Sherman’s interpretation of 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act seems to defy true intent of the law, while attacking US Constitutional Rights to appease a foreig

Anisa Abd el Fattah


When the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 was passed following the Oklahoma City bombing, many Muslim and Arab Americans charged that the Act is unconstitutional, and that it was unfairly aimed at Muslims and Arabs, even though it was proven that Muslims and Arabs had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City Bombing. Of course the Department of Justice and other US law enforcement officials countered such charges, saying that the Act was not intended for anything except to effectively fight terrorism, no matter the race, religion, ethnicity or nationality of an individual perpetrator, group or foreign country.

Listening to California Congressman Brad Sherman, who is one of the many Zionist and Jewish politicians who found it politically expedient to congratulate Israel for its May 2010 massacre of 9 unarmed humanitarian aide activists on a Turkish ship bound for Gaza, one would think that Muslim and Arab suspicions were true. According to Sherman, the Act says it is “illegal for US citizens to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas and Gaza’s civilian population.” As it turns out, this is merely Sherman’s interpretation of the Act. The Act never mentions, Gaza, or Hamas and is aimed exclusively at foreign terrorists and foreign governments that support or commit acts of terrorism. The aim of the Act is to prevent US citizens from fundraising and providing material support to terrorist organizations, states, and individuals that commit acts of terrorism and that provide material support for terrorism. Taking into consideration that Israel is accused of committing war crimes and crimes of aggression as well as crimes against humanity in an illegal assault on Gaza that left 1500 Palestinians, mostly woman and children dead, the Act could very easily be interpreted to also include Israel, the Israeli army and the illegal Jewish settlers among those targeted for prosecution by the Act.

Of course Sherman did not mention that fact. His objective was to use the law exactly in the way that US Muslims and Arabs had said it would be used, namely to target Muslims and Arabs. It appears that Sherman had hoped to create a novel interpretation of the Act that would be used to chill Muslim and Arab Constitutional rights to free speech and also dissent, and that would reinforce the wrong idea that Hamas is a terrorist organization and is therefore subject to the Act, along with any US citizen that would fundraise or send money to Gaza in an attempt to provide humanitarian aide to a people suffering, what the UN has designated a humanitarian crisis. In fact, following Israel’s flotilla massacre, the Obama administration pledged 400 million dollars to Gaza in humanitarian aide. Sherman did not call for the arrest of President Obama, nor of secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

In Sherman’s highly politicized interpretation of the Act, Sherman failed to mention the fact that the US Constitution protects the rights of US Citizens to protest and also to use our speech, which the Supreme Court has said includes our money and fundraising, to support our political positions and also to oppose and dissent from our government’s official positions. Along with that, Article 6 of the US Constitution says, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding” which means that provisions within the Act must be reconciled with the Geneva Conventions, to which the US is a signor. According to both the Bush and Obama administrations, the US stands by and abides by the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions protects, rather than criminalizes the Palestinian resistance militias and the resistance movement.

According to the Joint Publication 1-02, the United States Department of Defense defines a resistance movement as "an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to resist the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability". It says: “In strict military terminology, a resistance movement is simply that; it seeks to resist (change) the policies of a government or occupying power. This may be accomplished though violent or non-violent means. A resistance movement is specifically limited to changing the nature of current power, not to overthrow it.” The correct military term for removing or overthrowing a government is an insurgency. Also, Article 4 of the Geneva Conventions defines legal combatants as:

1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.
2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfill the following conditions:
(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
(c) That of carrying arms openly;
(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.


In its 49th session, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights as recently as 1993, adopted resolution E/CN.4/ RES/1993/2 (A & B), recognizing and affirming the right of the Palestinian people to resistance against the illegal occupation by all means.” It states the following:

The Commission on Human Rights,

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as well as by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Guided also by the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,

2. Affirms the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation by all means, in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions, consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as has been expressed by the Palestinian people in their brave intifada since December 1987, in legitimate resistance against the Israeli military occupation;


Israel’s bogus claim that Gaza is no longer under military occupation is undermined by Israel’s simultaneous claim to a right to control Gaza’s borders, airspace and waterways. Its routine invasions, detainments of Gazans and other acts intended to maintain illegal control and authority over Gaza, further undermines Israel’s erroneous claim that Gaza is not under Israeli military occupation.

Article 6 of the US Constitutions says clearly that our treaties are the Supreme law of the land, and our military code recognizes by definition that the Palestinian resistance fighters are lawful combatants. Since statutory law overrides Executive orders , Bill Clinton’s attempt to criminalize the Palestinian resistance is merely a political ploy that was designed to create a legal context for Israel’s brutal violence in Gaza and the West Bank, and its illegal targeted assassinations of resistance leaders and activists. Clinton’s executive order which attempts to reduce the Palestinian resistance to mere terrorism is the pretext within which many of the worst criminal acts carried out by Israel against the people of Palestine have claimed legality. It is also the legal framework within which Sherman is emboldened to call for the arrests of US citizens for attempting to travel to Gaza, and to deliver humanitarian aide.

