose Islamic traditions are more liberal than Saudi Arabia. Muslims say it as a basic right to be able to pray as close as possible to the Kaaba. âBoth men and women have the right to pray in Kaaba. Men have no right to take it away,â said Suhaila Hammad, Saudi woman member of a body of world Muslim scholars. âMen and women mix when they circumambulate the Kaaba, so do they want to make us do that somewhere else too?â she asked. âThis is discrimination against women.â <b>The Grand Mosque is one of the few places where men and women can pray together in Islam although technically there are separate spaces for each gender throughout the vast complex. Religious police charged with imposing order according to Saudi Arabiaâs austere Wahhabi brand of Islam often harass women who decide to pray outside the prescribed areas</b>. Historian Hatoun al-Fassi said the move to restrict womenâs prayer in the mosque would be a first in Islamic history. âPerhaps they want women to disappear from any public prayer area and when it comes to the holy mosques thatâs their ultimate aim,â she said, adding the religious authorities recently restricted womenâs access at the Prophetâs (pbuh) tomb in Medina. reuters<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>We can sit with them</b> and explain to them what the decision is (about),â he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Haraami!!!
Now that women are allowed into Shabari Mala (and no government will dare breathe a word about the same rule be implemented for mosques.) muslim women should be more than welcome with open arms to pray at Hindu temples. For our God is Loving, benevolent and accessible to all women.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Islamic conversions gain ground in Britain</b>
RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL
LONDON: Shoe-bomber Richard Reid; 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay; August 10âs Trans-Atlantic airline alleged conspirators Don Stewart-Whyte, Oliver Savant and Brian Young. All would fail the racial profiling test to screen potential terrorists; all are converts to Islam. So, is the new face of Islam in the UK increasingly white or at least non-Asian and non-typical?
"Yes and no," says Batool-al Toma, head of the New Muslim Project, set up 12 years ago in the English Midlands city of Leicester as Britainâs first organised one-stop shop for new converts to Islam.
Al-Toma, formerly Mary Geraghty, is a white Irishwoman who converted to Islam 25 years ago. She admits to TOI that "the numbers of white converts have been steadily rising, my work has increased and the sheer volume of people coming to me every week has risen in the last 12 years".
But she disputes the easy media shorthand that sees British Islam as increasingly white and dangerously reflected in Reid, Lindsay, Stewart-Whyte, Savant and Young. "Reid and Lindsay were not of a white background," she points out, "and the others are not typical of the white people who convert to Islam." More crucially, says al-Toma, the New Muslim Project is now busy creating a separate programme of induction for Hindu and Sikh converts to Islam.
"Till now, Hindu and Sikh converts mostly turned to the British Pakistani community but I now realise they have specific issues to do with family and we need to support them."
Al-Toma estimates that Britain currently boasts 20,000 new converts. Though just a tiny fraction of Britainâs officially endorsed 1.6 million strong Muslim population, it is still 6,000 more than the estimate offered by her colleague at the Lecister Islamic Foundation, Yahya Birt.
Whatever the figures, there is broad agreement that Islamâs growth in Britain is possibly the fastest anywhere in the western world with all the attendant headaches for racial profiling and airline passenger stereotyping. American writer Robert Ferrigno, whose newest bestseller âPrayers for the Assassinâ imagines an Islamic United States in 2036, complete with Jihad Cola as the number one drink, says "mass conversions may involve relatively few âtrueâ spiritual conversions. Most believers go along to get along". But he insists that his novel makes âan imaginative, not statistical leap, positing a future where spiritually-bereft Westerners, their society rent by economic and social decay, were drawn to the spiritual certainty of a fundamentalist faith like Islam".
Though Ferrignoâs novel may be a leap too far, many believe Islamâs growth in the West is exemplified by British converts such as Birt, the 38-year-old son of the BBCâs former director-general, who made headlines when he turned to Islam 16 years ago just four years after pop star Cat Stevens sensationally announced he had become Yusuf Islam. In recent years, former British cabinet minister Frank Dobsonâs son became Joe Ahmed Dobson and respected Cambridge academic Timothy Winter took the name of Abdul Hakim Murad.
Birtâs estimates were based on an extrapolation of the number of people who said they were Islamic converts in the 2001 census in Scotland (the census in England and Wales did not ask about conversion).
But al-Toma, who shepherds new and potential white people into the Islamic faith, says her estimate is based on the volume of new converts who pass through her hands. âIt now approximates at least 10 every month.ââ And rising.
