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(h/t:Critical Dragon)

Pamela Geller Connects the NSA-Sekrit Muslim Dots: “Do They Attend the 911 Mosque?”

So insanely paranoid you might think it’s a parody

by Charles Johnson, LittleGreenFootballs

And now we have the definitive jump-the-shark moment for CNET’s absurdly misleading NSA story, as raving demagogue Pamela Geller puts on her hate goggles and makes the connections between NSA spying and the SEKRIT MOSLEM CONSPIRACY: OBAMA ADMIN IS LISTENING IN ON YOUR PHONECALLS “SIMPLY BASED ON AN ANALYST DECIDING THAT” – Atlas Shrugs

The silence of the despicable left is the final nail in their coffin if America is paying attention. The enemedia is covering up and ignoring the two biggest stories of the decade – Benghazi and spying.

There are serious “constitutional problems” with this approach, said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who has litigated warrantless wiretapping cases. “It epitomizes the problem of secret laws.” Serious constitutional problems? That’s the understatement of the century.

A phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.” Who are the agents? Who is vetting them? Are they tied to Hamas-CAIR? ISNA? ICNA? Do they attend the 911 mosque?

Obama has scrubbed all counter terror materials of jihad Obama has said the al qaeda is defeated. Obama called Fort Hood Jihad “workplace violence”. Whose calls are they listening to?

Everyday another bombshell. And the philo-jihadist in the White House still enjoys a 50% aprroval rating. America is in crisis.

Last week I heard the news that a 14-year-old boy with severe autism, Alex Spourdalakis, had been murdered by his mother and another female carer in a suburban area near Chicago after they had made appeals to get what they considered suitable care for him. Alex himself was first given an overdose of painkillers and when that failed to kill him, they stabbed him in his chest. They then attempted to take their own lives by an overdose, but were found alive and are now in custody, charged with first-degree murder. The American media (the story was not broadcast in the UK, although the Daily Mail reported it on their website) branded it a “tragedy”, quickly attributed the murder to the difficulty of caring for a boy with a learning disability, and implied that it had been waiting to happen. This is the stock response to the murder of a disabled child, and it’s wrong. (More: Ariana Zurchner, David Gorski @ Science-based Medicine, Wendy Baskin, Michael Scott Monae jr, Jo Ashline, Kassiane @ Time to Listen, Same Difference.)

A few months ago, the same two women put out an appeal on the Internet for some “appropriate” care to be found for Alex, and he was shown lying on a hospital bed, restrained by his wrists and ankles to the bed (very unusual, especially for minors), naked except for a sheet which covered his genitals and part of his chest, putting some object on a stick into his mouth or playing with a tablet computer. In March, he was discharged from the hospital when a benefactor put up the money for him to be transferred to an unnamed facility and on 8th May, it was reported on the “Help Support Alex Spourdalakis” Facebook page that he was “doing very well and [was] receiving the medical treatment that he needs”. On the 27th, however, the same page reported that he was back in hospital, back in bed in restraints, and showed Andrew Wakefield claiming that he was going to be sent to a long-term pyschiatric facility in the next 72 hours unless “the autism community” found a better place for him where he could “complete the treatment” and “be on the necessary diet”. When people asked why he was back in the hospital when he had been doing well, they received no satisfactory explanation. Equally without explanation, he was discharged back to his mother’s care and the next that was heard was that he had been found dead on 10th June.

There have been a number of blogs reporting that his mother was heavily invested in the “autism biomed” industry represented by Wakefield and by the Age of Autism website. They promote expensive and elaborate methods to “cure” autism which include chelation and bleach enemas, although it is not clear if either of these methods had been used on Alex (the theory behind the former is that autism is caused by heavy metal poisoning from vaccines, and chelation is indeed indicated for heavy metal poisoning, but the quantities involved are much higher and taken in more recently than in treating autism which is supposedly caused by vaccines). The so-called support group must answer as to why Alex had to be returned to hospital in May and why he was discharged. There is much that they are not telling us, particularly as they solicited money to pay for Alex’s care and treatment. I expect that Loyola hospital and the Illinois social services will have much to answer for, as to why the former allowed his discharge (twice) and why the latter did not intervene when he was being abused so obviously and publicly. The excuse that he was big and strong and needed restraint does not stand up to the most superficial scrutiny either — he was quite large, but you can tell with one look that he was flabby.

There have been a number of incidents in many countries where parents have killed disabled children and presented various excuses such as that they were in pain and that killing them put them out of their misery. In this case, there are a lot of people saying that Alex is now in heaven and his suffering (i.e. his autism) is over. A similar case happened in Illinois in 2006 in which a 3-year-old girl with autism, Katie McCarron, was murdered by her mother Karen, and there was the usual outpouring of excuses that it was “understandable” or was the result of a “lack of services”: in fact, as her grandfather said, she enjoyed life, was surrounded by love (she lived with her grandparents and not her mother) and enjoyed things that other children, and particularly other little girls, enjoyed. There have been other cases where this was touted as an excuse both by the murderer and by ill-informed people in the media and blogosphere defending them, when their doctors believed otherwise: Tracy Latimer in Canada and Tom Inglis in the UK are well-known examples. Various explanations are suggested: that someone is ashamed of being the parent of a disabled child, is weary of looking after them, or cannot comprehend that a life affected by severe disability or pain is worth living, perhaps because they do not know anybody who lives with these things.

I do not doubt that some parents are under pressure and snap, but this family had access to an awful lot of help, and chose murder instead, and planned it over a week or more. A lot of people are only too ready to identify with the feelings of parents, when there is more obvious suffering on display here — a confused boy, in pain, strapped to a hospital bed, moved from pillar to post, and finally murdered by the two women who were supposed to be caring for him. It may be that they were let down by the health, education and social service systems, but it seems the biggest failure of these services was to leave Alex with those two women. They had access to so much help, but chose murder instead.

Religious websites and instructors enjoy mini-boom reading Qu'ran online as British Muslims tap into distance teaching

With his track record as a member of the political arm of a banned terrorist organisation, Mian Shahzib is unlikely to ever be given a visa to enter Britain.

But that does not stop the jovial 33-year-old from giving British children religious instruction every day from the comfort of his home in Pakistan.

He spends hours each night sitting under a fluorescent light in the courtyard of a small mosque in Lahore, peering into a laptop as children first from the Middle East, then Europe and North America spend half an hour after school talking to him over a faltering Skype line. "Put on your cap and wash your hands," he told a 12-year-old boy sitting in a large office chair in his parents' home in Edinburgh.

After checking the boy had memorised various prayers to get him through the day, including a special blessing for exiting and entering the toilet, he got down to business, helping the boy read aloud the classical Arabic of a few verses of the Qur'an.

The fact that a hardcore Islamist and long-term follower of the UN-proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has daily access to children in the west is likely to fuel concerns about religious radicals spreading their message.

Shahzib's website, Easy Qur'an Memorising, makes no mention of his history and is one of hundreds of such online companies, some of which advertise on satellite channels broadcasting to the Pakistani diaspora. They are part of a little-known outsourcing boom fuelled by parents of Pakistani origin turning to Qur'an teachers in Pakistan. "It's just like a call centre where you are saving a lot of money by getting someone overseas to do it much more cheaply," said Fawad Rana, a property developer in Solihull who has used Qur'an teachers for his two sons for the past three years.

Rana makes an online payment of £30 a month to Faiz-e-Quran, one of the larger online religious education companies, which gets his children three half-hour sessions a week.