While seemingly anxious to please his AIPAC cronies and Zionist financial backers, Sherman seems to have lost sight of the fact that according to the Act, there may be some arrests to be made within his own circle of pro-Israel Zionists. He said in his highly publicized press release that he “will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what is clearly an effort to give items of value to terrorists.” That might include the California branch of the JDL that have been linked to the US State Department designated terrorist organization known as Kahane Chai, whose members were convicted of attempting to carry out terrorists attacks here in the US against an elected official. It might also include leaders of an entire network of synagogues, churches and Christian and Jewish charitable organizations that routinely raise money and transfer funds to Israel in support of the radical extremist settlers, many of whom are US citizens, and who routinely shoot, kill, harass and illegally confiscate the property of Palestinian citizens. Most of these illegal settlers are self confessed members of the Kahane movement, which is linked to Kahane Chai in ideology if not by card carrying memberships. In a New York Times article written by Neil Lewis, he states that Kahane Chai “advocates the restoration of the Biblical state of Israel and the expulsion of Arabs from Israel.” This is also the mantra of nearly every illegal Jewish settler in Palestine.

Among the list of US Jews arrested for acts of terrorism against Palestinians in Palestine are the confessed terrorists Jack Teity who murdered two Palestinians and wounded at least three. His murder victims included a 57 year old Palestinian shepherd murdered simply because he was not Jewish. Teity traveled between the US and Israel for 12 years carrying out his terrorist acts without ever being stopped and questioned or arrested. Teity, in his confession, stated that he smuggled the sub machine gun used in his killings, past a British airline’s security. Another US Jew who carried out an act of terrorism against Palestinians inside Palestine is Barak Goldstein who slaughtered 20 Palestinians in Hebron mosque. He is called a Jewish martyr, even though he shot his unarmed victims from behind with a fully automatic machine gun as they prostrated in prayer.

In the article, “Israel arrests settlers it says tried to bomb Palestinians” by New York Times columnist John Kifner, Kifner wrote: “Shin Bet uncovered a suspected Jewish network that apparently planned to bomb two or more Palestinian schools.” According to Kifner, “Israeli police confiscated sub machine guns, and Israeli military issued explosives.” He said the bombs were set to go off at 7:35 am, the time when most Palestinian students would arrive at the schools.” Kifner identified the leader of the network as Noam Federman, a leader of the Kach movement.

There is another interpretation of the Act, contrary to Sherman’s which suggests that Sherman himself could possibly be designated a supporter of international terrorism, since it appears that he might be abusing the power of his office and US taxpayer money in an attempt to provide political and legal cover for Israel’s terrorist act of piracy and murder of 9 human rights activists, carried out in international waters, and without provocation. A Congressional Research Service summary of the Act states that:

“Title I of the Act ‘enlarges proscriptions against assisting in the commission of acts of terrorism. It adjusts the Foreign Assistance Act to help isolate countries who support terrorists. “

Ironically the activists targeted by Sherman’s threats of arrest for exercising their Constitutional rights might actually be assisted against Israel by the Act which, according to the same summary, “expands the circumstances under which foreign governments that support terrorism may be sued for resulting injuries, and increases the assistance and compensation available to victims of terrorism.” The family of the US citizen killed by Israel on one of the flotilla boats with 4 shots through his brain and one through his heart might also look into the provisions of the Act seeking legal relief.

Why Congressman Brad Sherman felt compelled to attack the US members of the flotilla with an Anti-Terrorism statute is anyone’s guess. What we can be sure of is that US law is aimed at protecting the rights of citizens, their property and their persons, and not foreign governments. In his haste to arrest these citizens he obviously forgot the spirit, or intent of the Act, and depended too heavily upon his own misguided and highly politicized interpretation.





1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_movement
2.http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/genevacon/blart-4.htm
3. http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/EF7E1F52C06A9CB885256AD2004B1194
4. Cited in the article “Rep. Sherman” Prosecute US Citizens involved with Freedom Flotilla” Modoweiss.com
5. http://www.answers.com/topic/executive-order-1
6. Summary of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist, American Law Division of the Congressional Research Service
www.fas.org/irp/crs/96-499
7. Appeals Court Upholds Terrorist Label for a Jewish Group, New York Times, 10/06.
8. Israel Arrests Settlers It says Tried to Bomb Palestinians” New York Times, 5/19/2002
FBI Raided a Brooklyn Community Center led by Member of Kahane Chai, New York Times,

With the Name of God

National Association of Muslim American Muslim (NAMAW) calls for prayer vigil to break the illegal siege on Gaza. and free Palestine. Vigil dates to coincide with journey of freedom flotilla.

May 17, 2010


God says in the Qur’an, “The unbelievers are protectors of one another. Unless you this, (protect one another) there will be tumult and oppression on the earth and great mischief” (Holy Qur’an 8:73).

The Qur’an also teaches us that our prayers are a source of protection for one another. God told the prophet Muhammad (sa) that his prayers are a source of protection for the believers. Whereas we are not prophets, our righteous prayers, when prayed as the prophet prayed, also serve as a protection for the believers.

The city of Gaza in Palestine has been under an illegal and inhumane economic embargo, imposed by Egypt and the colonial Zionist occupation forces in Palestine for nearly 3 years. Egypt and the Zionist occupation forces have been aided and abetted by the likes of the so called Palestinian Authority and other Arab and also Western European countries and institutions that have refused to stop the criminal blockade. Even though more than 500 people, mostly suffering from chronic disease, have died as a result of this blockade, not even the UN Security Council has been moved by its own charter to put an end to this blatant crime against humanity, and the International Courts have also turned a blind eye, ignoring the tremendous suffering of the people of Gaza.