So much so that the New Muslim Project has finally established five affiliate groups dotted around England and Scotland to deal with the growing traffic of converts. And al-Toma and her Project find themselves in the firing line every time a Reid, Lindsay, Stewart-Whyte, Savant or Young joins the lengthening list of British extremist converts.
Birt believes "Middle England is in a moral panic at the news that a white middle-class boy from High Wycombe, the son of a Conservative party constituency worker (Stewart-Whyte) has been arrested in connection with what might have been our own 9/11ââ. And he laments the growing view that "people are converting not to one of the worldâs great religions but to Islamofascism, to an anti-Western political cause with its very own fringe of bloodstained anarchists who are prepared to kill people on a grand scale".
Al-Toma admits she gets her share of âemotionally-charged potential white convertsââ. Just days ago, she says, a young white man emailed her to express the desire to become a Muslim because "he didnât agree with the Bush-Blair politics". She says she gently cautioned him against "an empty conversion to Islam".
But the numbers of these as exemplified by the three alleged trans-Atlantic plane conspirators may be rising.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The terror and death inflicted on humanity is not the work of radical Islam, neither the political Islam, nor the militant Islam. It is Islam, period. Get it? And the perpetrators are not fringe elements confined to brainwashed Saudis, loony Taliban, or a know nothing Pakistanis who have hijacked Islam and are now in the business of mass murder. The latest project of the practitioners of the âreligion of peaceâ aimed to blowing planeloads of innocent civilians to smithereens in midair over the Atlantic -- ought to finally drive the point home: it is Islam, dummy. Get it?
How could people calling themselves sincere God-fearing religionists bring themselves to even think of acts of such barbarity, yet plan them methodically and cold-bloodedly proceed to execute them?
The answer is Islam. The life manual of Islam, the Quran, is a document of exclusion, hatred and violence that shapes the Muslimsâ thinking and behaving. This stone-age document is optimally suited for people of stunted development. People who prefer to follow than to think for themselves, to hate than to love, and to seek death rather than to celebrate life.
Sadly, Muslims themselves are the ones who are most victimized by Islam. They have inherited this viral psychological disease of hate and violence; they live by it, and transmit it to their children as well as to receptive others.
A puzzle to non-Muslims: why any intelligent and reasonably sane person would live his life by the dogma of Islam? It is particularly disconcerting when this Muslim lives in a secular non-Islamic society. The befuddlement becomes mind-boggling when seemingly educated women in free societies voluntarily submit to the yoke of Islamic misogyny.
There are a number of possible explanations to the enigma of believing in Islam and even propagating it with zeal and violence. Some possible explanations are treated here.
For one, Islam is stamped on the impressionable mind of the child from birth. The parents and immediate members of the family are the ones who make the very first impressions on the tabula rasa of the young mind. These early impressions are the grid-work for further formation of the personâs mind and belief system. It is by far easier, as life goes on, to incorporate âitemsâ that readily fit into the grid-work, than to modify it or dismantle it altogether and begin anew. It is in recognition of the importance of early training and education that people such as Saint Augustine and Freud considered the first few years of life as critical for molding the person. âTeaching the very young is like itching in the stone,â says an Eastern proverb.
Another reason is the herd mentalityâstay with the group, be one of them, and don't strike out on your own. This strong disposition to belong is reinforced by privileges that the group bestows; social pressure, as well as the fear of castigation by the wielders of power. There is security and power in numbersâin any numbers.
Islam is also appealing for giving purpose and order to the personâs lifeâboth the life on earth as well as an immortal life after death. Islam is omnipresent and omniscient father figure who draws the boundaries, points out the path, dictates the terms, holds the carrots and the sticks. It absolves the person, for most parts, from the often demanding tasks of dealing with difficult questions and choosing what to do with oneselfâa highly attractive trade off for many. Accept Islam as your guide, follow its path and you will never have to suffer the agony of not knowing and having to make decisions by yourself; you will be guided along the path of eternal happiness and salvation. Just follow the unerring guide given to mankind by the seal of the prophet, Muhammad.
An elaborate package of mostly illogical and bizarre prescriptions and proscriptions comes with the Islamic offer, covering every imaginable aspect of life. In the matter of being a good Muslim, nothing is left to chance that one needs to figure out for himself. âI think, therefore I amâ said Rene Descartes in substantiating his claim to being a conscious being. âI don't think, I faith; therefore I am an automaton,â says the Muslim in absolving himself of the need for independent thinking.
