Monday, March 29, 2010

Scholarships.........hmph


Guess what???

I got an offer to DQ... Darul Qur'an!!!!!

I felt relieved at least one of my applications got accepted.

I tried to apply for JPA and TNB Scholarships, but they weren't that successful.

In an instant my application for TNB got swipe, and my JPA scholarship application wasn't as great as my other friends.

Looking it at first yes, you might say that I lost it.......... But you've forgotten I still have DQ, I still have hope.

It's not like I have much of a choice...... better enjoy what we are given as if we really wanted that badly.

Other people would just say I just had the worst of luck. I'm unhealthy during the exams and didn't score, and at the same time didn't got any new scholarships.

But I believe there's a meaning to everything we got, easy or hard, it's not our choice to choose. It's our choice whether we wanna take it or not.

If my twin was here she would have said that one day I might just end up as a "Hufaz" like her and get a chance to go to Mecca. It's a really great place she said.

So the plan now, if i continue with DQ is that, 3 years DQ, 1 year at IIU, then the rest at KAUST, Saudi Arabia. (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)
Let it be a small smile or a laughter, i'll take it, because I know that eventually we'll get what's the best Allah gives us.

I'm not trying to be a fool or a schematic, just trying to look at the bright side of life.

Yep, if you see at one part of my life, it's like half destroyed, I have a slim chance I might be Ok, considering I'm always sick with bronchitis asthma, I've lost 2 of my best chances of scholarships for going to US, and my family is like halfway disrupted by all the chaos that's happening.

But at least I try..... and that's the whole point I told myself.

Life isn't great, from my experience it totally sucks,
quite from that, is that how we're suppose to react to it?
By making our world more miserable and thinking as if it's miserable, yeh duh......
that's a great solution.... NOT

people like my twin and my sister have all the luck, you name it, they have it.

But the real thing to see is to see what we have, and be grateful with it, be grateful that your dad at least bought a second hand handy cam, be grateful that when you go to debate training there are still some people (one or two) willing to learn, be grateful for everything you have. (even the pain in your chest that interrupts your sleep at night. LOL)

So right now the words I'm gonna say for now............. DQ here I come!!!!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Our LifeLine



Tonight I was suppose to go to KL. There was a Life Line 4 Gaza Concert, but I never went.

It wasn't that i didn't want to go, it's just that I couldn't.

Sick, Fatigue, and Dehydrated. I was not in the best conditions. But my condition isn't what I wanna talk about in this article, it's about the silver lining for the Life Line Gaza concert.

I heard great stories from my juniors about this Gaza Concert, I was the agent involved in getting SRI Ayesha's VIP seats. They loved it they say, they were having fun, motivated and most of all they got to help people.

But that's what they thought................... that they could help other people.....

That we could actually help the people out there in Palestine or in Gaza, Sudan or Afghanistan.

But actually we can't


۞ لَّيۡسَ عَلَيۡكَ هُدَٮٰهُمۡ وَلَـٰڪِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَهۡدِى مَن يَشَآءُ‌ۗ وَمَا تُنفِقُواْ مِنۡ خَيۡرٍ۬ فَلِأَنفُسِڪُمۡ‌ۚ وَمَا تُنفِقُونَ إِلَّا ٱبۡتِغَآءَ وَجۡهِ ٱللَّهِ‌ۚ وَمَا تُنفِقُواْ مِنۡ خَيۡرٍ۬ يُوَفَّ إِلَيۡڪُمۡ وَأَنتُمۡ لَا تُظۡلَمُونَ (٢٧٢)

It is not required of thee (O Messenger) to set them on the right path but Allah guides to the right path whom He pleaseth. Whatever of good ye give benefits your own souls and ye shall only do so seeking the "Face" of Allah. Whatever good ye give, shall be rendered back to you and ye shall not be dealt with unjustly. (272) Al- Baqarah

That's the reality...............

And so I realize when we do something, anything, we are suppose to help ourselves.
As much as we really wanna help these people, we firstly need to help ourselves.

They aren't the ones needing help, Allah already promised them heaven.
And so, when I look back, who's the one we are really suppose to help.

Yes, doing all these charity, philanthropy, it's all good.
But the Question is................ does it makes us any better
I ask you...... the person reading this, Do you feel better about yourself, make you a better person when you go to a mosque and put in... like 50$, 100$ ?

If not then then your really wasting your time. Because Islam as we know it, is a tarbiyah, is a tazkirah. It is suppose to renew ourselves.

I remember the time when I went out doing dakwah for 3 days. They say that never expect that when you tell somebody to do good, that that person will do good, but expect for yourself to listen what you say.

Your dakwah is like a ball. when you bounce it at wall it hits you back.

I'm telling everyone here reading this, what's the point if everyday we go to Gaza concerts a raise funding when by the end of the day, we couldn't wake up for Subh prayers, or do simple Al quran recitations or do good towards your parents. Truly we are lost.

Remember the time when Salahuddin Al- Ayyubi wanted to conquer Jerusalem. There were people whom were high spirit, very high in spirit, they make the majority of his troops. But he asked them to return home.