"And there's the convenience factor – the last thing kids want to do is spend half an hour travelling to the nearest mosque and then not even getting 10 minutes of one-on-one tuition," he said.

Although Faiz-e-Quran say it takes care to scrutinise and monitor all the teachers it employs, the industry is increasingly dominated by one-man operations. After several years working on his business, Shahzib now has about a dozen students aged 12 to 18 scattered all over the world. It's a long way from his past role as an activist with JuD, a Pakistani Islamist organisation known for its holy war against Indian rule in the contested region of Kashmir.

The organisation is on the UN's list of sanctioned organisations because of its alleged association with al-Qaida and is considered a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group behind the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

As a young man, Shahzib helped prepare young JuD militants before they crossed the line of control that marks the unrecognised border between Pakistani and Indian-held Kashmir. His job was to motivate them with religious teachings and to fill their heads with tales of Indian soldiers raping Muslim women. He was briefly arrested after falling out with his old mentor, Hafiz Saeed, the JuD leader, who lives openly in Lahore but who is subject to a US reward of $10m (£6.36m) for information leading to his arrest. Shahzib believes Saeed has bent to demands from Pakistan's security establishment to rein in militancy in Kashmir.

"I told him to his face that he had betrayed the jihad," he said. These days he still follows the "philosophy" of JuD, even if he is not an active member.

He supports the fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan. But he does not think the struggle should be taken to the streets of Britain. "It is completely wrong to attack soldiers in Britain," he said. "If a young man in the UK wants to support jihad I support that, but come to Afghanistan to fight, not the UK."

The Guardian was told of other online tutors with radical backgrounds or who are members of extreme or sectarian organisations, but it is impossible to know how widespread the phenomenon is in a completely unregulated industry.

Sultan Chaudri, the owner of Faiz-e-Quran, said his company is at pains to scrutinise all 13 teachers who work for him to ensure radicals are not employed. "All the problems we are seeing in Pakistan and Afghanistan is because these young children get sent to madrasas where no one knows what sort of education they are getting or what kind of indoctrination is taking place."

When Chaudri, a retired colonel, started his business four years ago his marketing team had to assure parents that there would be no such risk with online teaching.

"They used to say we are not going to get education from a maulvi [Islamic scholar] in Pakistan because he is going to teach bad things to my child," he said. "Parents realise now that there is no risk because they can see the lessons right in front of their own eyes."

Inspired by a call-centre model of global outsourcing, Chaudri's staff work in shifts from an office in Lahore.

In a country plagued by power shortages his office uses three generators and subscribes to four different internet providers managed by a duty IT supervisor. Five clocks show the time in all the areas where his 200 students live.

Outsourced Qur'an teaching started about six years ago and there are now a handful of big players. Although there are no reliable figures on how many children around the world are being taught by Pakistan-based teachers everyone seems to think it is growing fast.

"We were recommended it by a cousin in America, and we've passed it on to lots of our friends," said Rana. "When we first found out we just thought, wow, what a wonderful service they are providing."

According to Chaudri, the business is fragmenting, with teachers striking off on their own to establish "one computer academies", often poaching customers from companies such as Faiz-e-Quran.

"They are so dishonest," he said. "In the last four years I have seen so many teachers that have run away with so many students."

For young men who have only had a religious training and often struggle to find regular employment, the prospect of earning decent wages teaching Qur'an reading online is extremely attractive.

Chaudri does not allow his staff to use a webcam when teaching. Instead, the teachers in Lahore simply share a page of text from the Qur'an which the student, who will rarely be able to understand the Arabic words, then attempts to read.

"It is not good to let them see into the houses," he said. "I have seen that after 10 days the teachers will fall in love with the lady of the house, or the daughter of the house; they will send letters saying 'I love you very much.'"

Also, he wants to spare his clients from having to look at the unkempt religious young men who work for him. "They don't take care of their beard. They are not very pleasant to look at."

• Pakistan
• Islam
• Kashmir
• Religion
• Internet

Jon Boone
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Jihawg Ammo – Classic Islamophobic Fail

by Sheila Musaji

Recently, American Muslims were asked to accept “How to wink at a Muslim” as a joke.

Now we are asked to believe that Jihawg Ammo is only meant as a deterrent to “radical Muslims”, or as Sheik Yer’Mami called it, a culturally-sensitive solution to dealing with sudden jihad syndrome…”.

Tom Tillison BizPac Review reports that Pork-painted bullets sure to offend Muslims in which he says: “an Idaho company has begun producing bullets coated with “pork-infused paint.  Jihawg Ammunition’s company slogan is “Peace through Pork,” as stated on its web site, which says it “is the only ammunition in the world that provides a peaceful and natural deterrent to radical Islam.”  Tillison then goes on to make stupid and incorrect statements about the meaning of halal and haram and Sharia.

The AmmoLand site announcing this product says “Now Americans can defend themselves, their families, their communities, and their country from Muslim terrorists. Jihawg Ammo is the first product that provides a natural deterrent, promotes peace and yet provides maximum protection when used in a defensive posture. So, it is clear that they are marketing the product to ordinary American civilians.

Jeff Knox of WND posted New ammo cancels free ticket to paradise in which he says Jihawg Ammo’s full line of terrorist-deterrent ammunition, and their accompanying line of apparel and accessories, featuring slogans like “Pigs Do Fly” and “Do 72 Virgins a Favor,” are available at http://www.jihawg.com/ and should soon be available at select retailers around the country. [Note:  Media Matters for America reports on Jeff Knox that he heads a fringe gun group called the Firearms Coalition which recently proposed a successful resolution at the annual National Rifle Association conference urging the NRA to oppose any future restrictions on guns.]

Guns.com promotes this product in an article titled “Jihawg Ammo” Pork-Painted Bullets to Shoot Muslims.

Note, they don’t even bother with limiting their description of the intended target of these bullets to “radical” Muslims – JUST MUSLIMS.

I had hoped that this was all just the Islamophobia echo chamber posting nonsense that allowed them to get in some anti-Muslim propaganda.  However, it seems that this product actually exists – The Jihawg Ammo site that they promote has an order form.

This joins the Bible verses on rifle scopes which were used by American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Silver Bullet gun oil in the ideas for bigoted idiots category.

As Engy Abdelkader has previously pointed out:

While the Quran renders pork impure for consumption, some Islamic scholars have opined that if changed into another form, then it can be allowed. For example, a replacement heart valve or medication derived from swine would be permitted even if other non-porcine options were available.

Claims made that any hint of swine will prohibit you from entering heaven must seem ironic to a Muslim living with a porcine heart valve.

These idiots understanding of Sharia and Fiqh is so limited and wrong that they just don’t get the fact that there are no Islamic teachings that say what they claim.  The General Pershing myth that they mention as an example of the usefulness of this “tactic” is a myth.  As Jason D. Schwartzman reported in an article debunking this particular myth:

…  The myth of Pershing’s “pork blood burial” for Muslim terrorists has never yet inspired real-world imitation, but it seems to have come close on several occasions. The e-mails circulating the fabricated story and urging that the same be done today are certainly an example, though they were no more than bombast rather than action. Police Minister Gideon Esra of Israel appeared to have heard of the myth and accepted it at face value. In 2001, he called for suicide bombers to be buried wrapped in pigskin in order to discourage future attacks. This is probably the closest that defiling dead Muslim terrorists with pig remains has come to actually being a reality.