On May 15th the first of nine ships carrying humanitarian aide as well as building materials for the reconstruction of Gaza, left Ireland, headed for Gaza. It will meet and accompanied by 8 other ships, among them ships from Turkey, Algeria, carrying along with aid and assistance, delegations from the US and other Western countries as well as many noted personalities, statesmen, women and activists from throughout the world. The anticipated arrival date for the flotilla to reach Gaza’s shore is May 27, 2010.

The National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW) is calling upon those who will not go to Gaza, to support this effort with a vigil of night prayers offered on behalf of Gaza and the freedom flotilla. We will be petitioning God each night, from May 18th through the 27th, or whenever the freedom flotilla arrives in Gaza. We will ask God to end this criminal siege on Gaza now. We will petition God to end the occupation of Palestine now, and to free Palestine. We will also be petitioning God to protect the ships and passengers who have set sail for Gaza, in obedience to His command to the believers, to answer the call of the weak, the oppressed, and those who are not able to free and protect themselves from the evil satanic forces and their followers and patrons without our help.

Our prayer vigil will begin at 12:00am, EST, May 28th and continue until Fajr, or the Morning Prayer. Please feel free to customize your individual or communal vigil to fit your own schedule if necessary. Some of us will take a break from 2:30am to 3:30am and then continue prayer at 3:30 am, until Fajr. Whether you pray in congregations or groups in the mosques or privately as groups and/or individuals in your homes, centers, etc, it does not matter. What matters is that we have the niyah to free Palestine, to end the illegal occupation, to lift the siege on Gaza, and to protect the freedom flotilla, the people, the ships and their cargo, and make them reach Gaza safely and return home safely.

We invite believers of other faith traditions to also conduct prayer vigils to end the siege on Gaza, and to protect the freedom flotilla, free Palestine and end the occupation. Please pray on our schedule, or feel free to set your own according to what is convenient for you. That we pray in unity on these nights is an act of unity from the believers in a righteous cause and action.

May Allah accept our intentions and supplications and facilitate us. May He protect and save us from the tricks of our enemies and the satanic forces who will attempt to prevent our prayers in any way they can, whether through satanic attacks of jinns and demons, sleepiness, sexual desire, other lusts, fatigue, forgetfulness and by other means unknown to us, but known by God. May God allow His angels to descend on these nights to protect and comfort us, keep us awake and keep us company, lead our prayers and pray with us. May every created thing unite with us in prayer for Gaza and all of Palestine. May God silence the tongues of the wicked, foil their schemes and plots and destroy the wicked jinn who assist them and with whom they have taken league for protection, and render all of their deeds ineffectual. May Allah protect and guide the freedom flotilla ships, the people and their cargo, send His angels to journey with them, to calm the seas and command them, in the name of the One God, to serve this righteous cause. Ameen.

“Those who believe and adopt exile, and fight for the faith in the cause of God, as well as those who give them asylum and aide, these are all in very truth the believers. For them is forgiveness of sins and a provision most generous” (8:75).

Death of a two state solution could give birth to a free Palestine

Anisa Abd el Fattah


Now that a noted and respected academician, Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, has suggested that a two state solution is dead, and that the result of that death will be the birth of Greater Israel as an apartheid state, we are free to stop wasting our time analyzing and hoping to improve upon and return to Oslo, and the idea of a negotiated end to the illegal occupation of Palestine.

It has been clear to most analysts for many years, and even pronounced on numerous occasions by the political leaders of the occupation administration, that there would be no Palestinian state allowed to co-exist side by side with the Jews envisioned Jewish Only state. For some reason, Arabs saw great merit in the Oslo formula for peace, even though it did not guarantee the establishment of a Palestinian state as an end result of a successful peace process. Indeed all along the Oslo path, it was very clear that the occupation was expanding on the ground, as it falsely spoke of peace. Even more importantly, after every failed round of so called negotiations, the Palestinians would be punished with various massacres and other acts of violence intended to cull the number of Palestinians, and also to further intimidate them, in preparation for the end game, which was always to be a single Jewish only state where the Palestinians would be allowed to exist in limited and controlled numbers, for the purpose of providing cheap labor.

For some reason, perhaps wishful thinking, many people confused the idea of peace in respect to Oslo, with the idea of freedom. The occupation has never offered the Palestinian people freedom. It has offered them quiet co-existence, but only according to the type of co-existence that is prescribed by the Talmudic law. That law suggests that Palestinian citizens of a Jewish only state are second, or even third class citizens whose purpose, as was reported by a noted Rabbi, would be to serve the Jews. In other words, not only does the one state solution from the Zionist perspective mean victory for Zionism whether over the long or short term, it also means absolute defeat for the Palestinians. Just as the American pioneers defeated and led the Native Americans off to reservations to die, so too the Palestinians will be allowed to live in their reservations, defeated and humiliated after years of struggle against a brutal and illegal occupation.