WHY? because they didn't had a strong belief, they didn't wake up and did Qiamulail, they couldn't help themselves as much as they wanted to help others.

Thus, there must be a balance. Everyday we fear what will happen to our Ummah, fear for ourselves too that we may go to the Burning hell. Nauzubillah.

I tell this the reality, and so I feared that when I go to the Life Line Gaza Concert...... I may forgotten myself.
Because the only reason we are helping people.............
Is to help Ourselves







Sunday, March 21, 2010

Grateful to be Alone


Since recent events I've never been alone, I mean truly alone. there would be either text messages from my closest friends and families asking me whether I'm alright.

Considering the fact I'm never all right, that was a very rhetoric question. and so there goes the time which i had to only tell them half the truth.

Of course I'm alright! I told them. Of course who would believe me considering the fact I am a H1N1 carrier.

The second wave came abruptly at the wrong timing I guess, when u were busy getting ready for college, with all the SATs, scholarships, universities, debate training and JIM business, I myself find it hard to believe that I'm still standing, that my legs are still intact, that I'm still breathing, that after all I've been through (puh-lease, I don't need to go into the details), I'm still alive and talking.

While these few days staying alone ( and apparently sick) i utilize it as much as possible, jogging by myself outside during the morning, going to mosques and suraus with there kulliyyah's and there tazkirahs, and finally staying at my room, relaxing on how normal a routine of my day went, these things don't usually happen, i don't usually have daily routines in my life, with a life as bizzare and as exiting as mind, everyday there's something new, but not this time.

Why? well to create a change in this world you have to realize the fact that you can't do it alone. you can't do task force programs, going to each individual couple and saying to them that Valentine's Day is HARAM or go out and have a debate training, or even try and publish your latest article for reader's digest without someone checking on it first.

That's what I realize, you can't change the world alone. As brother Khairul once put it: "There is no such thing as Dakwah by yourself".

And that's how my life has been going through, "physically not alone" so I could change the world.

But during these 4 days of no-text messages, no outgoing or task forces, no training and work. I really felt that there was a change in myself.

You see because we are never truly alone, there is always Allah to be there, watching, listening and knowing.

these 4 days i spent looking at the sky and wondering, how grateful I am during these lonely times my head never banged like crazy or my emotions went unstable. More or less, I was still sick. But the chance to be able to rethink what we need to do is a blessing for all of us, that Allah doesn't just give us time to help others, but also to help ourselves. And i think, that's the whole point of these 4 quiet days. Alhamdullillah I took this time not to understand my world, but to understand my life.

As they say:

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Sex Scandals, Religious Leadership and Salvation


Sex scandals or more precisely the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests and other religious leaders have been in news for almost a decade thanks to daring statements by those who were the victims of people they trusted most in religious matters. Who knows how many more cases are still buried in the memories of millions of people all over the world? And who knows how many more religious leaders are still preaching with a lid on their boiling sinful cauldron?

But why do we have to point at the deviant behavior of Catholic priests. There are many others in every religious community who can be identified as deviants in matters pertaining to immoral sexual relations. A Hindu Sanayasi (someone who vows to renounce the world) is absconding after his deviant sexual act with multiple women. The video footage of a Jewish rabbi visiting a minor to indulge in a sexual act is still in the memory of the people and one can also find news about Imams in America accused of sexual misconduct. In fact, the history of religions is full with stories of sexual digressions in convents, ashrams, religious seminaries and schools. Achariya Rajnish in the 70's emerged as one of most popular religious voices only to be busted as a sexual perverts. David Koreish still lingers in the memories of people for his multiple marriages with minors.

Labels do not make a person good or bad, actions do. To be known as a religious person or leaders does not mean that the person is also religious in one's actual life and follows the divine commandments in all of its aspects.

Ironically, almost every religious community promotes a theology that places emphasis on labels and symbols. Some describe their religious leaders infallible, others as holy and still others as pious and paragon of virtues. There are several sociological and psychological reasons for this deviant behavior. However, one dominant factor is the kind of theology that is accepted by many without looking at its ramifications.

Many Christians, for instance, believe that salvation comes only through accepting Jesus as the savior. In that theology, a person of Hitler's criminal nature, would also qualify for the divine grace as long as he accepts Jesus as the Lord. Many Hindus believe that the reincarnation of human soul wipes off its sinful nature by changing forms and shapes as it ultimately joins the divine soul. Many Jews believe that because of their special relation with God, they would never be subject to any accountability for their deviant behavior in the life hereafter. Many Muslims believe that because of their faith only they would eventually qualify for heaven after being accounted for their sins no matter how great.

Obviously, when religious leadership or anyone that believes the divine would judge them on their belief and not on their actions, it is difficult to acknowledge sins and their consequences in one's life.

The Quran emphatically challenges this notion of divine grace and mercy. Every action causes its consequences is the unchangeable divine principle. The Quran makes it known that even the minutest good or bad deed would have consequences to be borne by their performers. (Quran 10:61 - 21:47 - 34:3) Thus, labels alone would not be able to save a person. The actions would ultimately determine the fate of each and every human beings.