The myth of General Pershing suppressing Muslim fanatics by defiling their bodies with pig’s blood is a complete falsehood. The legend was born out of confusion, probably accidental, between a completely fictional depiction of the Moro Rebellion in a 1939 movie and the real deeds of Pershing in 1913. Pershing actually stopped the rebellion by using a minimum of violence, deescalating situations whenever possible, and disarming the Moros entirely. The myth is no more than a bloodthirsty urban legend, and furthermore, the method described would not work, since being killed by a bullet soaked in pig’s blood has no more or less deterrence value to a devout Muslim combatant than being killed with a plain bullet has.

Read the rest…

Monies raised via crowdfunding will pay for storage of 16th-century documents nearly destroyed by jihadist militants

A public appeal has been launched to save the hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts smuggled out of Timbuktu during the crisis in Mali, which are now facing a more insidious threat: moisture damage.

Dating back over 700 years, the fragile manuscripts range from poetry to commerce records, and are from Andalusia and Southern Europe, Arabia, Egypt, Morocco,and Arab trading ports on the Indian Ocean as well as the region of Timbuktu itself. Initially reported to have been destroyed by Islamist rebels in a fire, the 300,000 manuscripts were evacuated from Timbuktu by librarians and archivists.

Stored in the metal boxes used for their evacuation, the texts are already showing signs of damage and exposure to moisture, and experts have launched an appeal to raise $100,000 to help preserve them. The IndieGoGo campaign from Libraries in Exile is asking the public to donate money to save the manuscripts: $30 would preserve a single manuscript, while $9,000 would protect an entire footlocker. The funds will be used to buy moisture traps, archival boxes and additional storage, as well as to cover the labour required for the project. Over $40,000 has already been raised.

The Libraries in Exile campaign page states that: "The purpose of this campaign is to fund the preservation effort required to store the manuscripts in an archival, moisture-resistant manner during their exile from Timbuktu.  If physical harm from the current packing situation continues and if mould and mildew spread in the corpus due to increased humidity, the damage will be devastating.".

The statement goes on to say that the librarians have turned to crowdfunding because "the need to preserve the manuscripts is urgent" and "we can't wait for governments and organizations with deep pockets to respond to this need.

"It is through the efforts of ordinary people that the manuscripts have been preserved this long, and that they have survived the violence affecting Mali today. Crowdfunding is enabling of participation and we believe this is a key to the sustainable safeguarding of the manuscripts."

It continues: "A cultural heritage of this magnitude has incredible power to bring people together. We saw this power when people from all walks of life, whole villages, and speakers of every language in the region gave their time and effort, even under considerable risk, to help us evacuate them to the south. We believe that securing these manuscripts is a positive step towards a process of enduring peace and a reduced toll of human misery for this entire region."

• Libraries
• Islam
• Religion
• Middle East and North Africa

Alison Flood
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Biography highlights how prolific 37-year-old artist has been.

“Backwards” is the word often associated with pre-modern ages, and “oppression” is the word that comes to our minds first when we describe the state of women during those ages. Thank God we live in the modern age where human rights activism has brought women rights that they’ve never had before. Right? Sorry to shake [...]

To all those who were sympathetic to the protests in Turkey, it can sometimes feel like you're living in a different world from your opponents. After all, the media portrays you as artistic freedom loving environmentalist freedom fighters. They tell you time and time again that this is the Turkish spring and that you are the voice of the new young and free Turks leading your country back from the abyss of an autocratic and out of touch dictator. So why don't the others see this? How could they possibly support Erdogan? Well, here are a few reasons (in no particular order) that I hope might help you understand why the majority of the Muslim world support Erdogan and not your protests.

1. Because the support of Islamophobes troubles us

To even the most jaded Muslim, it is disconcerting to see the whole-hearted support that the protesters have received from the who's who of the neo-conservative and Islamophobic worlds. Most of these people have never once expressed an interest in Turkey except to decry any attempts for the nation to get more in touch with Islam. The fact that Robert Spencer (compared Muslims to Nazis), Pamella Geller (says Mecca and Madīnah can be bombed), the Greek government (won't allow the building of mosques) and Israel (no introduction needed) think that the protests are a good idea should make you reflect on exactly what they hope the protests will achieve.

2. Because the bias shown by the Western media is suspicious

The protesters were understandably upset when their actions didn't make it on to all the Turkish TV stations. In fact, one of the abiding themes of the protest has been centered around the farce of one station showing a documentary on penguins instead of the protests. However, exactly the opposite situation took hold outside of Turkey with most Western media outlets giving non-stop rolling coverage of the protests and hastily dubbing it the “Turkish spring.” The bias was so stark that there was hardly any attempt at finding the opinion of the pro-Erdogan public. Add to this the complete lack of coverage of similar protests in Bangladesh (this time the protesters were Islamic orientated and thousands were actually killed during a media blackout) and you get more than a whiff of hypocrisy at play.

3. Because of the breath-taking hypocrisy of others

The European Union and others have quickly stood up to berate Turkey and Erdogan for the way they have handled the protests. It is true that the death of protesters (and a policeman) is unjustifiable and tragic. But Europe and America have had their fair share of protests in the past few years and they have dealt with them in a remarkably similar manner. Whether it is the anti-austerity riots in Athens, the Occupy protest on Wall Street or the student riots in London, the playbook has been exactly the same. So why have Turkey and Erdogan being singled out for criticism? Can it be that there is another agenda at play here? Many of us fear this is the case.

4. Because Erdogan made Turkey a force once more

For those with short memories, it was not long ago that Turkey was a backwater of Europe. It was the country of doner kebabs, belly dancers, military coups and spiralling inflation. It was a nation that was rejected by the West despite desperately trying to be part of it and rejecting the East because of its reminder of an Empire long gone. But in the last ten years, Erdogan has managed to pull off a remarkable transformation of the reputation of Turkey and the Turks both in the East and the West. It is now well respected as much for its economic development as the moral leadership it provides in the Islamic world. Today, Turkey sits near the top of the world stage as a voice to be reckoned with, a force in the world rather than a page in the history books. Trying to turn back the clock seems, at best, myopic.

5. Because some things can't be measured

Even his most ardent critics have to admit that Erdogan and his colleagues have transformed Turkey from an economic laughing stock to one of the most powerful economies in the world. The stats are impressive: Reducing inflation from 65% to 6%, increasing the education budget 5 fold, repaying the IMF debt and making Turkey into one of the worlds leading tourist destinations are just some of the many achievements that would have been a dream a little more than 10 years ago. This is not just idle boasting. These results are concrete proof of a lack of corruption, enviable business acumen and true loyalty to the nation. The financial success is hard to overstate with many Turks (especially the rural majority) having adequate education, healthcare and social mobility within reach for the first time in generations. The only people who can so easily discount and trivialise this achievement are the upper classes who are comically displaying how out of touch they are with the previous suffering of the masses.

6. Because Hundreds of Millions across the world admire him

For more than 400 years, Turkey was the leader of the Muslim world. For reasons that are beyond the scope of this article, that relationship broke down spectacularly. In the last ten years, this has changed. When Muslims feel themselves abandoned in a tough situation, one of the few Muslim leaders who can be relied on to give moral support is Erdogan. Ask the Bangladeshi scholars who are on death row on politically motivated charges. Ask the Rohingya refugees who were visited by the Turkish Foreign Minister and Erdogan's wife. Ask the Palestinians who he has pledged to support when others shun them. Ask the Egyptians, Tunisians and Libyans who Erdogan was one of the first Muslim leaders to speak up for. Ask the Syrian refugees who find safe haven in Turkey thanks to Erdogan taking a brave and quick stand against his former strategic ally. Erdogan has won the admiration and the love of Muslims across the world. When we see the protesters saying that this man is a fascist, it is a description that we not only do not recognise, but find deeply offensive.