Even the minutest detail of the Muslimâs life is rigidly structured. He is to perform the obligatory prayer, for instance, five times a day at the exact appointed times. He must drop everything and go through the prescribed gesticulation and recitation of the verses while facing Mecca. Before saying his prayer, however, he must perform ablution. The Ablution, using water, must be carried out in a precise manner and sequence. In the absence of water, the faithful can substitute soil for water and go through the practice of âpurifyingâ himself by running soil over his hands, arms, face and feet. After completion of ablution, as prescribed, he may proceed to say his prayer unless he commits flatulence. In that case, he must re-perform the ablution all over again.
Being a good Muslim, particularly a good male Muslim, is indeed a full time job. Male Muslims are obligated to go for Hajjâwomen don't have to do so. Islam is a manâs religion, through and through. Women are to please men erotically, to attend to them like chattel, and birth them boys. Going on Hajj and accumulating merit points for admission to Allahâs paradise is reserved for men. Women may also go to Hajj, if they are lucky enough to afford the journey or allowed by their owners, men, to do so. For women, there are no promises that by going on Hajj and paying tribute to the house of Allah they endear themselves to him. âWomen are calamities, but no home should be without one,â is an old Islamic characterization of women. Hence, a woman is a necessity and not much more.
In short, Islam treats its believers as children irrespective of age. An extensive cadre of mullahs and imams, who themselves are thoroughly indoctrinated, minister to the children. These professional leechesâthe mullahs and imamsâsystematically program the mind of their charges through liberal use of fear, threats of hell, and occasional promises of eternal life of bliss in Allahâs paradise if they be obedient good children.
A Muslim is born Muslim, yet he acts as if he independently and through his own labor has discovered the great find; he clings to it as his cherished security blanket; and, would part with his life, rather than giving it up. It is, therefore, understandable what a recent poll has found. Fully 81% of British Muslims consider themselves Muslims first and British second. The 81% know full well that there is absolutely no chance of being harassed, much less persecuted, in Britain for professing their highest loyalty to Islam. So, they come out and admit it. The other 19% are even more Muslim. They are practicing what the Quran teachesâdissimulation. Muslims are taught to lie. They lie when they have to and they lie when they don't have to, just to stay in practice.
The bottom-line is that the non-Islamic world has a huge problem on its handsâthe ever-encroaching Islam. For as long as there are mosques, madrasehs, and Islamic centers; as long as a vast cadres of well-paid, highly indoctrinated and strategically placed mullahs and imams; and, as long as there are people who prefer to be treated as children, Islam will flourish anywhere and will pose an existential threat to unbelievers. All the excuses, grievances and reasons given for savagery of the jihadists and Islamofascists are side issues. It is Islam, dummy. It is Islam itself. Get it?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
From the "Its Islam, Stupid" article:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->After completion of ablution, as prescribed, he may proceed to say his prayer unless he commits flatulence. In that case, he must re-perform the ablution all over again.
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With 1234223982234 rules in it, and 0000000.000000 philosophy in it, no wonder Islam can fing numerous excuse for killing people!!! (I am not talking about Hindus and other clear-cut infidels, killing them is just a straightforward Holy Duty onlee.....but all this Shia-Sunni, "Muslim"-Ahmedi, Baha'i.....)
Earlier, I had conjectured about how the neocons could re-divide countries from Turkey to Pakistan. I also said that in addition, the neocons also intend to reinterpret Islam for the Muslims. Now I ask: can the Muslims withstand the onslaught? Kathleen Christison's sentence about Israel in Counterpunch haunts me, for it applies with equal force to Muslims. "A nation that mandates the primacy of one ethnicity or religion over all others will eventually become psychologically dysfunctional."
<b>Israel has a decisive leadership that knows exactly what it wants and how to get it. Instead of becoming a vassal of America, this puny little country of 5 million has made the US into its vassal. As against this, the Muslim countries, barring Iran, form an "Axis of Weasels" - dithering, scared and vacillating, afraid of their own shadows, holding each other in contempt.</b> Some people sit on the fence, not getting off on either side until one side has won. Others ride a tiger, and sometimes get eaten by it if they lose their ideological way. Muslim power elites sit on a camel with one leg dangling on the US side, not knowing which side the camel will finally sit on. The time is coming that if they don't decide soon, and decide right, the camel will crush them. The camel is the Muslim people.