The Quran calls for a responsible behavior based on commitment to divine values from every human being. Quran 103:1-3)

What we see in the sexual deviation of religious leadership is a behavior that is challenging the notion of divine superiority. What is even worse is the attitude to hide these issues and not take a principled stand as a community or an organization. What is ironic is that only secular institutions have adopted a clear policy on child abuse and applied strict laws to deal with the situation.

It was the responsibility of those who claim that they were under the guidance of the divine to take a lead in ensuring that their presence in synagogues, churches, mosques, temples and other religious institutions would not be a source of concern for children, weaker sections of the society or the vulnerable ones.

What needs to be acknowledged is the fact that no one is infallible with the exception of those who were entrusted to communicate the divine message to human beings. Even the highest of religious authority is capable of committing acts of deviation from a religious perspective. Additionally, one has to recognize the fact that actions would always cause consequences. Without acknowledging this fundamental human reality, the Catholic Church or for that matter any other religious hierarchy would not be able to overcome its own deviations.

Allah knows - and that's the whole point

Truly the world will be a better place if every knew that Allah knows...

And because of that, we don't really understand our world as the prophet does, that whatever we do, Allah knows......

Whether the goodness we do is little or big, Allah will take it to account in our paycheck for the hereafter. The society as we see it is falling because they forget that Allah knows everything, whether what we do is good or bad.

He knows when we did thievery or lie to somebody, and he will also know if we smiled to a person or gave a way charity even when the world doesn't know it.

By reaffirming us that Allah knows everything, there wouldn't be such bad things happening in our world, no wars, no revenge, no hardship.

It might be just enough to motivate ourselves that Allah knows what good charity we did, because truly...... He is the best
motivator.


MusicPlaylist
Music Playlist at MixPod.com

When you feel all alone in this world

And there's nobody to count your tears
Just remember, no matter where you are
Allah knows
Allah knows

When you carrying a monster load
And you wonder how far you can go
With every step on that road that you take
Allah knows
Allah knows

CHORUS
No matter what, inside or out
There's one thing of which there's no doubt
Allah knows
Allah knows
And whatever lies in the heavens and the earth
Every star in this whole universe
Allah knows
Allah knows

When you find that special someone
Feel your whole life has barely begun
You can walk on the moon, shout it to everyone
Allah knows
Allah knows

When you gaze with love in your eyes
Catch a glimpse of paradise
And you see your child take the first breath of life
Allah knows
Allah knows

CHORUS

When you lose someone close to your heart
See your whole world fall apart
And you try to go on but it seems so hard
Allah knows
Allah knows

You see we all have a path to choose
Through the valleys and hills we go
With the ups and the downs, never fret never frown
Allah knows
Allah knows

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Islamophobia..... As if


9/11 Conspiracy Theories 'Ridiculous,' Al Qaeda Says

slamophobia is prejudice or discrimination against Islam or Muslims.[1] The term seems to date back to the late 1980s,[2] but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.[3] In 1997, the British Runnymede Trust defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the practice of discriminating against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the nation. It includes the perception that Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and is a violent political ideology rather than a religion.[4] Professor Anne Sophie Roald writes that steps were taken toward official acceptance of the term in January 2001 at the "Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance", where Islamophobia was recognized as a form of intolerance alongside Xenophobia and Antisemitism.[5]

Sources have suggested an increasing trend in Islamophobia, some of which attribute it to the September 11 attacks,[6] while others associate it with the increased presence of Muslims in the Western world.[7] In May 2002 the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), a European Union watchdog, released a report entitled "Summary report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001", which described an increase in Islamophobia-related incidents in European member states post-9/11.[8] Although the term is widely recognized and used, it has not been without controversy


Islamophobic acts

Belgium

  • In January 2006 the Dutch parliament voted in favor of a proposal to ban the burqa in public, leading to accusations of Islamophobia.[85] Filip Dewinter, the leader of Vlaams Belang bloc has said his party is "Islamophobic." He said: "Yes, we are afraid of Islam. The Islamisation of Europe is a frightening thing."[86]

Canada

Denmark

France

A protester at a counter-demonstration against the September 15, 2007 anti-war protest in Washington, D.C.
The Mosque of Castres after vandal attack.
  • Destruction and vandalism of Muslim graves in France were seen as Islamophobic by a report of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia [97].
  • French town accuses a popular fast-food chain Quick of discrimination because it only serves burgers prepared according to Islamic dietary law [98].