7. Because the pious majority will not be oppressed any more

The Turkish protesters may feel themselves to be the underdogs at the present time, but they should not forget that for more than 80 years it was they that held power in Turkey. During these 80 years, the treatment that the pious majority of Turks received can only be described as oppression. Turning mosques into museums, banning adhaans, banning the Fez, closing medressas – the scope of the oppression was wide ranging and all pervasive. To give you just one example – Erdogan's wife herself could not attend many functions in the early years of his rule simply because she wore a hijab. To give you another, the popular mayor of Istanbul (Erdogan) was jailed for simply reciting an Islamic poem. Where were the howls of protest then? Where was the indignation? In fact, we see the protesters engaged in glimpses of the same behaviour by the way they have vandalised and desecrated Mosques during their protests. The truth is that the majority of Turks are slowly turning back to a more natural and comfortable relationship with their faith and their fellow believers. They will not accept living in a state of fear and intimidation by the kemalists, communists or '-ists' of any kind.

Not everything Erdogan does is good or right. He is a politician and like other politicians, his calculations are not above criticism or censure. If those protesting in Turkey today want to save a few trees in Istanbul, then they will find that many will support them and be sympathetic towards their cause. They may even succeed. If, however, they want to bring down the most successful (by almost any measure) and popular democratically elected government that the Turkish people have had in more than a century, then they will fail. The message from the pious majority of Turks is clear. Your time is over. We are all Erdogan now.

The post 7 Reasons Why You Should Support Erdogan and Not the Protesters appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Woolwich outrage: we are too weak to face up to the extremism in our midst - Telegraph

The above bit of EDL apologism by Charles Moore appeared in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, and it also contains a dig at Tell MAMA, the formerly state-funded body that monitored anti-Muslim attacks (hence the acronym) and an attempt to stir up fresh outrage over the murder of Lee Rigby four weeks or so ago, claiming it has died down and people are focussing on a backlash against Muslims which he claims is exaggerated. The fact that it has prompted a resurgence of a formerly moribund violent street gang as well as at least three arson attacks on Muslim properties, one of them burned to the ground, is no exaggeration.

Moore claims he is not defending the EDL, but then goes on to do just that:

A trap is set here, inviting those of us who reject such statements, to defend the EDL. I do not. While not, in its stated ideology, a racist organisation like the BNP, the EDL has an air of menace. It must feel particularly unpleasant for Muslims when its supporters hit the streets. But the EDL is merely reactive. It does not – officially at least – support violence. It is the instinctive reaction of elements of an indigenous working class which rightly perceives itself marginalised by authority, whereas Muslim groups are subsidised and excused by it.

Anyone who was following the blog scene after the 2005 London bombings will remember many people saying that the “root cause” of Muslim terrorism was western foreign policy, in particular British participation in the Afghan and Iraq wars in the case of that particular incident, and the right and the so-called “decent Left” (the pro-western and, in particular, pro-Israel left, which overlooked the faults of their allies on the Right) reacting with disgust, in one case comparing it to blaming rape victims for wearing short skirts. This is exactly the logic Moore is deploying here with the EDL: effectively reducing their level of blame because they are merely “reacting” to what others do. He ignores the fact that it contains a large number of people with violent criminal records, the fact that it grew out of groups of football hooligans, and the fact that violence frequently features in EDL demonstrations; he absolves them because they are from the “indigenous working class”, a common excuse made by the Right for working-class and ex-working-class racism. The thinking is always that we must give into the demands of this sector (or rather, of the newspapers they read) or else the BNP will benefit at the polls or the EDL will cause more mayhem. The same thinking never factors into responses to extremism from Muslims.

In fact, just because they do not have degrees and may work in manual jobs (though not all), they are no less responsible for their actions than Muslim terrorists who may have reacted to western armed forces invading and bombing a Muslim country and firing radioactive munitions around by letting off four bombs in London in 2005. The only people cleared of moral or legal responsibility for their choices are those with cognitive disabilities, which if they lead to them running around in gangs and terrorising football supporters or members of a religious minority, should lead to them being institutionalised. As I have said here before, they were founded in response to a tiny demonstration that was reported out of proportion by the press, continued to hold their menacing demonstrations in response to nothing, and have progressed to more violence as a result of a murder by two misguided individuals last month in Woolwich. They feed off the press: a steady diet of propaganda about “now Muslims are demanding this …”, of Muslims getting special treatment, of polls revealing pro-terrorist or pro-Shari’ah sentiment, and of the ravings of Omar Bakri and Anjum Choudary who represent only a tiny and dwindling group, but somehow always make front-page news. And despite the First Amendment not being part of British law, the idea of draining this particular swamp never occurs to anyone.

The “backlash” following Woolwich may not have been an orgy of violence, but there has certainly been more violence than had been seen at any time before, and the existence of the EDL (which was not around in 2005, let alone 2001) surely has much to do with it. Sure, Tommy Robinson or one of his associates may (and I stress may) not have ordered the burnings of the Grimsby and Muswell Hill mosques and the Chislehurst Islamic school, but the EDL’s presence and behaviour makes violence more acceptable whenever there is provocation. I have also heard reports from personal friends that harassment has got worse, even in places with no significant EDL presence, and the usual victims are lone Muslim women in hijab, even if they are with children. The usual culprits, my friend told me, are groups of young men but sometimes women. As with an earlier comment I heard about Islamophobia being “minor”, this is something only a man could say (street harassment is something a lot of women deal with regularly; some men regard women’s bodies as public property, however modestly, or otherwise, they are dressed).

Moore complains that the outrage over the stabbing seems to be dying away in less than a month since the stabbing. Perhaps the reason is that one person died in a targeted stabbing, which has been the fate of quite a few young men in south London (and elsewhere) over the past few years. The outrage for them isn’t permanent, either, although it did lead to stiffer sentences for street stabbings and shootings. Nobody else was killed, as they were in previous terrorist attacks; it was not an attack aimed at the general public. He also attacks Baroness Warsi for speaking at a conference for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), because of its Islamist links, and ridicules Malcolm Grant, president of University College London (and chairman of NHS England) for supposedly “resist[ing] the suggestion that he should prevent such extremism on his premises” when someone who used to run the Islamic society at his college several years ago went on to try and bomb a plane — as if anyone knew he would do that at the time. It is, of course, his job if he knows it is going on, but crystal balls are not known for their utility in the fight against terrorism and gazing into the future is not part of his job description.

That the media were mindful of avoiding a backlash against the Muslim community shows some commitment to responsible journalism. That the three buildings attacked had nothing to do with the group that was most closely linked to the two men who stabbed Lee Rigby demonstrated that they were motivated by hatred for Muslims, not extremists or that group. For the media not to talk about the threat of violence to Muslims from a known violent gang would have been seen by some as a green light and by others as complicity. The murder was horrific, but that it is the only successful operation by Muslim extremists in the UK in nearly eight years, and caused less than a fiftieth of the loss of life the last one did, show that “the extremism in our midst”, as Moore calls it, is a small and dwindling tendency and that its dangers are largely contained. They have not yet reached the stage, as the IRA did in 1997, of having to resort to hoaxes rather than actual bombings or killings, but they are getting there. There is no use in crying “remember Lee Rigby!” regularly for months or years after the killing: the cause that inspired his murder is dying. Right now, the easiest way to make sure it goes on dying is to make sure there are no senseless reprisals for his murder.