The emergency meeting of the OIC in Kuala Lumpur took place three weeks after Lebanon was attacked. After much pious speechifying and pontificating, it came out with an inconsequential resolution. A week later the Arab League presented its own version of a draft UN Security Council resolution that was ignored. What was expected from them was an ultimatum to Israel to desist, or else. Or else what? Not with this leadership or people who were secretly happy that Shia Hezbollah was getting it in the neck. <b>Two Saudi clerics gave a fatwa that Muslims shouldn't pray for Hezbollah.</b> So far has the Shia-Sunni divide gone, that there were hardly any demonstrations worth noticing in the Sunni world. <b>Sunni leaders were first ambivalent about the war; when they saw that Hezbollah was not caving in and Israel was getting a good run for its money, they decided on attack by verbiage - empty verbiage. They are scared of the Shias winning; they are scared of Iran dominating the region; they are scared of Islam. The effete lives many lead and their weak actions stand testimony to their political and religious impotence. They are beyond the pale. Such people cannot be vehicles of salvation or revolution.</b>
One principle of warfare is: know your enemy, his strengths and weaknesses. The Jews are the most intelligent people in the world. One Nobel laureate out of five is a Jew from a worldwide population of 12 million - less than Karachi. See how 12 million are controlling the world, holding six billion people hostage, have the biggest superpower of all time on call and 1.5 billion Muslims on the rack. They know that power flows from four sources: knowledge, the media, the ability to control and move global capital across borders in a millisecond, and military. The Jews have them all. They dominate the world's best universities and think tanks and are the best-educated people. They dominate world media, including Hollywood, which means that they can influence our thoughts and perceptions without our even realising it - thought control. They dominate global banking and finance. And they not only have the best conventional and nuclear military hardware, they have America, the most powerful nation in history, on their side.
Another principle of warfare is: know your own strengths and weaknesses - especially your weaknesses. <b>The Muslims know neither their strengths nor their weaknesses. They live in a delusional world, Don Quixote-like. They don't have any linkages to any of the four sources of power. Their education systems and think tanks are pathetic, wallowing in the medieval.</b> They send their best and brightest to western schools and colleges. <b>They don't have a press: their newspapers, journals and electronic media are largely state controlled while the few private ones are busy trying to ape the style and programmes of western television channels.</b> They don't have one global commercial or investment bank. Their currencies are tied to the US dollar and are at its mercy. Despite their petrodollars, Muslims were not able to make even one of their currencies a benchmark. Their own oil is traded in US dollars on two oil bourses in New York and London and when they say that they will shift to the Euro (another non-Muslim currency), they get thrashed as Saddam did. Muslims could not establish one oil bourse of their own, trading in their own currency. They have not one multilateral donor or financial institution that is worth a laugh. They haven't one university of consequence. Their military hardware comes from the West or other non-Muslim sources; all they can do is reverse engineer - copying. The money the West pays Muslims for their oil is brainlessly returned to it and parked in American and European banks in which the Jews have incredible influence. Muslims can't even think of taking it out for they will freeze it. <b>The GDP of all the Muslim countries put together is less than the GDP of one US state for God's sake, California. As a proportion of total population, the Muslims have the largest number of poor. They also have the largest number of illiterate.</b> None except Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and we had to develop ours surreptitiously, with the entire world against us. And who got us into trouble over 'proliferation'? Two Muslim countries: Libya and Iran.
<b>The truth is that the West holds all our strings. If they were to cut off all supplies to us, I would not even have this computer to write on. Soon, there would be no planes, no tanks, no medicines, no books, no submarines, no guns, no nothing.</b> Even Hezbollah and the Palestinians are fighting with western made weapons. Thank God for the black market and its gunrunners. The only weapons we have are our numbers - 1.5 billion and growing faster than any other people in the world - our oil and our faith. But we fail to galvanise and mobilise our numbers, we fail to use the oil weapon that could bring the global economy crashing down and America to its knees, and we have lost touch with the true spirit of our faith. We are in our own Dark Age, mired in obscurantism, dogma and ritual, taking guidance from 'scholars' who themselves are caught in a time warp, trapped somewhere in the 7th Century AD
There is no point in just criticising Muslim leaders. They are but a reflection of the society that accepts them, be they elected or otherwise. <b>As against the intelligent Jews, Muslims keep following false gods like an obsession to self-destruct; gods who have sold them down the drain repeatedly and are one of the prime causes of Muslim woes.</b>
Islam's genuine enlightenment and reformation can only come from within; when the Muslims are historically ready. It won't follow the Christian pattern and those outside the religion certainly cannot impose it on them either.