Germany

Spain

  • Giles Tremlett of The Guardian referred to the burning of a Muslim Sanctuary in the Spanish city of Ceuta, as an instance of Islamophobia.[99]

United Kingdom

  • Vandalism of Muslim Graves in Charlton cemetery in Plumstead, London.[100]
  • In 2005, The Guardian commissioned an ICM poll which indicated an increase in Islamophobic incidents, particularly after the London bombings in July 2005.[101][102] Another survey of Muslims, this by the Open Society Institute, found that of those polled 32% believed they had suffered religious discrimination at airports, and 80% said they had experienced Islamophobia.[103][104]
  • On the 26 August 2007 fans of the English football club Newcastle United directed Islamophobic chants at Egyptian Middlesbrough F.C. striker Mido. An FA investigation was launched[105] He revealed his anger at The FA's investigation, believing that they would make no difference to any future abuse.[106] Two men were eventually arrested over the chanting and were due to appear at Teesside Magistrates Court.[107]
  • On July 6 2009, the Glasgow branch of Islamic Relief was badly damaged by a fire which police said was started deliberately, and which members of the Muslim community of Scotland allege were Islamophobic.[108]

United States of America

  • Zohreh Assemi, an Iranian American Muslim owner of a nail salon in Locust Valley, New York, was robbed, beaten, and called a "terrorist" in September 2007 in what authorities call a bias crime.[109] Assemi was kicked, sliced with a boxcutter, and had her hand smashed with a hammer. The perpatrators, who forcibly removed $2,000 from the salon and scrawled anti-Muslim slurs on the mirrors, also told Assemi to "get out of town" and that her kind were not "welcomed" in the area. The attack followed two weeks of phone calls in whic Iranian-American Zohreh Assemi was called a "terrorist" and told to "get out of town," friends and family said.[109]
  • Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan was detained in Newark Airport in the USA and was questioned for about two hours because of his common Muslim surname Khan,[110] before the Indian mission intervened and secured his release. The actor was heading towards Chicago to participate in the Indian Independence Day celebrations. "It is a Muslim name and I think the name is common on their checklist," he told Indian television channels over telephone.[111][112]

THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!


So the question is........... what are we going to do about it, considering the fact that France in the next 5 to 10 years will be an Islamic Major country with am estimate of 5 Muslims being born everyday there, here you have the president of France arguing the ban of the"hijab" as if it is a violation to woman's rights.

Well you tell them this, if anyone asked you why in the world in Islam asks there women to wear hijab and close there bodies and so forth, say to them that


Islam is a beautiful religion, that in a sense it protects beauty......


Not to mention that the in Malaysia (FYI Malaysia is a majority Muslim country but not really an Islamic nation) everyday there are cases of sexually abuse towards women, I don't see anyone doing anything about it, why they even discourage women to wear it (look at the politicians wife, duh)

The main point here is actually, the problem is not because we did something to them that made them afraid of us, it was we who are afraid of Islam. We're afraid to follow the prophet, to act righteously and to do what Allah told us to, and in a set back we didn't just made ourselves afraid, we made the world afraid of Islam.

Try to think about it, if we weren't afraid to go out wearing a jubah in public with a serban on our heads, rather than the books and text books and novels, we bring in our hands the Qur'an, Sahih Bukhari and other such like.

We have to realize that we create our own world. If we fear it, we make our world afraid of it.
Only when we are not afraid to step in the light then shall we be able to see what greatness there is.


CHANGE YOURSELF, YOU CHANGE THE WORLD
IF YOU FEAR ISLAM, THEN YOU MAKE THE WORLD FEAR IT,
BECAUSE YOU ARE THE WORLD............

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Jazakillahu Khairan...... Ya Ummi....


I'm 17..........................

And my mom is 42...................

Yet..... she looks younger than me.......
A lot younger...........

And as time passes, I grew older.
And I wonder, Are our age distinguish as to by how close we are from death or how long we have lived?

15 March 2010, 9.00pm

We (my family and I) just wished ummi a happy 42th birthday. there wasn't anything grand or cakes or shopping malls or anything as such, it was just a simple birthday with Nasi Beriyani and Ayam rempah (me and my dad cooked it, I already know how to cook!).

As much as I could see it, the differences between my mom's face when she was my age and when she was now hadn't change much. To me she still looked like a teenager, maybe even more teenager than me. What was her secret I asked: She cherished life, she enjoyed what she did and was, how my dad would put it "in control" of what she wants.

After all the parties and celebrations and games we did, I crawled back under my bed sheet, tired: fatigue.
Then as I was staring up at my dark ceiling sky, someone knocked the door. It was Ummi.
She asked whether I wanted to follow her out for a stroll. And this time, I will drive.

Having receive my L driving license, by law, I was eligible to drive as long as there is an experience driver next to me.

I drove the car, going through the junctions and traffic lights. it wasn't as if I this was my first time driving. I usually drove all the time, illegally, to malls, schools sending my siblings, to wet markets and places where my parents are too busy to send them.

I drove till the SRI Ayesha school building. It was night that time at Taman Tasik Cempaka, but the lights were bright and you could see families strolling through the area with there children playing at the playground. we walked around there, hopefully nobody thought that we were a couple, considering that I have the face of twenties and my mom looked like a teenager.

Ummi told me how she would cherish these small moments, because she knew, as I also knew.....

This might be the last time I will celebrate her birthday with her........

