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has added a new journal'They can't be Muslims'
muslimwakeup.com
By Hesham A. Hassaballa
I often wonder from where the wild conspiracy theories that are sometimes rampant among Muslims come. To this day, I listen with incredulity to Muslims who refuse to believe that Muslims were behind the attacks of 9/11. The same is true with other attacks committed by Muslims: in Casablanca, Taba, London, and now (sadly) Sharm El Sheikh. Yet, still, it never ceases to amaze me how someone could look me straight in the eye and deny the fact that there are Muslims who commit horrific acts of terror in our name. I do not think I will ever understand it.
Having said that, however, the London attacks offered a glimpse into a possible reason. When I first learned of the attacks, my heart sank into deep despair. "Not again," I said to myself. When the alleged perpetrators were identified as home-grown British terrorists, that despair turned into shock and disbelief. And I must admit that the thought - "These people can't be Muslims!" - did cross my mind, if only briefly.
Yet, why did this happen? Why did that thought - which is the seed of conspiratorial thinking - even make it into my mind? Because I simply can't put my head around the fact that a Muslim - born and raised in Britain - would put a bomb in a rucksack and ride the Tube and a Bus and kill himself and his fellow Britons. It does not register with my neurons. Yes, I was upset at the invasion of Iraq. Yes, I am not a fan of many aspects of the foreign policy of my government. Yes, I believe America can do better across the world. Nevertheless, I would never, ever, ever even contemplate strapping a bomb on myself and killing my fellow Americans. That thought would never, ever, ever even cross my mind.
Not because I am a doctor, someone who is trained to try and save lives. No. But, because I am a Muslim. I worship and serve Allah, Yahweh, Eli, Eloh, Elohim, Alaha. I worship and serve the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, the Most Merciful. I worship and serve I AM, the One God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Because of that fact, there is absolutely no way I could murder another human being. My Master told me that life is sacred, that I must never take the life of someone else. My Master told me that murdering an innocent person is the same as killing all of humanity. My Master told me to never let the hatred of a people toward me move me to commit injustice or transgression. My Master told me never to fall into the moral cess-pool of "yeah, but."
My Master never told me that all "infidels" are to be killed. My Master never told me that I am supposed to murder "apostates." My Master never told me that the "end justifies the means." My Master never told me that to kill people in a London subway is wrong, but to kill people at a Tel Aviv pizza parlor is okay. No. I am a Muslim, a servant of the One God of all, and He never told me any of those things. Thus, I simply can not fathom how someone can claim to serve Allah and kill children in Beslan. I simply can not fathom how someone can claim to serve Elohim and kill children in Tel Aviv. I simply can not understand how someone can claim to act in the name of God and bomb London subway trains. I just cannot understand it, because my Master - Allah, Elohim, God - never told me that I can do such a thing.
And I am certain that the overwhelming majority of Muslims believe the exact same thing. Thus, they conclude - in the pain of despair at seeing their faith smeared by the sins of the violent mutant fringe - that the perpetrators of these horrific attacks just cannot be Muslims. This stems from only one thing: denial. Denial can be deadly. I have seen patients present with advanced breast cancer, after any effective treatment can be rendered, who - when asked - first noticed the lump several years previously. It is a very powerful defense mechanism, and there are so many Muslims who suffer from such denial. And being of Egyptian ancestry, I know denial: and believe you me, it is not a river in Egypt.
Yet, we can not afford to be afflicted with denial. Not in this day and age. We must all wake up to the fact that there are Muslims who claim to worship the God of Abraham and kill innocent human beings. In fact, they cry out "Allahu Akbar" while doing it! There are Muslims who brutally behead innocent people under a banner that reads: "There is nothing worthy of worship besides God, and Muhammad is His messenger." There are Muslims who have absolutely no qualms about blowing themselves up at a resort hotel in Sharm El Sheikh, killing dozens of fellow human beings. It is a painful reality, for sure. But, it is reality nonetheless.
To be honest, this isn't the first time this sort of cancer has grown within the Muslim body. At the time of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, the Kharijites maimed and murdered innocent Muslims all the time. They even killed Ali (r) himself. Muslim "insurgents" - from Iraq, of all places - killed Uthman (r), the Prophet's son-in-law. The soldiers of Al Hajjaj ibn Yusuf killed Al Hussein, the the Prophet's own grandson. Muslims, despite all the exhortations of their Master, can be particularly brutal. But so can Christians. I mean, it was the "Soldiers of the Cross" who killed the Muslims and Jews of Jerusalem in 1099 until blood was knee-high to the horses. But, brutality is not a Christian trait, or a Jewish trait, or an Islamic trait. It is a human trait, and so long as the followers of religion are human beings, there is going to be violence in the name of religion. It is a painful reality, for sure. But, it is reality nonetheless.