The prospect of the establishment of Greater Israel is of course completely unacceptable to most Muslims, and we can expect that there will be Muslims who will be willing to mount resistance against it. Yet, based upon past performance, we might anticipate that for the secular Arab nationalists leaders and monarchs, so long as they can continue to rule over their people in some capacity and to continue to be paid through either foreign aid, trade schemes, etc., the idea might not be so bad. In fact, it would not be much different from the way in which they co-exist with the occupation today. The only difference might be that rather than hiding their secret arrangements for normalized relations, and trade, they can complain to their people that the newly established Jewish state is in fact a done deal that all must accept and accommodate. With some groaning, it will be accepted as an accomplished fact and with very little resistance, to the extent that some of the financial rewards trickle down to pacify the people, as Israel has promised. There does not seem to be any way to attribute, or any reason to expect either integrity or good judgment on the part of the Arab leaders. There is absolutely no reason to expect that they will act on principle and stand with those Palestinians and Muslims who will resist being defeated in this way.


It is also important to note, that there is no reason to accept the idea that the death of a two state solution can only result in greater Israel as an apartheid state. The truth is, that the death of the two state fake peace process scheme, can result in freedom for Palestine, if the Palestinian people are ready psychologically and spiritually for what will perhaps be the most difficult push against the occupation in the history of the occupation.

It will require that they abandon not only the rhetoric of the status quo and its insistence that Israel exists as a legal entity with a supposed special right to exist, and that what is happening is merely a land dispute that is being resolved by the natural selection of a better armed, more powerfully supported Jewish entity. The Palestinians will have to create their own narrative and it cannot in any way yield in even the slightest way to either accommodation, or appeasement of the occupation and its enablers. The people must prepare to fight and to possibly die in pursuit of their freedom. We must admit the likelihood that no amount of disinvestment or boycotts will be allowed to weaken Israel, and the UNSC will never impose sanctions upon Israel. At best, BDS will prevent the business buzzards from profiting from the illegal occupation. The US and EU will subsidize any loss that Israel might experience from divestment, so in reality, the people of the US and EU are the ones who will be punished by BDS and that might be appropriate, but not very helpful to the Palestinians in the short term, which is when Israel will make its push to take control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, annexing them as part of Greater Israel.

The Palestinian narrative, in direct contradiction to the Zionist narrative must deprive the anticipated Jewish only state of all legitimacy, and it must stand boldly upon the law. It cannot capitulate in any way to the idea of co-existence or the supposed right of Israel to exist. It must reject completely the lie that Israel was established as an act of justice to a Jewish people who are reclaiming a lost land based upon a fake promise from God. It must reject the British mandate as a fraud and theft, and demand justice and an end to US and EU unconditional financial and military support for a criminal enterprise and genocide. It must insist that the occupation exists in violation of international laws and treaties, and must also seek to criminalize those who support the illegal occupation, just as the occupation and its enablers have sought to criminalize all support for Palestinian freedom.

The people of the Arab and Muslim world must adopt this narrative and must live by it, refusing normalized relations of any type with the occupation or the Jews anywhere. This is another area where boycott can be effective, if it is a boycott of Jewish products being sold in Muslim countries. The people must accept that we are at war not only with a people, but with an idea and that idea is Greater Israel which is supported by a majority of Jews from throughout the world.

We must never accept the idea of a Jewish only state, or Greater Israel and the subjugation of the Palestinians as slaves living as third class citizens within that state. It will require that the Palestinian refugees dispersed throughout the Arab and Muslim world, become more involved and active as participants in the Palestinian resistance and it will require that Muslims everywhere, just as Jews everywhere, recognize that we are at war, not for land as they are, but for freedom. The war is for freedom of these, and for all other peoples living under occupation. The Zionists are fighting for land, but the Palestinians and the conscientious people of the world who support them will resist in pursuit of justice and freedom, not only for Palestinians but also for those who we know will soon fall prey to this same challenge, as the imperialists, emboldened by success in Palestine, intensify their drive to take over the Muslim and Arab world and also the resources, including the people of the region.

The death of the two state solution could give life to a free Palestine, but only if the people of the world decide that Palestine must be freed. We must decide to end this illegal occupation that is threatening to use brute strength to capture and enslave an indigenous people based upon a false narrative that has been used deceptively to convince the world that an illegal and criminal enterprise has been imposed upon us by a Jewish god that has supposedly enslaved Gentiles to serve these supposed chosen people. A chosen people whose society is overrun with organized crime, prostitution, human trafficking, government corruption, and the guilt of innocent blood, spilled without conscience, or consequence. We, meaning the entire world, is at a crossroads, and we must decide now, that Palestine will either be free, or lost forever to Greater Israel, a criminal apartheid state. If we decide that Palestine should die, be prepared, because there will be no hope for Africa, or Latin America or any of the other small countries with coveted land and resources. The battle for Palestine will be the last battle for freedom in our time. Decide now to win or surrender.

Why every Muslim must become the Islamic resistance

Anisa Abd el Fattah


With the people of the world continuing to ignore the plight of the Palestinian people, who are continuously suffering due to the results of an illegal and brutal military occupation, and as the international institutions and Arab, and Western governments continue to ignore Israel’s violence and repeated violations of international law, it is becoming increasingly clear to Muslims and Arabs throughout the world, that we must become the Islamic resistance that we dream of.

The truth is all too apparent, that the Arab governments and the international institutions are not going to address the very serious problem of Israeli aggression and violations of international laws in respect to Palestine. They are also never going to help Muslim and Arab people in our struggle for human rights and freedoms in our own countries. The truth is that as far as the world is concerned, Muslims and Arabs have no rights, and our lives, as far as they are concerned, have little or no value.