* * *

Suatu Hari seorang bayi yang "belum siap" (premature) sudah meraung untuk dilahirkan ke dunia. Dia bertanya kepada Tuhan yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani, "Para Malaikat mengatakan yang masaku belum tiba, masih tinggal 3 minggu sebelum ku pergi ke dunia seterusnya, oleh itu ya Allah, bantulahku, bagaimana saya hidup di sana sedangkan saya begitu kecil dan lemah malah belum bersedia"

Dan Tuhan menjawab, " Saya telah memilih satu malaikat untukmu. Ia akan menjaga dan mengasihimu"

"Tapi di sini, di dalam syurga, apa yang saya lakukan hanyalah bernyanyi dan tertawa, Ini sudah cukup untuk merasa bahagia"

"Malaikatmu akan bernyanyi dan tersenyum untukmu setiap hari. Dan kamu akan merasakan kehangatan cintanya dan menjadi lebih bahagia"

"Dan bagaimana saya bisa mengerti saat orang-orang berbicara kepadaku, jika saya tidak mengerti bahasa mereka?"

"Malaikatmu akan berbicara kepadamu dengan bahasa yang paling indah yang pernah kamu dengar, dan dengan penuh kesabaran dan perhatian, dia akan mengajarmu bagaiman untuk berbicara sehinggakan satu dunia akan mendengar kata-kata kamu."

"Saya mendangar di Bumi terdapat banyak orang Jahat, siapakah yang akan melindungi saya?"

"Malaikatmu akan melindungimu, walaupun ia boleh mengancam jiwanya"

"Tapi, saya pasti akan merasa sedih kerana tidak dapat melihatMu lagi."

"Malaikatmu akan menceritakan padamu tentang Saya, dan akan membantu mu ketika hendak pulang kepada Saya."

Saat itu, suasana di Syurga begitu tenang sehingga suara di bumi dapat didengari dan sang anak tanya perlahan...

"Tuhan jika saya harus pergi sekarang, bisakah kamu memberitahu nama malaikat tersebut?"

"Kamu akan memanggil malaikatmu Ummi"

Thank you............... Ummi....

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Muslims are Their own Worst Enemy

Taken From IslamiCity.com

Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among Muslims, especially between Sunni and Shi'ites, have consigned the Muslim Middle East to almost a century of Western control. Muslims cannot even play together. The Islamic Solidarity Games, a regional version of the Olympics, which were to be held in April in Iran, have been cancelled, because the Iranians and the Arabs cannot agree on whether to call the body of water that separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf.

Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, for the U.S. to invade Iraq, and for the U.S. to rule much of the region through puppets. For example, in exchange for faithful service, Egypt receives $1.5 billion a year from Washington, which enables President Mubarak to buy off opposition. The opposition had rather have the money than support the Palestinians. Therefore, Egypt cooperates with Israel and the U.S. in the blockade of Gaza.

Another factor is the willingness of some Muslims to betray their own kind for U.S. dollars. Don't take my word for it. Listen to neoconservative Kenneth Timmerman, head of the Foundation for Democracy, which describes itself as "a private, non-profit organization established in 1995 with grants from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to promote democracy and internationally-recognized standards of human rights in Iran."

By now we all know what that means. It means that the U.S. finances a "velvet" or some "color revolution" in order to install a U.S. puppet. Just prior to the sudden appearance of a "green revolution" in Tehran primed to protest an election, Timmerman wrote that "the National Endowment for Democracy has spent millions of dollars during the past decade promoting 'color' revolutions in places such as Ukraine and Serbia, training political workers in modern communications and organizational techniques. Some of that money appears to have made it into the hands of pro-Mousavi groups, who have ties to non-governmental organizations outside Iran that the National Endowment for Democracy funds." So, according to the neocon Timmerman, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, it was U.S. money that funded Mousavi's claims that Armadinejad stole the last Iranian election.

During President George W. Bush's regime it became public knowledge that American money is used to purchase Iranians to work against their own country. The Washington Post, a newspaper sympathetic to the neocon's goal of American hegemony and war with Iran, reported in 2007 that Bush authorized spending more than $400 million for activities that included "supporting rebel groups opposed to the country's ruling clerics."

This makes the U.S. government a "state sponsor of terrorism." For confirmation, one of the U.S. paid operatives, who conducted terror operations in Iran, has ratted on his terrorist supporters in Washington. Abdulmalek Rigi, leader of the Baloch separatist group responsible for several attacks, was recently arrested by the Iranians. Rigi admitted that the Americans in Washington assured him of unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic of Iran. (Read his confession here.)

Possibly he was tortured into confession. It is the American way. If the "light of the world," the "indispensable people," and the "shining city on the hill" tortures people, perhaps the Iranians do as well. Rigi's younger brother, himself on death row in Iran, has said that the U.S. provided direct funding to the separatist group and even ordered specific terrorist attacks inside Iran

The U.S. and its NATO puppets have been killing Afghan women, children, and village elders since October 7, 2001, when the U.S. military invasion "Operation Enduring Freedom," a proper Orwellian title for a self-serving war of aggression, was launched. The U.S. installed puppet president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is bought and paid for with U.S. dollars.