Summer vacation is here for many of you around the world.  I hope you're enjoying these long, summer days!  With the tension of final exams and the excitement of the school year's end, you may have forgotten about the quickly approaching, wonderful month of Ramadan.  Guess what.  Ramadan is less than a month away!  Have you begun to prepare for it?  Have you created Ramadan goals and mentally prepared yourself for the blessed month?  Ramadan is the best month of the year and deserves to be prepared for!

And now, here is an exciting announcement that will take away the boredom of your carefree, lazy days.  MKM is having a Ramadan competition for YOU!  You'll have the opportunity to get creative, have fun, and even earn prizes.  Continue reading to find out more information about the contest.

What is the Competition All About? 

MKM's Ramadan 1434 competition is about following the example of our Prophet Muḥammad (S).  By participating in the contest, you will get to learn more about our prophet and find out how to relate sunnah in your own lives.  Depending on your age division and category, you will complete a project that shows how you can follow a certain hadith in your own life.

What Do I Have to Do?

There is one category to enter from each of three age groups.

Ages 4-7

Make a Poster: Create a poster that shows how you follow your favorite hadith in your daily life.  The picture should be on an 8 ½ “ by 11” paper using any drawing/coloring materials of your choice (coloring pencils, markers, crayons, watercolors, paints, pastels, etc.)  You must scan your picture and send it to muslimkidsmatter@muslimmatters.org.  In the body of your email, write the title of your poster, a one-sentence caption for your poster, your full name, your age, your date of birth, your complete mailing address, and your parents' names.  Also write the English translation of the hadith you are drawing about, taking care to include the source of the hadith.  The subject of the email must say “Ramadan 1434 Competition Category 1 Submission.”

Ages 8-11

Write an Essay or Short Story: Write an essay or short story following the theme “How I Use Prophet's Sunnah in My Daily Life.”  Your writing should be related to a specific hadith in the Qur'an.   The format of your essay or short story is your choice, but you can use the following ideas to help you get started:

• Write an essay about specific ways you use your favorite hadith in your life, mentioning how it has helped you.
• Write a short story about a character who comes to learn how to use a specific hadith in his/her life.
• Take the role of a fictional character and write a series of journal entries about your experiences with following a hadith in your life.
• Pretend you are a journalist, reporting news about a community of Muslims who find peace and harmony by following a specific hadith in their daily lives.

Your writing should be in a Microsoft Word document in 12-point Times New Roman font and double-spaced.  Your title should be bolded at the top center of the first page.  Do not include your name or other personal information in the document.  The length of your writing should be above 200 words and should not be more than 600 words.

To submit your entry, attach your document in an email to muslimkidsmatter@muslimmatters.org.  In the body of your email, write the title of your essay, your full name, your age, your date of birth, your complete mailing address, and your parents' names.  Also write the English translation of the hadith you are writing about, taking care to include the source of the hadith.  The subject of the email must say “Ramadan 1434 Competition Category 2 Submission.”

Ages 12-15

Write an Essay or Short Story: Write an essay or short story following the theme “How I Use Prophet's Sunnah in My Daily Life.”  Your writing should be related to a specific hadith in the Qur'an.   The format of your essay or short story is your choice, but you can use the following ideas to help you get started:

• Write an essay about specific ways you use your favorite hadith in your life, mentioning how it has helped you.
• Write a short story about a character who comes to learn how to use a specific hadith in his/her life.
• Take the role of a fictional character and write a series of journal entries about your experiences with following a hadith in your life.
• Pretend you are a journalist, reporting news about a community of Muslims who find peace and harmony by following a specific hadith in their daily lives.

Your writing should be in a Microsoft Word document in 12-point Times New Roman font and double-spaced.  Your title should be bolded at the top center of the first page.  Do not include your name or other personal information in the document.  The length of your writing should be above 300 words and should not be more than 750 words.

To submit your entry, attach your document in an email to muslimkidsmatter@muslimmatters.org.  In the body of your email, write the title of your essay, your full name, your age, your date of birth, your complete mailing address, and your parents' names.  Also write the English translation of the hadith you are writing about, taking care to include the source of the hadith.   The subject of the email must say “Ramadan 1434 Competition Category 3 Submission.”

What are the Prizes?

Here is the part you've been waiting for!  Find out what you can win below:

Ages 4-7

1st Place: You will earn recognition on MuslimKidsMatter, with your name and poster displayed in an MKM post.  You will also get the awesome Islamic Match Game by Share the Deen (See below for a description of this game) and a set of delightful character stickers by Flowers of Islam.

2nd Place: You will earn recognition on MuslimKidsMatter, with your name and poster displayed in an MKM post.  You will also get a set of delightful character stickers by Flowers of Islam.

Ages 8-11

1st Place: You will earn recognition on MuslimKidsMatter, with your name and poster displayed in an MKM post.  You will also get the awesome Islamic Match Game by Share the Deen (See below for a description of this game) and a set of delightful character stickers by Flowers of Islam.

2nd Place: You will earn recognition on MuslimKidsMatter, with your name and poster displayed in an MKM post.  You will also get the awesome Islamic Match Game by Share the Deen (See below for a description of this game).

Ages 12-15

1st Place: You will earn recognition on MuslimKidsMatter, with your name and poster displayed in an MKM post.  You will also get the awesome Islamic Match Game by Share the Deen (See below for a description of this game) and a set of delightful character stickers by Flowers of Islam.

2nd Place: You will earn recognition on MuslimKidsMatter, with your name and poster displayed in an MKM post.  You will also get the awesome Islamic Match Game by Share the Deen (See below for a description of this game).

What Else is Important to Know?

How will entries be judged?

Entries will be judged based on creativity and individuality.  Grammar, punctuation, and spelling will also be important factors in judging your essays.  Posters should be neat.

How many entries can a participant submit?

Each participant in the competition may submit only one entry.  Additional entries by a participant will be disqualified.

When can I submit my entry?

You can begin submitting entries on July 1st.  The deadline to submit entries is August 1, 2013.  Entries must be emailed by 11:59pm USA Eastern time on August 1st.

When will I find out if I won?

The winners will be announced on MKM on August 11th.

What are the prizes like?

Islamic Match Game

The game is played like a traditional memory game, but instead of matching pictures, players match questions and answers related to Islam. This edition has Q&A about Allāh's Prophets. It is designed for ages 8 and over. It has the added advantage of a 'cheat sheet' so that those who don't know the answers can take a peek. Then they only have to remember where they saw the answer that matches the upturned question card. So it's good for your Deen and sharpens your memory too!

The game artwork was done by Make Me Believe, a really creative group of designers based in London. The quality of the game itself is also excellent. People who have played the game enjoy the fact that it is easy to play, doesn't take long and that players learn about the Deen while having lots of fun.

Character Stickers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPECIAL: The first two kids who submit their entries in the competition will get a free copy of a book from the STAIRS series, signed by the author.

I hope this has gotten you all excited to enter MKM's Ramadan competition.  If you have any questions, please comment below or email muslimkidsmatter@muslimmatters.org.  Have fun!