Israel has launched an intense crackdown on the Palestinian people. PA aggression against the Palestinian resistance, under the guidance of traitors and collaborators such as former PA President Mahmoud Abbas, is no longer a secret. Abbas, who is filled with selfishness and envy and his European trained Palestinian anti-resistance force, have crippled the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank, leaving the people defenseless against the almost daily violence of Zionist Jewish settlers. This campaign against the resistance has been helped in Gaza by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak who worked diligently to cripple the resistance in Gaza by blowing up tunnels, and preventing the people from having food and other materials essential for normal lives, including electricity that has been shut off in many areas. Never forget that it was Hosni Mubarak who trapped the people of Gaza and prevented them from escaping three weeks of massacre carried out by Israel, that left 1,500 Palestinians dead, 500 of whom were women and children. Now Jordan is also rounding up pro-Palestinian activists and making it a crime to protest or even to write in support of the Palestinian people. Will we wait until everyone is behind bars, or dead before we act?

When we speak of these illegitimate governments, we are not talking about decent human beings who are interested in peace as they claim. They are liars and they are the only ones who are making war, and they are making war against unarmed, and starving, defenseless people because they are not Jews. These animals are liars and hypocrites and mass murderers who feel that they have crushed the Islamic resistance by killing and imprisoning members of Islamic and Muslim groups and organizations in Palestine. We are talking about ruthless and godless animalistic men and women who can do anything cruel and horrible to achieve their goals.

For Israel, the goal is to dominate the Muslim world and to reign as master over its people and resources. For the wicked and corrupt Arab dogs that facilitate Israel, their goals are merely to stay in power and to be protected by the US and Israel from being exposed, and held accountable for the crimes against humanity and human rights violations they perpetrate against their own people. They don't want the world to know that they torture, rape and sodomize prisoners, and disappear people to prevent criticism and to shut down opposition. They are also afraid that one day they will be held accountable for the billions in US foreign aid they have squandered. They live like kings while the Muslim and Arab people in their countries are mostly illiterate and live in gross poverty, and are denied even basic rights in many places.

The time has come for Muslims to stop looking at the Muslim world through the eyes of the colonialists who carved up the Muslim territories and who imposed their authority through the appointment of hand picked secular and atheist puppet governments and monarchies that are illegitimate and unjust rulers of what used to be the Muslim empire.

It is time for us to remember, that in our world, there are no Palestinians, or Jordanians, or Iraqis, or Egyptians, or Muslim Americans, or Lebanese, Iranians, etc., etc, etc., and that we are all Muslim. We must remember that along with God, we are all that we have. And as we remember this, we must unite in heart and soul, and we must become the Islamic resistance that we dream of. The time has come to end Muslim suffering and to demand freedom and justice for our people. This is why we, meaning every Muslim, must become the Islamic resistance. We must work tirelessly to free our people and our lands from all illegitimate governments, oppressors, tyrants and occupiers. We must do so according to Islamic laws, and in ways that are just, and without hatred. We must do so, with complete trust in God.

There is no peace in Palestine

Word is that Washington and the other Western and European powers are happy that former PA president Mahmoud Abbas will be involved in what they are calling indirect talks with Israel. What a sham. Mahmoud Abbas is no longer president of the PA and is barely holding onto power in Fatah, where he was threatened with ouster just months ago. Abbas is a Palestinian leader who has the unique distinction of being drenched in the blood of his own people, on whose behalf he will pretend to negotiate. In fact, one might suspect that his being drenched in Palestinian blood makes him the perfect peace partner for Benjamin Netanyahu, who we all know is also drenched in Palestinian blood. That blood includes the fresh blood of Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Mabhouh, who was assassinated in January by an Israeli hit team in Dubai. This has obviously upset Abbas so much, that his participation in indirect talks will supposedly begin this week, rather than after Dubai’s police chief issues the arrest warrant he has pledged to issue for Netanyahu’s arrest in relationship to the Dubai murder.

The fact that the two peace partners are not men who care the least bit about Palestine and who could care even less about the Palestinian people is not the biggest problem with the so called indirect negotiations. The biggest problem is that they are again claiming to be negotiating peace, when everyone knows there is no peace to negotiate in Palestine. Israel, knowing that Abbas was chomping at the negotiations bit, even though he pretended to hold out for an Israeli halt to illegal settlement building which everyone knew was not going to happen, has been very busy preparing for the talks by grabbing up more Palestinian land, even laying claim to Christian and Muslim holy sites under the false claim that the sites are part of the Jewish heritage of Israel. Netanyahu knows what Abbas ignores, and that is that whatever he takes prior to negotiations is non negotiable, and Israel’s European and US patrons will never force or pressure Israel to give up anything of the land that it claims as its Biblical right, even if that land is under the religious sites of other faiths, whose existence dates back centuries ago.

With Netanyahu doing everything in his power to confiscate as much land as he can prior to the so called indirect talks, Abbas’s role is already limited. What will he negotiate? It’s obvious that these talks are not about Palestinian land, or even a state, all things that Israel has either already taken or already refused. So what is the point of these indirect negotiations? The purpose of these indirect talks is to decide how to complete the continued ethnic and religious cleansing of the West Bank and Jerusalem through a negotiated agreement with Mahmoud Abbas, and his Fatah movement whose membership now includes two Zionist Israeli Jews who have inroads into the Israel government.