The money that Washington gives Karzai finances the corruption that supports him. Karzai's corruption and his treason against the Afghan people encourage the Taliban to keep fighting in order to achieve a government that serves Afghans instead of Washington, D.C.

Without the puppet Karzai selling out Afghans to Washington, the U.S. would have already been driven out of the country. With Karzai paying Afghans with American money to fight Afghans for the Americans, the war drones on into its ninth year.

Feminists, liberals, and naive American flag-wavers will say that what is written here is utter rot, that Americans are in Afghanistan to bring women's rights and birth control to Afghan women and to bring freedom, democracy and progress to Afghanistan, even if it means leveling every village, town, and house in the country. We, "the indispensable people," are only there to do good, because we care so much for the Afghan people who live in a country that most Americans can't find on a map.

While this collection of naifs rants on about America "saving" Afghans from whatever, the White House and the Congress are conspiring against the American people to cut $500 billion dollars out of Medicare in order to give the money to private insurance companies. Jobless benefits are about to run out for millions of Americans, whose jobs have been moved offshore in order to make the rich richer. The U.S. Senate failed on Friday, Feb. 26, to extend jobless benefits. A single Republican Senator, Jim Bunning of Kentucky, was able to block the bill because it would cost a measly $10 billion and "would add to the budget deficit."

The "fiscally responsible" Bunning supports blank checks for wars of aggression (war crimes under the Nuremberg standard) and payoffs to investment banks for wrecking the retirement plans of most Americans. Bunning sends the bills to the unorganized and unrepresented Americans, whose jobs have been stolen by corporate offshoring of jobs and whose retirements have been stolen by the endless greed of the Wall Street investment banks.

What fool believes that the U.S. government, which is totally indifferent to the fate of its own citizens, cares so much about Afghanistan that it will spend blood and treasure to bring "progress" and "women's rights" to a country half a world away, while it drives its own citizens into the ground?

At Washington's behest, the government of Pakistan is conducting war against its own people, killing many and forcing others to flee their homes and lands. The Pakistani government's war against its own citizens has caused military expenses to soar, putting Pakistan's budget deep in the red. Deputy US Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin ordered the Pakistani government to raise taxes to pay for the war against its own people.

The puppet ruler, Asif Ali Zardari, complied with his American master's orders. Zardari declared a broad-based value added tax on virtually all goods and most services in Pakistan. Thus, Pakistanis are forced to finance a war against themselves.

The "cakewalk war" in Iraq has lasted 7 years instead of the promised 6 weeks, and the violence is still ongoing with Iraqis killed and maimed nearly every day. The reason Americans are still in Iraq is because the Iraqis hate each other more than they hate the American invader. The vast majority of the violence in "the Iraq war" was committed between Iraqi Sunnis and Iraqi Shi'ites as they cleansed one another from neighborhoods.

The majority Shi'ites regarded the American invasion of Iraq as an opportunity to gain power over the minority Sunnis, who ruled under Saddam Hussein. Therefore, the Shi'ites never engaged the American invading forces. The minority Sunnis (20 percent of the population) gave most of their effort to fighting the Shi'ite majority, but in their spare time a few thousand Sunnis were able to inflict serious losses on the American superpower.

Finally realizing the power of lucre in the Arab world, the Americans put 80,000 Sunnis on the U.S. military payroll and paid them to stop killing Americans.

This is how the U.S. won the war in Iraq. Iraqis sold out their independence for American dollars.

Considering that a few thousand Sunnis were able to prevent superpower America from successfully occupying Baghdad or much of Iraq, had the Shi'ites joined with the Sunnis against the invaders, the U.S. would have been defeated and driven out. This outcome was not possible, because the Shi'ites wanted to settle the score with the Sunnis, who had ruled them under Saddam Hussein.

This is the reason that Iraq today is in ruins, with one million dead, four million displaced or homeless, and the professional class having fled the country. Iraq, under the American puppet Maliki, is an American protectorate.

As long as Muslims hate and fear one another more than they hate their conquerers, they will remain a vanquished people.

Friday, March 12, 2010

When You are Invisible......


I'm Proud of you, my twin....

Those were the last words someone special told you.
And just like everyone else, they're now gone forever.

But the realization is that, it isn't they who have gone, it's us.....

Every year we make new friends and family.
And what we fear is that by the time we said we would stay with them forever, we'll eventually lie.

Because someone like me, does not live a very long time.... my time is almost up.
And I fear they might not be able to accept the fact that we are gone, that we are not there, that somehow our time will come.

It won't be like yesterday where we will meet at class and start exchanging notes, or we could tell each other that it will be ok, or maybe give a call to check upon our health.

it isn't like that, someday we'll go our separate ways, and God knows how much I fear when that happens. When we get intanggle up so much we can't let go. WE GET DISTRACTED FROM THE REALITY!!!

I'm no reality. The reality is what I'm showing here.....
And it's very unpleasant.

When the time comes and that person can already cope with the reality, then it signifies that it's almost time for us to disappear.