 (Attention, writers!  Muslim Kids Matter is a regular feature at Muslim Matters.  New articles for kids are posted every other Sunday.  You're welcome to send in your entries to muslimkidsmatter@muslimmatters.org.)

The post MuslimKidsMatter | Exciting Announcement – Ramadan Competition appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

Four people, including one police officer, hurt in attack reportedly carried out by worshipper attending mosque for first time

A police officer has been praised for his courage after he was stabbed while tackling a man who had injured three other people in a knife attack at a mosque.

Chief Superintendent Alex Murray said the actions of the 31-year-old officer, his colleagues and worshippers who intervened during the incident at the Madrassa Qasim ul Uloom mosque, in the Washwood Heath area of Birmingham, on Saturday had been heroic.

There has been an increase in police patrols around mosques after several attacks in the aftermath of the killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London.

Murray said the motivation for Saturday's attack was unclear but there was no evidence it was a hate crime or linked to any other incidents.

A 32-year-old man who had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder was transferred to a secure mental health facility on Sunday after he was deemed unfit to be interviewed by police.

Police were called to the mosque by a worshipper just after 11pm and arrived within four minutes to find three people injured. They were directed to a side room where they found the suspect armed with a combat knife.

"They challenged the individual and the individual ran at one of the officers with the knife," said Murray. "The officer deployed a Taser, the Taser had no effect on the individual and the individual stabbed the officer in the chest and in the stomach around the stab-proof vest that he was wearing."

Despite being seriously injured, the 31-year-old officer detained the attacker with the help of a female colleague.

The wounded officer, from the Yardley Wood area of Birmingham, who has served with West Midlands police since 2007, was undergoing surgery in hospital on Sunday. "The work of those officers was heroic and the work of the some of the people in the mosque assisting those officers was also heroic," said Murray.

Two worshippers, a 28-year-old man who suffered multiple stab wounds and a 36-year-old man who suffered a single stab wound to the thigh, were also being treated in hospital.

Another worshipper suffered a hand injury but did not need hospital treatment. All were given first aid at the scene by police officers and worshippers, who included an off-duty surgeon.

Police said the arrested man was local, believed to be of Somali origin. He was attending the mosque for the first time.

Dr Arshad Mahmood, who was at the mosque, told the BBC: "A man started stabbing one of the guys who was just sitting right next to him. I don't know what exactly was the reason but he just started stabbing him.

"We went to save him. He had multiple injuries, three or four wounds. Then the policeman came and was also attacked and stabbed."

Mohammed Shafiq, the leader of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organisation, said: "I have spoken to someone who lives a few doors down from the mosque and they described hearing an argument inside the mosque.

"It escalated into violence and a police officer has been stabbed. People, anti-Muslim extremists, are going to try to take advantage of this – it's very serious that a police officer has been stabbed during duty."

Murray said: "This was a one-off incident, we're not looking for anyone else in relation to this incident. We don't understand the motivation at the moment but it doesn't appear at this very early stage to be linked to anything else that's going on around the country."

• Birmingham
• Knife crime
• Religion
• Islam

Haroon Siddique
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At a time when much of the news coming from the Muslim world is rather depressing, the peacefully held presidential elections in Iran this week are surely to be welcomed. The voter turnout of 72.7% would look good against the record of most Western democracies.

So, it is worth taking a look at the response of some in the international community to Iran’s 2013 presidential elections.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu is quoted today in the Jerusalem Post as calling Iran the “world’s greatest threat” and urged the international community not to soften the sanctions regime against Iran which have unquestionably hurt the Iranian economy. Israel routinely incites the USA to bomb Iran so Netanyahu’s response was not unexpected, though in the wake of the recent belligerent statements from nuclear-armed North Korea, his characterisation of Iran as the “world’s greatest threat” might perhaps have less effect than previously. And as the Middle East’s only nuclear weapons state, Israel has perhaps only itself to blame if countries in the region decide that they too must have nuclear capabilities.

The White House spokesperson, Jay Carney, responded by pointing out that the election “took place against the backdrop of a lack of transparency, censorship of the media, Internet, and text messages, and an intimidating security environment that limited freedom of expression and assembly.” The US Secretary of State, John Kerry said:  “President-elect Rowhani pledged repeatedly during his campaign to restore and expand freedoms for all Iranians. In the months ahead, he has the opportunity to keep his promises to the Iranian people.”

The US response was not inaccurate – to be sure, the Iranian presidential elections had many flaws, particularly the disqualification of many candidates and the prohibition on women candidates. Even so, it is worth noting that the US very rarely criticises the most awful regimes in the region such as that in Saudi Arabia where women are prohibited from even driving cars. As long as the Saudi regime spends a fortune on buying US arms and doing the bidding of the US, then the White House appears more than willing to overlook its ghastly human rights record. So, the US response to the Iranian elections smacks more of hypocrisy and a desire to plunder the wealth of the Iranian nation rather than a genuine concern for the welfare of the Iranian people.

For all its many flaws, Iran is an independent country in a region sadly still awash with plenty of US client regimes.

Circumstances unclear as Muslim leader says extremists must not be allowed to take advantage

Three men and a police officer have been stabbed at a mosque in Birmingham.

A spokeswoman for West Midlands police said: "Police were called at 11pm on Saturday night to a mosque in Washwood Heath Road, Ward End, to reports of three men with stab wounds.

"Officers arrived at the incident and whilst the man was being detained, one police officer also suffered a stab wound.

"The three people and the officer have been taken to hospital, all are currently described as stable."

All three men and the officer were stabbed inside the mosque, the police spokeswoman confirmed. Officers were investigating whether the attack was a hate crime.

"We don't know at the moment, it's very early stages in the inquiry," the spokeswoman said. "We can't rule anything out at the moment."

Mohammed Shafiq, the leader of national Muslim organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, said: "The Ramadhan Foundation expresses its deep concern at the stabbing of three people and a police officer in the Ward End mosque in Birmingham last night.

"Our immediate thoughts are with the victims injured and their families.

"It is too early to speculate on the circumstances of the stabbings but we must be clear there should be no place for this sort of violence in our country.

"There will obviously be people who will try to take advantage of this tragedy but we must not allow them to succeed."

A nearby resident reported hearing an argument coming from inside the mosque and believed it was a domestic incident between members, Shafiq said.

"I have spoken to someone who lives a few doors down from the mosque and they described hearing an argument between some of the people inside the mosque.

"It escalated into violence and a police officer has been stabbed.

"People, anti-Muslim extremists, are going to try to take advantage of this – it's very serious that a police officer has been stabbed during duty."

• Police
• Islam
• Birmingham

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Laurie Penny has an article in the latest New Statesman (not online yet) in which she bemoans the lack of graffiti on the trains and buses in London, which she says is ubiquitous on public transport and buildings in other cities such as New York and Berlin. She puts this down to the huge concentration of CCTVs in London and people’s willingness to accept them, and in the context of the revelations about the American National Security Agency’s data snooping operations, represents a “gradual chilling effect” of people getting used to constant surveillance. I’m not so sure.

For starters, the better “art” is painted when a train is still for long periods (or on static buildings). Putting a CCTV in a station will not make a difference there because a train is not stopped for long enough to do serious art. What stops the more artful graffiti is better security at depots, not just CCTV but fences and alarms. The graffiti in London was attacked as a matter of policy some years ago and CCTV is only one aspect of this. It was attacked because it’s unsightly, because it costs the council money and time to clean it off (and even more if it’s scratched into the windows or paintwork) and because much of it is not “art” at all but gang tags, and the same people who spray gang tags on trains also do it in schools, including primary schools; they also use catapults to smash windows, and they steal. In some places, they do far more.