Netanyahu has said that he wants Jordan to be involved in all subsequent talks which means that he is ready to introduce John Hagee’s and the other Christian Zionist’s proposed solution to the crisis in Palestine, which is to further ignore the Geneva Conventions and to transfer the Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem to Jordan. Funny don’t you think how Jordan keeps popping up in these final solutions proposed by Israel for their land grabbing schemes? First Palestine, then Iraq, and now back to Palestine. Makes one wonder why Israel thinks Jordan is willing or even interested in becoming an Israeli proxy authority over Palestinians and Iraqis displaced by Israel’s maneuvers to reconstruct what it deems Greater Israel.

It’s also important to note that the Palestinian people themselves are not interested in either direct or indirect talks with Israel. Most, if not all of the other Palestinian factions, who represent two or three times the number of Palestinians represented by Fatah, and who feel that they are not represented adequately by the PLO, are opposed to any negotiations with Israel. The people who make up and support these factions remember that every round of negotiations with Israel ends with a massacre as punishment for refusing Israel’s demands. They already know that regardless of the lies Abbas will tell, or what promises he makes, knowing that he cannot deliver anything, the Palestinian people must prepare to fight, and to survive more crippling and devastating pressure, resulting from the schemes Israel and the traitorous Arab governments will employ to deny Palestinians statehood, the right of return, and anything of meaning, and only transfer.

This also explains why Israel is desperate for the US to impose crippling sanctions on Iran, going so far as to request that the US attempt to blockade Iran to prevent Iran from being able to move its ships outside the Persian Gulf, should Iran decide to come to the rescue of the Palestinians. Israel realizes that the only thing that can foil its wicked plan is the Islamic movement and it is working desperately to do what it can to prevent any of the countries or groups that have taken an Islamic position on the crisis in Palestine from coming to Palestine’s assistance. With the approval of the Arab League for Israel’s final solution, communicated slyly as its “approval” of indirect talks between Abbas and Israel, Israel feels that its future as a Jewish only state that has captured all of historic Palestine is finally within sight. If it can either neutralize or defeat Syria, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas and the other resistance groups in Palestine, its dream of complete capture and control of historic Palestine, and normalized relations with its traitorous Arab neighbors will have come true. If this scenario plays out as Israel hopes, all of the murder, torture, lies and violations of the law will have paid off and perhaps forgiven or ignored by a world that is weary of this problem and perhaps willing to take whatever solution it can get, even at the expense of Palestinian life, rights, hopes and homeland.

There is no peace in Palestine and none will be found until Abbas resigns, the PA is dissolved and the people of Palestine allowed to elect their own representatives and to present to the world, their own demands for freedom for Israel’s brutal and illegal occupation. No amount of fake negotiations will lead to peace, in fact everything that is now being put in place by the US, EU, Israel and the traitor Arab states will be a cause for war. It will be war because Israel and the traitor Arab states will never again be left to torture and torment the Palestinian people as the world looks on and does nothing. Neither will they be allowed to transfer the Palestinians to Jordan. Israel and its lackeys east and west, have miscalculated the strength of those who are determined that Israel will not succeed, and that the blood, hopes, lives, homes and the rights of the Palestinian people, will not be a casualty of Israel’s sick and demented fantasy of greater Israel and a Jewish only state, nor a casualty of the religious fanaticism of the Christian wrong who are attempting to force the world into Armageddon, or their cowardly sycophants in the governments of the EU and the US.

Peacemaking in Palestine

Anisa Abd el Fattah

Palestine seems to be at that place in history where things can go delightfully right or miserably wrong, based upon a single decision to either re-engage with Israel in peace negotiations, or not. Of course the use of the word peace is deceptive in this respect, because negotiations as far as Israel is concerned are not really a quest for peace as one might imagine. Israel is not interested in peace as in withdrawing to its pre war 67 borders, and removing its illegal checkpoints, stopping military raids, kidnappings, and ending apartheid, the siege on Gaza etc. In fact these issues have never been negotiable as far as Israel is concerned. Keep in mind also that Israel has never lived up to a negotiated agreement.

It seems that at least as far as Israel is concerned, the word peace is little more than a way to express a desire for Palestinians to decide whether they will submit to being displaced through a process of negotiated agreements, or if they prefer to be displaced forcefully. In other words, Israel seems to believe that through negotiations it will determine how the cleansing of Palestine will take place. In the past, whenever Israel failed to get what it wanted at the negotiating table, it has punished the Palestinians with violent massacres and brutal military assaults.

For those who think this opinion is too cynical let’s look at the facts. The Knesset could vote to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and peace, as understood from the traditional definition, would be immediate. After all, Palestinians are not attacking Israel, or Israelis. They are not shooting them, bombing them, confiscating their land, demolishing their homes, destroying their farms, killing their livestock or literally chasing them from their homes and moving into them. The Palestinians mostly threaten to retaliate in return for Israel’s acts of violence, but seldom do. If we were to look only at the facts and ignore Israel’s incendiary rhetoric, it would become quite cleat that Israel is the reason that there is no peace, and they are the only people making perpetual war. The reality is that negotiations are not required for there to be peace, and no violence is required for peacemaking. Israel could withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, remove its checkpoints, buy out the illegal settlers, ( and all are illegal) then relocate them to Israel proper. What would be left to be negotiated after that might be water rights and security arrangements that would prevent Israel from breeching its borders again, and attempting to confiscate the natural gas and oil reserves that belong to Palestine.

