Intro by Imam Salim: It is shameful that the plight of the Palestinian people is consistently overlooked by western press. The political agendas of the west operate to make these people invisible to most of the public. And the majority of the rest seem to believe the lines that are fed to them without question or thoughtful reflection. 1300 people (and growing) are on a hunger strike because they want freedom and the right to self determination. SHAME on you in the western press for putting your bottom line and smug self importance ahead of the story of these valorous people who are RISKING THEIR LIVES AND HEALTH for the cause they believe in. SHAME SHAME SHAME!
The Massive Palestinian Hunger Strike: Traveling below the Western Radar
By Richard Falk
Friday, May 04, 2012
Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1300 hunger strikers in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story? It would be featured day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food. At this time two Palestinians who were the first to start this current wave of resistance, Thaer Halaheh and Bilal Diab, entering their 64th day without food, are reported by the prisoner protection association, Addameer, and the NGO, Physician for Human Rights-Israel, to be in critical condition with their lives hanging in the balance. Despite this dramatic state of affairs there is scant attention in Europe, and literally none in North America.
The car was damaged mainly not by the bomb, but by the resulting slow burning fire - Reuters
Who was behind the Delhi bombing?
The bombing of an Israeli diplomat’s car in India isn’t consistent with Iranian or Hezbollah involvement.
Opinion by Gareth Porter (Dr Gareth Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in US national security policy.)
Washington, DC – The magnet bomb that exploded on an Israeli Embassy diplomat’s car in Delhi on February 13 seemed on the surface to be consistent with an Iranian-sponsored action.
It was carried out with same method by which Israel’s Iranian proxy, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, had assassinated an Iranian scientist in mid-January. It occurred on the anniversary of the 2008 assassination of Hezbollah operations chief Imad Mugniyeh, which Hezbollah had vowed to avenge. And it happened at the same time as what appeared to be attempted bombings in Bangkok and Tbilisi.
But a review of the evidence uncovered thus far makes the link to Iran begin to look very dubious. Instead, it points to the distinct possibility that the Israelis planned a carefully limited bomb attack that was not intended to cause serious injury to Israeli diplomatic personnel, but that would advance the larger Israeli narrative on the need to punish Iran.
Santa Barbara, CA – It is a great relief to those millions around the world who were moved to prayer and action by Khader Adnan’s extraordinary hunger strike of 66 days that has ended due to Israel’s agreement to release him on April 17.
We, who were inspired by such a heroic refusal to accept humiliation and arbitrary arrest, can only hope that for the sake of his family, for the cause of Palestinian resistance, and for the struggle to achieve a just peace that Mr Adnan will fully recover to resume his personal and political life. We cannot take for granted that there will be a full recovery given Mr Adnan’s critical condition confirmed by examining doctors, just prior to his decision on February 21 to resume eating in a normal manner.
While it is appropriate to celebrate this ending of the strike as “a victory”, there are several disturbing features that deserve comment. To call an arrangement that saved someone’s life a “deal”, as the media consistently put it, is itself demeaning, and reveals at the very least a failure to appreciate the gravity and deep dedication of purpose that is bound up with such a nonviolent form of resistance.
Today marks the first of Muharram 1433. A greeting of happy new year to all!
The wonderful calligraphy depicts the traditional “May you greet every year in good health” In that greeting includes one’s physical, spiritual and psychological health as well as the health of the world’s peoples of all races, creeds, religions and beliefs. As well as the health of our planet and our environment and all the animals and plants that abide here, insha’allah!
We hope and pray for Allah (swt) to guide us in His way and to make us better and better at knowing our place in this world and in being a comfort to our brothers and sisters and all fellow travelers in this world and beyond. Take time soon to make a pledge to do something, no matter how large or small, to make this world a better place to live in for all beings. As the Buddhists say – May all beings be well, may all beings be happy, peace, peace, peace.
Dhu’l Hijjah is the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar and of which the first ten days are filled with a blessing. That blessing is the yearly journey of 2 million pilgrims to Mecca to answer the call of our creator and sustainer to come to His house and perform the Hajj rituals culminating in Arafat and ‘Eid al Adha.
Performance of the Hajj is incumbent on every Muslim man and woman who is financially and physically able to do so. Those of us who remain at our homes urge our brothers and sisters on and perform other deeds of worship as we are able.
One aspect of this great gathering of souls that is often spoken of but bears repeating here and now is the sense of brotherhood/sisterhood that exists among all those there no matter where in the world they come from and no matter what their financial standing. This great event equalizes king and pauper – queen and servant and puts each of us equal in the heart of Islam. In the lines of people around the Kaaba we see only fellow muslims and muslimahs who have answered the call. There is no way to tell, nor is there really any importance in knowing, who is a corporate exectutive and who is a ditch-digger, who is a university professor and who is a seamstress. As we look over the crowd we cannot see the distinctions and differences that divide people, we only see our ummah comming to Bayt-Allah to be re-united with the beloved.
Indeed we are equal in the sight of Allah (swt) who tells us in the Qur’an Sharif:
049.013 Ya ayyuha alnnasu inna khalaqnakum min thakarin waontha waja’alnakum shu’ooban waqaba-ila lita’arafoo inna akramakum AAinda Allahi atqakum inna Allaha ‘aleemun khabeerun
O mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other not that ye may despise each other. Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is he who is the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted with all things.
One of my earliest memories of learning about the unity of the Hajj was in reading the autobiography of Malik El Shabazz (Malcom X.) His account of being in Mecca, surrounded by peoples of many different races and ethnic origins and his immersion in it was both illuminating and touching. He wrote about it in a letter:
“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white.
You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)-while praying to the same God with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of the blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
We are truly all the same-brothers.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.”
What he saw was the message of the Qur’an, the message of Islam alive in front of his eyes.
Surely there is knowledge there for those who consider. There are many wonderful lessons that we can learn from the Hajj, the story of Ibrahim and Haggar and Ishmael are central to the theme and we hope to learn from them. Rasul Allah (saw) had much to teach us through the rituals and rites of this pilgrimage and a lasting and universal message delivered in his (saw) last Khutbah delivered in Arafat. But this lesson of unity, kinship, and realization of humanity’s common origin in our creator is one that hajjis experience first hand and deeply personally. Proof of our lord’s (swt) telling us that his signs are within us as well as out on the horizons. The signs are a part of our make up, a part of what makes us human and a part of what is yearning inside us to return to the beloved. Many of us can answer the call to the pilgrimage in Mecca but there is an inner pilgrimage that all of us can take – the Kaaba within is always there for us to reach in for our connection with divine guidance.
And for those of us in our homes while the two million are in Mecca, that inner Kaaba is where we must journey to each day to be in unity with our brothers and sisters all over the world. A world where we are sincere in our love of each other and of Allah (swt)