Yes, they absolutely can be Muslims. Even though we don't understand their logic and reasoning, even though we don't agree with their religious justification, even though we ardently oppose their tactics, terrorists can most definitely be Muslims. The sooner we wake up to that reality, the sooner we can get working on how to defeat these monsters once and for all.
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has added a new journalI received the following over e-mail and thought it was worth posting up here. Again, I did not write it; I am posting it simply to let people know about this injustice.
********************
Pakistan court orders 12 men freed in gang rape
2 hours, 57 minutes ago
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani court on
Friday ordered the release next week of 12 men
connected to a notorious gang-rape case, including six
convicted of the crime, court officials said.
The men, detained in connection with the 2002 rape of
Mukhataran Mai, were ordered to be freed by the high
court in the central province of Punjab, officials of
the court said.
Authorities had petitioned a review board of the court
to extend the detention of the 12, which expires next
Monday, but the court rejected the plea, the officials
said.
It was the latest twist in a case that provoked an
outcry in Pakistan and focused international attention
on the treatment of women in the country, particularly
in rural areas, where sometimes brutal tribal customs
hold sway.
The original trial before an anti-terrorism court in
2002 found that Mai was gang-raped on the orders of a
traditional village council after her brother -- who
was 12 at the time -- was judged to have offended the
honor of a powerful clan by befriending a woman from
their tribe.
Six men were originally convicted of the crime and
sentenced to death, but five were later acquitted on
appeal to the Punjab provincial court, which cited a
lack of evidence. A sixth man had his death sentence
commuted to life imprisonment.
The provincial government subsequently intervened and
ordered that the men be detained for three months
pending the outcome of an appeal by the victim against
the acquittal. Six men who served on the village
council were detained at the same time.
"The review board has held that there is no
justification for the detention of these people and
has ordered their release after depositing surety
bonds of 50,000 rupees ($840) from each of them,"
Malik Saleem, a lawyer for the 12 men, told Reuters.
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat declined to comment
on the decision.
Mai expressed fears for her life after the provincial
high court announced the acquittals in March.
Gang rapes and honor killings are common in
feudalistic rural Pakistan. In most cases the
perpetrators go free because of incompetent police
investigations and flaws in the legal system, which
have been highlighted in the current case.
President Pervez Musharraf, who has been trying to
project Pakistan as a moderate and progressive Muslim
nation, has taken a personal interest in the case,
saying it was tarnishing the country's image overseas.
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has added a new journalAs those in the United States argued about whether Terry Schiavo?s feeding tube should be removed or not and Muslims in the U.S. continue to argue about whether it is permissible in Islam for a Muslim woman to lead prayer?both important discourses?many have forgotten another important discussion we should be having about the war on Iraq. On March 19, 2005, the 2nd anniversary of the U.S.-led war on Iraq, I had the pleasure of attending a teach-in on the Iraq war. As everyone talked about what they were doing or going to do after the teach-in to inform people of what is really going on, I made a promise to myself that I was going to share with as many people as I could, a little bit about what I learned. Feel free to pass on the following information:
*A provision of the No Child Left Behind Act 2001 allows the federal government to withhold funds from public schools that do not provide the names of 11th and 12th graders to the military for purposes of recruiting. Schools are required to inform parents that they have the right to remove their children?s names from these lists but many schools are not complying with this provision. Also, many states have enacted provisions similar to the federal one which denies public school additional STATE funding if they do not provide military recruiters with students? names. To find out more about this issue and how you can remove your child from such a list see the American Friends Service Committee Youth and Militarism Page: link.
*In research for the topic I was asked to present on?war crimes?I learned that the highest ranking U.S. official that has been investigated for his/her participation in such activities is a Specialist in the United States Army, although Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorized training in the interrogation techniques such as beating, chaining, and holding prisoners naked, used at Abu Ghraib prison. Secretary Rumsfeld has also questioned the relevance of the Geneva Conventions?a well-respected source of international law on war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide?to prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. For more about this issue see the web pages for Amnesty International: amnesty.org and Human Rights Watch: hrw.org.
*53 cities in Vermont have passed anti-war resolutions, with little publicity taking place around these actions.
*Many, including individuals in my hometown of Port Huron, Michigan, have started counter-recruiting efforts to provide children with options to pay for college that do not involve military service. To learn more about these efforts see the American Friends Service Committee Youth and Militarism Page: link.
*To learn more about these issues or how you can get involved see the following web sites: Veterans for Peace at vfp.org, Gold Star Families for Peace at gsfp.org, and United for Peace and Justice at unitedforpeace.org.
Thanks.
Peace,
Sairah