Unfortunately, neither Mahmoud Abbas nor any of the PLO team has suggested to Israel that if Israel wants to have meaningful negotiations, there should first be peace, at least in the sense that all Israeli violence against Palestinians should end as a gesture of sincerity. That, to most people would be more important and urgent than an end to settlement building which is really almost meaningless when we consider that anyone can live in those buildings, but no one can bring the Palestinians that are being murdered almost daily back to life. The lives and security of the Palestinian people would be the priority in the real world. Only in this conflict are the rights of the illegal occupier and war criminal more important than the rights and protection of its victim.

It is not difficult to understand why the US is pushing for renewed negotiations. The US is bankrupt and simply cannot afford to sustain Israel’s appetite for violence and weaponry much longer. On top of that, the US, which is fighting two other wars for the sake of Israel, cannot take any more risk that blow back from these Zionist inspired misadventures will manifest on America’s shores, or against its interests abroad. The US might be ready for that theoretical Clean Break that is the underlying purpose for all of these wars, occupations and violence. The Clean Break, as far as the US is concerned can’t be realized except through a negotiated process that saves face for Israel who would rather be seen as a top flight negotiator and peacemaker than a violent warmonger, even though in the past Israel has only been successful at war, and these wars were carried out and victories realized with the help of the US and other world powers who are committed to Israel because of religious fervor and fanaticism, and not based upon any logical, strategic or even remotely just idea.

The trouble in Palestine will only be resolved when the Palestinians themselves stop playing Israel’s game and figure out what their own unique interest is. What is their objective?

The Palestinians must realize that they will never be free of Israel without a decisive victory, either military or diplomatic that will force Israel to abandon the idea that it can achieve its desire to take all of Palestine militarily should Israel not get what it wants through negotiations. That means that Palestinians must accept that they cannot be free of Israel without a fight, unless some power that can balance the influence of the US, Israel and the EU gets involved and commits to Palestinian security with the same enthusiasm that the US and EU has committed to Israel’s. Iran, Turkey, Russia and China can do that, but will they?

The Palestinians must also be willing to state what issues are negotiable and, limit those issues to those not already the subject of UN resolutions, or issues that can be resolved by adhering to international laws, conventions and treaties. In other words, Israel should not be allowed to evade the law, or rewrite the law through negotiations. This is in fact prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. Only issues that are not addressed by law should be subject to negotiation and it might be worth it for Palestine to create a commission to review all relevant conventions, laws, treaties and resolutions in an effort to determine what can be legally negotiated and what cannot, and should not be included.

Last but not least, Palestine must decide what it wants as a reasonable gesture of sincerity from Israel before agreeing to renewed talks. I would suggest that it be that all violence against Palestinians, including kidnappings, raids, torture etc. end immediately, without exception, along with land confiscations, home demolitions and settler violence. I would suggest that Israel be put on notice that a single act of settler violence will end all negotiations. I would also demand that Israel end its illegal siege on Gaza. Minus any of these changes, there would be no negotiations.

The trouble in Palestine stems from either an unwillingness or inability of the Palestinians to identify and act in their own interests without feeling obligated to please either the US or the EU.

There is also without doubt, some fear based upon past experience, that just as the US pretends to play peacemaker, it is equally capable and has also played war maker, providing tacit approval and providing weapons and also financing for Israel’s illegal attacks on Palestine, carried out as punishment for refusing Israel’s advances at the negotiating table. The US is not an honest broker in this conflict and the Palestinians know it, but really haven’t been able up to this point to do much about it. The only way to solve this problem is for other players to become involved who are capable of leveraging Israeli, US and European power, taking the side of the Palestinians. These must be countries who have the capacity and are willing to exact punishment on Israel, and also the US and EU if and when they carry out acts of illegal and unjust violence, and aggression against Palestine.

The way to make and sustain peace is to balance power, and the way to negotiate is to limit negotiations to your own, not your opponents interests, to the extent possible. In respect to Israel’s illegal military occupation, those issues related to its withdrawal, its borders, etc., have already been addressed, either by UN resolutions or the law, and Israel should respect and conform to the law. What would be left in that case is for Israel and Palestine to work out the terms for sharing the land in ways that are fair, just and that sustain peace. This is the real purpose of peace negotiations and a legitimate peace process. This would take real Palestinian leadership and cannot be carried out by people who are only interested in pleasing the US and Israel, or who are seeking power and money, and fame, or who fear displeasing the US and Israel.

While waiting for the Palestinians to prepare for such negotiations, Israel should end all violence against the Palestinian people, including settler violence, home demolitions, destruction of agriculture and livestock and confiscation of land, and also its excavation under Al Aqsa mosque. Israel must also end its illegal embargo of Gaza, and remove the illegal settlers from the West Bank and prepare for complete withdrawal.

Those who are really interested in peace between Palestinians and Israel need to encourage and assist Israel in conforming to the numerous UN resolutions that address the illegal occupation, Israel’s persistent violence, the illegal economic siege on Gaza and settler violence, etc. The Geneva Conventions and other international laws provide guidance and limits for both the Palestinians and the Israelis that can clear the pathway to a negotiated agreement explaining how these two people will share the land in real peace once the illegal occupation has ended and the people are clear that they are preparing, or rather being prepared for co-existence, and not the domination of any group of people over the other.