A year or so ago, I had a brief discussion with a particularly clueless Australian feminist named Ginny Brown (who I had come across in my ME activism, but is linked to the same clique of radical feminists who put the RadFem conferences on), after I answered an article by Cathy Brennan putting the murder of Trayvon Martin down to “male violence” rather than racism. When I mentioned that the police have guns because criminals have them, she responded:

As one example, when pushed to consider ‘the weapons males choose’, Smith immediately identified with the US police force. Not with an oppressed social sector fighting back, much less with a nationally oppressed people fighting for independence. He immediately associated himself with an authority force. This is part of how this macho culture works; it socialises males to see themselves as dominant and aligned with those in power, to like that idea, and to work to perpetuate that status.

The reality is that gangs are not “fighting back” against oppression but are in fact oppressors. A few of them may have emerged out of a need for self-defence by a community, or may sell themselves to that community on that basis, but in reality they are conformist entities that terrorise the communities they claim to be serving. Rather than conform to the norms of society generally, people are expected to conform to the gang’s demands and codes and they are often no less oppressive than any other power’s codes and often much more so. This is true of outright criminal gangs that exist in poor parts of western cities as well as many self-styled liberation movements such as the IRA or “Shining Path”, and self-styled “defence” groups such as the Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. It’s also true of communities where there is an “outlaw” mentality, where authority is regarded with suspicion (often with some justification) but the more powerful people in the community (particularly an institution, such as a boarding school or a prison) exploit this to maintain their own power, punishing “grasses” or “snitches” with summary beatings, or worse, even if the matter reported on was a serious assault or other criminal matter.

Tagging is how these thugs show the rest of us they are there, and intimidate members of other gangs (or people from districts associated with them, whether they want to be or not). It is basically tom-cat territory-marking. It may give a city “edge” for middle-class people like Laurie Penny who want occasional walks on the wild side and don’t have to live with those people on a day-to-day basis, but for anyone else, it’s just a blight. Of course, getting rid of graffiti will not get rid of the gangs, but let’s not pretend it’s art or that it represents freedom or fighting oppression. It is merely the calling card of another type of oppressor, and it is no surprise that people would rather not be confronted with it every time they go about their business or travel round their own city.

Yitzhak Pundak

From the “most moral army in the world”: Mr. Pundak believes it wasn’t “unnecessarily cruel” to raze Palestinian villages but he drew the line with Ariel Sharon on “killing enemy fighters” in exchange for “a glass of champagne.” (h/t: Awda)

War crimes anyone?

100-Year-Old General: We Razed Arab Villages, So What?

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak is celebrating his hundredth birthday. Pundak was the commander of the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade in the War of Independence and went on to supervise the establishment of the Armored Corps. He was also Ambassador in Tanzania and a founder of Arad.

In an interview on IDF Radio, Pundak confirmed that forces under his command razed Arab villages in 1948. “My conscience is at ease with that, because if we hadn’t done so, then there would be no state by now. There would be a million more Arabs,” he said.

Asked why he still finds it so important to lecture to soldiers, at his advanced age, he explained: “Just like in 1948, the country is in a state of danger – and if the Jews do not fight as we did in the War of Independence, the state is in danger.” He predicted that if a war breaks out again, Jews will be capable of the same kind of self-sacrifice as in 1948.

“When there is a war, people unite,” he explained. “Afterward, they form parties and become divided.”

He spoke with pain of the 145 soldiers who were killed under his command over the years, and said that if they woke up miraculously and saw the divided country of today, “they would run back to their graves.”

And yet, when asked if he feels proud of his country, he said that his pride runs “as high as the rooftop.”

Pundak, who was the governor of Gaza in the early 1970s, said that the credit that is usually given to Ariel Sharon for stopping Arab terror in Gaza in 1971 is mistaken. He said that Sharon was an unnecessarily cruel commander who once said at a meeting with officers that he would offer champagne to whoever killed an enemy fighter – and whoever brings him a wounded enemy “will drink soda.”

He said: “I told him, ‘You are not my commander, I am not coming to your meetings.’”

ABC News explores, “What would you do?” when confronted by someone espousing anti-Muslim bigotry. I have to say many of the people in the video who responded are very impressive.

 

By: Wajahat Meenai

Five women from five countries, all bound to the same fate as refugees, here in Malaysia. They face life one day at a time, in fading hope, alleviated only through the bond of their friendship and journey together. This is their plight.

Refugee from Sudan

Saleema is from Sudan. She speaks four languages (Arabic, English, French, and Malay). She's married, with three young children. Her husband, Muḥammad has a professional background in restaurant management yet is unable to find a job legally here in Malaysia, while Saleema struggles as a free-lance teacher. They arrived in Malaysia a few years ago, and are only able to make enough money to put a little bit of food on the table for their children every month. Similar to other refugee parents, there are days where Saleema and Muḥammad don't eat at all or have just one meal in order to feed their three kids.

Mariam, and her husband Kareem are from Afghanistan. They've been living in Malaysia as refugees for the past two years. They have a beautiful son who just turned one year old, a few months ago. Kareem used to do odd jobs, mainly taking care of the Shisha preparations in small cafes. Unfortunately due to illness, Kareem could no longer continue with that line of work. Several months past as Kareem struggled with his own health while attempting to find a new opportunity for income, but met with failure repeatedly due to his refugee status.

Even after being registered under the UNHCR program, refugees like Kareem aren't allowed to work legally in Malaysia. Without steady employment, the lack of income has taken a toll on Kareem's health as he doesn't have the funds to seek proper medical treatment. Mariam, Kareem and their one year old son have been diagnosed with malnutrition for a long time now. The only form of support they receive are intermittent donations that provide food on the table irregularly.

Refugee women from Syria

In the midst of all these difficulties, Saleema and Mariam have found comfort in their friendship. Both women strive to find opportunities everyday, in order to ensure that their families are safe and healthy. They recently met Jamila, a strong-willed Iraqi woman who lived as a refugee in Syria for four years before coming here to Malaysia. Surviving in Syria for four years wasn't easy but the situation became worse when the armed conflict began there. Jamila, together with her five children had to flee Syria then, leaving her husband behind. As a single woman here in Malaysia for the last one year, she's had tremendous difficulties accessing support and employment, thus facing similar problems of malnutrition & not having enough food for the family.

Jamila is just one amongst the hundreds of Iraqi citizens who had been seeking refuge in Syria, and then eventually had to flee in fear of their lives during the armed conflict. This is a similar story shared by Fatema, also a single mother of three children from Palestine, all of whom are suffering from different medical problems. The biggest concern in Fatema's mind has always been how to help her children medically when her financial conditions are so bleak.

A refugee family

Refugees in Malaysia like Fatema & her children are all billed as foreigners at hospitals here, irrespective of public or private, which is effectively double or more in comparison to what a Malaysian citizen pays. If a refugee is lucky enough to be registered under the UNHCR program, he or she is provided a fifty percent subsidization on medical bills. But bear in mind, that this is a refugee who is charged a foreigner rate, and often doesn't even have a steady income, therefore even a fifty percent subsidized bill is often out of their financial capacity.

Mona, an Irani refugee here in Malaysia knows all these families through their children. She works tirelessly, teaching the kids how to read & write in English, better preparing them for the possibilities of an education in the future. Not only does Mona interact with the children as a teacher, but she relates to them as a refugee herself, struggling to make ends meet every month, hoping for better opportunities in order to provide her own family a dignified life.