Because that's our job: To help people.
And so what are we? some invisible friend? some imagination? a twin that never existed but actually did?

We are not the ones whom need help, we help ourselves by helping others.
And so I would like to end these moments of writing with the simple phrase
Among all the people I've helped - My twin was the best, and I'm glad I met her.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Israel, Palestine: Talking of Failure


From the TIME magazine

They won't be talking directly to each other, but at least the leaders of Israel and Palestine have a common objective in the "proximity talks" the Obama Administration is launching this week. Unfortunately, that shared goal is not to reach a final agreement on a two-state solution to their conflict — both sides know better than to expect that U.S. special envoy Senator George Mitchell's shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah will be able to bridge the chasm between their demands. Instead, the mutual goal in the latest round of talks is to avoid being blamed for their failure.

The very fact that two decades after the start of the Oslo peace process, the two sides are no longer even negotiating directly but instead communicating via the Americans is a clear sign of just how grim the prospects have become for achieving peace through bilateral talks. Both sides, in fact, are showing up for the U.S.'s latest version of a peace process largely to prove a point. For the Palestinians and their Arab backers, who have given the latest round of talks just four months to produce results (a deadline not endorsed by the Obama Administration), their purpose is to demonstrate to the U.S. that no credible peace agreement can be achieved with the hawkish government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that creating a viable independent Palestinian state requires that the Americans press the Israelis to do things they're not going to do voluntarily. Setting conditions and deadlines is a way for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to offset the domestic political damage he suffers from participating in endless rounds of fruitless negotiations. Abbas was helped by the fact that the new talks were endorsed by the Arab League last week, but the tone of its statement is telling: "Despite the lack of conviction in the seriousness of the Israeli side," said Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa, his committee agreed to back the talks "as a last attempt and to facilitate the U.S. role." (See pictures of 60 years of Israel.)

The Israelis, for their part, need to demonstrate good faith and position themselves to blame the Palestinians, as they have done up to now, for the absence of a peace deal. And Israeli officials make no bones about the fact that they need to go through the motions in order to pursue their own priority: resuming talks, a senior Israeli official told the daily Yediot Ahronot, "would create an atmosphere in the Arab world and the international community that would allow the world to focus on the real threat — Iran."

Netanyahu, after taking office, came around to talking of a two-state solution, which he had previously rejected, but at the same time he defined Palestinian statehood in terms too limited to be acceptable to the Palestinian leadership. Netanyahu had publicly opposed the offers made to the Palestinians by previous Israeli governments, and his government made clear last week that new talks would not begin from understandings reached with any of his predecessors but would instead start from scratch — a position vehemently rejected by the Palestinians. Of course, none of those previous offers had been accepted by the Palestinian leadership; it's hard to see how offering less than the proposals previously rejected by Abbas, as Netanyahu appears set to do, is going to break the deadlock. But Netanyahu will argue that Israel is willing to talk directly and without conditions and to use the Palestinians' refusal to do so as a basis to blame them for the stalemate. (See pictures of heartbreak in the Middle East.)

While in theory a peace process might require that the protagonists make tough choices, the "proximity" process being initiated by the Obama Administration will, in fact, land the tough choices on the desk in the Oval Office. Four months or more from now, it will probably become clear that the gap between Israel and Palestine is unlikely to be bridged by simply talking. And then the question will be, Is the U.S. willing to force the issue by putting on the table its own views of an acceptable settlement and beginning to press both sides toward accepting it? (See pictures of Obama's trips overseas.)

Even as Senator Mitchell shuttles between them, both sides appear set to escalate their confrontation on the ground, in growing battles over expanded Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and elsewhere and over the status of various sites considered holy by both Jews and Muslims. Last Friday's confrontations between Israeli police and stone-throwing Palestinian youths in Jerusalem may be a portent that the latest round of peace talks could, in fact, be starting under the cloud of a looming intifadeh.


Saturday, March 6, 2010

They Just Don't Get It...Or Do They?


To follow up on my West Bank column, we have two brilliant examples today of Israeli efforts to illegally extend its control into Palestinian areas under the guise of high-mindedness. First, there's Ethan Bronner's report about the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem's plans to clear a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The intent sounds benign: the mayor wants to create a new tourist area near the Old City that will "look like Tuscany" and provide housing for Palestinians in new buildings fitted out with shops and cafes. Sounds great, except for this: The Israeli mayor of (West) Jerusalem has no standing to determine what happens in (East) Jerusalem, which--the rest of the world believes--should be the capital of Palestine. This is an act of arrogance and annexation.

And then there's the Orthodox Union, which is protesting the U.S. State Department's criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to spruce up some historic sites--revered by Jews and Muslims--on the West Bank as "provocative." Again, note the reasonable tone:

"It is not 'provocative' to invest in and rehabilitate holy/historic sites - that are open to both Jews and Muslims. Nothing PM Netanyahu has proposed precludes a peace agreement.
It is provocative for the Palestinians to assert that there is no Jewish connection to these sites and for them to use this as yet another false basis for refusal to engage in peace negotiations."