E-mail: hgauhar@nation.com.pk
Does this mean they have started issuing the famed Islamic "convert or die" option that Islamicised Arabia's Islamoterrorists had sent to Persia and Byzantium before they attacked the two? The same options which were later sent to other unconverted countries, before Islamoterrorists declared Jeeeeehad?
Or maybe AQ is saving that for next week, in case nothing else of excitement is happening then.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->CAIRO, Egypt - An American thought to be an al-Qaida activist appeared in a videotape with the terror group's deputy leader Saturday and called on his countrymen to convert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the    Iraq and Afghan wars.
The 48-minute video, posted on an Islamic militant Web site, had footage of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and of Adam Yehiye Gadahn, a 28-year-old American who the FBI believes attended al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan and served as an al-Qaida translator.
It was the second time Gadahn appeared in the same video with al-Zawahri. In a July 7 video marking the one-year anniversary of the terror attack on London commuters, Gadahn appeared briefly, saying no Muslim should "shed tears" for Westerners killed by al-Qaida attacks.
But Saturday's video â and the length of Gadahn's speech â suggested al-Qaida has found in him someone who can communicate effectively with Americans.
Appearing days before the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S., Gadahn spoke for nearly the entire video, wearing a white robe and a white turban, sitting in front of a desk with a computer and Islamic religious books in a room with a white wall.
The video included no direct threats of terror attacks.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Gadahn delivered a lecture on Islam and the "errors" in Christianity and Judaism. He also said the United States is losing the wars in Iraq and    Afghanistan and told U.S. soldiers they are fighting    President Bush's "crusades."
"Instead of killing yourself for Bush ... why not surrender to the truth (of Islam), escape from the unbelieving army and join the winning side. <b>Time is running out so make the right choice before it's too late," he said.</b>
Al-Zawahri gave only a brief introduction to the video, calling on Americans to convert to Islam.
"To the American people and the people of the West in general ... God sent his Prophet Muhammad with guidance and the religion of truth ... and sent him as a herald," he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->More in the news article itself.
09-03-2006, 08:08 AM (This post was last modified: 09-03-2006, 08:09 AM by Husky.)
More on the <b>religion of Peace</b>
I don't know, I can't shake off the suspicion that it really is the classic <i>Islamic Choice</i> being handed out: Reuters link
<b>Qaeda urges Bush, non-Muslims to embrace Islam: video</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda called on President Bush and non-Muslims especially in the United States <b>to convert to Islam and abandon their 'misguided' ways or else suffer the consequences</b>, according to a video posted on a Web site on Saturday.
The speaker was identified as Azzam the American, also known as Adam Yahiye Gadahn -- an Islamic convert from California wanted for questioning by the FBI and who U.S. authorities believe to be involved in a "propaganda" campaign for al Qaeda.
"If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like ... the crusader and chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam," Gadahn said in English.
<b>"To Americans and the rest of Christendom we say, either repent (your) misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next."</b>
Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri made a brief statement at the start of the tape urging viewers to listen carefully to the message, entitled: <b>"An Invitation to Islam"</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->If that's an <i>invitation</i> in the peaceful faith of Islam, then no wonder no one is curious as to what Islamic <i>threats</i> are like...
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Prophet Mohammed and his successors initiated series of offensive wars against pagan Arabs, Jews, Christians, etc., to spread or to impose Islam by force as well as to seize the abundance (booty) of these lands. However, it was quite possible that there had been some small numbers of conversions by sheer greatness of Prophet himself or due to some other miracles. Nevertheless, a great majority was converted by force, and people of Arabia did not have freedom to choose. After Prophet Muhammad gained enough might in his force while in Medina, <b>the tradition was to send an invitation of Islam to various Arab Tribes or countries. First, an invitation to pagans to accept Islam, then war against those who refuse to accept Islam. A typical invitation to the people of the book (Christians and Jews) was: âEmbrace Islam, or pay the poll-tax (Ziziya), or fight to death.â Undoubtedly, the concept of an offensive war to spread the faith of Islam is a genuine Islamic concept</b>: Holy War (Jihad) for the sake of God. I can write hundreds of pages of authentic Islamic history of wars in which tens of thousands of life was lost; tons of human bloods were shed. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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