In the face of such hardship, these women continue to fight a battle everyday, hoping to bring back some level of normality and dignity to their own families. But they shouldn't have to face such overwhelming odds alone. It's time you, me, and all of the beautiful citizens of Malaysia come together to remove the suffering of these lost and afflicted families. Refugees like Saleema, Mariam, Jamila, Fatema, and Mona need a voice, and that's what Carefugees aims to become – a platform through which support & awareness can be raised for these people.

If you've read this far, perhaps you're asking yourself “so where do I begin to help these people?”. A good beginning is in the Carefugees “Feed a Family” campaign, where the families of Saleema, Mariam, Jamila, Fatema, and Mona are just five out of the 550 registered under UNHCR & MSRI (Malaysian Social Research Institute), that will receive a gift basket full of food & amenities, lasting them the entire month of Ramadan.

Join the Carefugees by becoming part of the “Feed a Family” campaign.

The post Plight of the Refugee Women appeared first on MuslimMatters.org.

A collection of poetry that found life in my fingertips this evening.

.

When the bullets pierce flesh on the front line,
It will be my poetry that drips from wounds,
Onto the ground that raised us.
Crimson words will whisper ,
“Hope hope hope.. is on her way”,
Into the ear of a warrior because,
This land is our warrior,
And you and I, are her sword.

I dream that crimson words will one day write,
Justice against us as open wounds are romanticised,
Under the cover of nightfall.
The moonlight will heal us

Poetry seeps from the wounds,
Your apathy carved into our children’s arteries.
“We resist..” “We resist…”
Pulsates through their severed veins.

And we write because this is where,
The first heart beat of the revolution will flutter,
Between my palm – and his.
Children of the land.

But until then I will keep the intifada of the valley,
Settled in the tresses of hair that I tie into knots,
Beneath my hijab so one day he will find himself there.
And Moonlight will cast the shadow of our freedom,
Across the jackboots of the oppressor,
As he flees under the cover of night.
.

One day revolutionary thoughts will blossom,
Over cups of nun chai each morning,
As our wide eyed children learn history,
From our eyes and the books that we wrote.
Because revolution is not shackled,
To armed rebellions or literature.
It is a cross between the two,
That our hands will draw.

We will be the resilient determined strength,
And the selfless sacrifice that turns our children into warriors,
Because they will be the children whose restless hands,
And rebellious hearts will never turn their souls away,
From the quest for justice.

They will be the children who grew,
From the love that lines,
The undersides of uprisings,
And the roots of rebellions.
Children of the people.

.

We will scrawl promises in love notes that read
“I will echo back always…”
“..Until home becomes a song of freedom”
In the heart of the war.
Because every revolutionary is in love with the struggle,
That lines the veins of their lands.
And those veins run through us like,
We are the land.
We carry the Jhelum within us,
Becoming the mountains she traverses.
So home, exile and Diaspora,
All echo back the pain resonating within the valleys.
Because they are the spaces between us.

.

There is nothing poetic about a mother’s blood,
Seeping through the soil of the mountains,
Nothing poetic about mass graves and rape.

A disturbing trend.:

By Martin Hicks (Detroit News)

Two groups are seeking answers to what they say is a growing practice of Muslim and Arab-American groups having their bank accounts closed without cause or explanation.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations–Michigan is asking the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, to investigate the complaints and the Arab-American Civil Rights League in Dearborn is pursuing a lawsuit against major banks.

“We see a type of pattern taking place in the Muslim/Arab community,” Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR–MI, said Wednesday. “Bank accounts are being closed with no real justification … so it appears on the surface that there could be some sort of bias involved.”

One of the latest reported incidents, according to CAIR–MI, involved Alif Arabic, a business described as teaching Arabic to American citizens online. Officials there were notified May 30 by JPMorgan Chase their bank account would be terminated within 10 days. JPMorgan Chase officials did not detail why, according to the letter.

When an Alif Arabic employee asked the bank for clarification, they were told an analytical tool “alerted them that Alif’s account could pose a possible risk,” the letter read.

Walid said such a move could suggest discrimination based on religion and ethnicity. “We need answers and the bank is not giving answers,” he said.

Emily Smith, a JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman, said privacy reasons prevent the company from discussing details of its customer relationships. However, “on occasion, Chase determines it can no longer maintain a customer’s account but those decisions are not based on the customer’s religion, ethnicity or any other similar basis.”

Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, said: “We have just become aware of the letter and have not had a chance to review. We will look into these allegations.”

Meanwhile, the Arab-American Civil Rights League plans to file a lawsuit after nearly 50 incidents of individual and business accounts being closed.

The group earlier this year asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and launched a hotline for complaints after some area residents were notified by Huntington National Bank and other institutions their accounts were terminated without explanation.

That affected professionals and others who believed they acted lawfully, said Nabih Ayad, the league’s board chairman.

“It’s just a shame this continues to happen. It’s not fair to the community,” he said. “These sort of circumstances, they’re basically telling Arab Americans: ‘You’re not at the same level or beneath the average American and we don’t want you to bank with us.’ ”

In a statement Wednesday, Huntington spokeswoman Maureen Brown said: “As with all of our products, we periodically make required decisions to close accounts unrelated to the make-up of our communities, and consistent with all applicable regulatory requirements.”

MHicks@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2117

It’s not exactly breaking news that China has serious issues with freedom of religion and as an officially Atheist state is often very repressive against those observing religious rites.

China has once again leveled restrictions on the persecuted Uighurs when it comes to practicing Ramadan. (h/t: GF)

via. OnIslam

BEIJING – Unlike millions of Muslims around the world, Uighur students returning for summer vacations in northwestern China are banned from fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

“They are extracting guarantees from parents, promising that their children won’t fast on Ramadan,” Dilxat Raxit, Sweden-based spokesman for the exile World Uighur Congress (WUC), told Radio Free Asia on Thursday, June 13.

Chinese authorities have reportedly imposed restrictions on Uighur Muslim students returning for summer vacations in the northwestern region of Xinjiang ahead of Ramadan.

Under the restrictions, Uighur students under 18 are banned from fasting during Ramadan or taking part in religious activities.

Students defying the restrictions are being reported to authorities for punishment.

“They have also made groups of 10 households responsible for spying on each other, so that if a single child from one family fasts for Ramadan, or takes part in religious activities, then all 10 families will be fined,” Raxit said.

“It’s called a 10-household guarantee system.”

…

Religious officials have confirmed that Ramadan fasting is banned for Uighur Muslim students.

“[Fasting] is not allowed,” an official at a religious affairs bureau in Hotan’s Yutian County told Radio Free Asia.

“The students and the teachers have to report to their schools every Friday, even during the vacation.

“It’s like regular lessons,” he said, adding that the students would also be eating there.

Activists have also complained that Uighur students are being stripped off their mobile phones ahead of Ramadan.

“After the students get back to their hometowns, those with cell phones and computers must hand them in to the police for searching,” said Raxit.

“If they don’t hand them over and are reported or caught by the authorities, then they will have to bear the consequences.”

The pre-Ramadan restrictions come ahead of the fourth anniversary of deadly riots in Xinjiang, which left nearly 200 people dead.

Chinese authorities have convicted about 200 people, mostly Uighurs, over the riots and sentenced 26 of them to death.

Read the entire article