The Orthodox Union is right about one thing: The Palestinian assumption that there is no Jewish connection to historic sites that are clearly Jewish is obnoxious. (Indeed, the Palestinian paranoia about archeological efforts to investigate the Temple Mount area in recent years was also an effort to provoke anger among Palestine's infuriated young men.) But the fact remains: Netanyahu has no standing to unilaterally "improve" any historic site on Palestinian lands. It seems to me a deliberate attempt to provoke a violent reaction on the West Bank, an attempt to destroy the improvements that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is attempting there. And again, as I said yesterday: If Natanyahu is so concerned about these sites, he should appoint a tri-partite commission, including Jews, Christians and Muslims, to select the sites that need restoration and issue the necessary contracts to improve them.

Taken from http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/02/26/they-just-dont-get-it/

Hold My Hand by Maher Zain


I hear the flower’s kinda crying loud
The breeze’s sound in sad
Oh no
Tell me when did we become,
So cold and empty inside
Lost a way long time ago
Did we really turn out blind
We don’t see that we keep hurting each other no
All we do is just fight

Now we share the same bright sun,
The same round moon
Why don’t we share the same love
Tell me why not
Life is shorter than most have thought

Hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what we have left behind
Hold my hand my friend
We can save the good spirit of me and you
For another chance
And let’s pray for a beautiful world
A beautiful world I share with you

Children seem like they’ve lost their smile
On the new blooded playgrounds
Oh no
How could we ignore , heartbreaking crying sounds
And we’re still going on
Like nobody really cares
And we just stopped feeling all the pain because
Like it’s a daily basic affair

Now we share the same bright sun,
The same round moon
Why don’t we share the same love
Tell me why not
Life is shorter than most have thought

Hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what we have left behind
Hold my hand my friend
We can save the good spirit of me and you
For another chance
And let’s pray for a beautiful world
A beautiful world I share with you

No matter how far I might be
I’m always gonne be your neighbor
There’s only one small planet where to be
So I’m always gonna be your neighbor
We cannot hide, we can’t deny
That we’re always gonna be neighbors
You’re neighbor, my neighbor
We’re neighbors

So hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what have left behind

So hold my hand
There are many ways to do it right
Hold my hand
Turn around and see what have left behind
Hold my hand my friend
We can save the good spirit of me and you
For another chance
And let’s pray for a beautiful world
A beautiful world I share with you

Let's Share.............

Now we share the same bright sun,
The same bright moon,
Why don't we share the same love?

That might be the whole thing we need: to share.
To create this this islamic community we need to hide or pride and difference and share. we need to think as everyone that they are a part of us. We share a lot of things, but it's just we who never realized it, the sun, the moon, the air we breath in, even the water is recycled all over again, it has never depleted or increased.

What's so great about this world Allah created, the system it endures a cycle that makes things never gone. We just use it again, again and again. It's just a matter of distribution. It's a cycle.
The people who sell buy from other people who sell and they buy from other people who sell, so it's all a cycle, a chain-rule.

And now the hardest part, is to share our heart and our spirit. Unify them, bring it together and let us share the same pain, the same happiness and eventually............. the same victory. Ameen


MusicPlaylist
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Friday, March 5, 2010

Masjidil Aqsa Attacked!!!!

Clashes at Jerusalem's Aqsa mosque

Israeli troops entered the Aqsa mosque compound last week in a similar incident [File: AFP]

Israeli police have entered Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque compound to disperse Palestinian protesters who they said threw stones at police officers and Jewish worshipers nearby.

Security forces fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades to disperse the demonstrators following Friday prayers.

The Reuters news agency reported that 30 people were injured in the clash.

Shmulik Ben Rubi, a Jerusalem police spokesman, said officers "intervened in the compound after stones were thrown at Jewish worshippers at the Wailing Wall" below.

Najeh Btirat, an official with the Muslim clerical authority that administers the compound, said the clash followed a mosque sermon on the issue.

"The Friday sermon focused on the Islamic sites that are being targeted by Israel and the need to preserve them," he said. About 300 young men threw stones at police after prayers, he said.

'Minimum force'

Sherine Tadros, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, reported: "Medical sources are telling us that a lot of the Palestinians who were injured were fired on by rubber bullets from the Israeli police.

"But that is something the Israeli police tell us did not happen - they have not been using any ammunition live or otherwise."

Mickey Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesman, told Al Jazeera that police used only the "minimum ammount of force" against the protesters.

"Only stun grenades were used, in fact, to disperse those rioters. Nine of our officers were injured at the scene and treated in hospital," he said.

"Our main aim is to continue a calmness - a respectable calmness - on the Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, as well as in East Jerusalem."

Skirmishes

The compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has been the site of a number of such incidents.

Clashes there on Sunday have been linked in part to a decision by Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to include two sites in the occupied West Bank on a list of Israeli heritage sites.

Skirmishes also broke out after Friday prayers in the West Bank city of Hebron, but no serious injuries were reported.

A group of about 100 Palestinians protested outside the holy site known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi mosque.

Taken from Al Jazeera.com