African Union holds key to Rafah Crossing: "Will they use it?"

On October 29, 2009, the National Association of Muslim American Women (NAMAW), a US based NGO and member of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians, sent an appeal to all of the members of the African Union requesting that the African Union take jurisdiction over the Rafah Crossing, and provide the necessary military and security support to insure that the crossing is operated safely, and efficiently.

The African Union, which has adopted the UN Rome Statute as a guide for its own set of human rights laws, has the authority to take jurisdiction from Egypt, since Egypt is a member of the African Union, and bound by its human rights laws, and is subject to the African Union’s authority. It is clear that by keeping the crossing closed, and denying Palestinian’s humanitarian aid, including food, medicines and medical supplies, and also building materials and equipment, that Egypt is in violation of Articles 6 and 7 of the Rome Statute that prohibits genocide and crimes against humanity. Egypt is also blatantly violating the African Union’s human rights laws and principles.

It is clear from even a cursory review of the Rome Statute that both Israel and Egypt are in almost certainly in violation of article 6, which prohibits genocide. The Statute describes genocide as “acts committed to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group ...” The statute includes such acts as “ killing members of the group, causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”

They are also likely in violation of Article 7, “Crimes against Humanity” which is described by the Rome Statute as “acts committed as part of a widespread or systemic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.” According to the Rome Statute such acts include, but may not be limited to murder, extermination, torture, rape, persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other grounds...”

Under the above mentioned definition, the Rome Statue also criminalizes apartheid, and “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body, or physical health.”


Whereas much is being made of Israel’s history of alleged war crimes and refusal to abide by UN resolutions in respect to Palestine, and especially in respect to its continued and illegal economic siege on Gaza, little has been said about the fact that Israel’s embargo could not succeed if Egypt, a supposedly Muslim and Arab nation/state, was not providing full support and cooperation, making it possibly a co-conspirator with Israel in the conduct of these crimes.

Since there is little hope that either the EU or US will use their considerable influence over Israel, to lift the illegal embargo, it is clear that the only hope now is for the people of the Muslim and Arab world to come together to insist that Egypt end its possibly criminal cooperation with Israel, and act according to international law by opening the Rafah Crossing.

There must also be greater pressure applied by the international Muslim religious authorities who can call for Muslim and Arab boycotts of Egyptian goods, along with boycotting Israeli goods, should Egypt also thumb its nose at the African Union.

Muslim, Arab and African people are shocked by Egypt’s stubbornness in respect to permanently re-opening the Rafah Crossing, and many suspect that this stubbornness is being driven by a new lucrative industry that has sprung up in Egypt that is dependant upon illegally confiscated aid and goods intended for Gaza, along with bribes paid by activists who want to enter the strip for humanitarian causes, and also bribes paid by journalists.

Egypt has begun to auction off the goods intended for Gaza that it confiscates from tunnels under the guise of searching for weapons. If the goal is to prevent the re-arming of Gaza, why is food and equipment confiscated and why can’t these confiscated items be delivered by Egyptian security to the Gazans? Previously Egypt burned and even allowed donated foods to rot, rather than to allow the people of Gaza to receive and benefit from the humanitarian aid, illegally confiscated by Egypt at the borders and also in the makeshift tunnels. This shows that it is Egypt’s clear intent to deny the people of Gaza the sustenance and medical aid required for their survival, and that this denial is based purely upon the Egyptian, US, PA and Israeli desire to undermine the elected government, and to overthrow Hamas.

Hopes are high, that since Libya’s leader Muammar Qaddhafi, known for his fiery speeches in support of the Palestinian’s ongoing struggle, is the present head of the AU, that the Union will use its power and authority to end the illegal siege on Gaza by permanently re-opening the Rafah crossing, and possibly bringing charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Egypt in its own criminal court. The AU can also recommend to the International Criminal Court, that an investigation immediate into Egypt’s wrong doing get underway, while giving jurisdiction over the crossing, which is in Africa, to the African Union.

With winter and the cold weather approaching quickly, it is of the utmost importance that adequate shelter, clothing, food and medical care be made immediately available for the people of Gaza. The African Union holds the key to the Rafah Crossing; let’s pray that they will use that key to save the lives of the people of Gaza.

The Third Player

Everyone is asking why the Democrats refuse to say that racism is what is driving the far right wing’s hatred of Obama. People are asking why the right wing hates Obama so much and why the hate seems to increase rather than decrease as time goes on. In a representative Republic that is as old as the United States, after more than half a year, we should be getting used to having a Black man in the White House, rather than getting angrier by the day.

The obvious answer is exactly what everyone is saying, that it’s better to ignore the race baiting right wing, because they are trying to incite a revolution that would drive the Democrats out of power, and put the Republicans back into power. The not so obvious answer is that the people on the right that are driving the hatred of Obama, and who are actually hoping to create an environment of hatred and polarization that might lead to civil war and/or Obama’s assassination, are likely the same group, with operatives on the left, who are misguiding Democrats to remain silent, allowing the hate speech and the incitement to continue unchallenged, perhaps in hope of the same tragic outcomes.

The right claims that they want revolution, and the left claims that it wants change, which is another word for revolution depending upon the amount of change and the method one chooses to bring that change about. Both are lying. It is clear to many people that what they both seem to want, is to pit American against American and to throw this country into chaos through a civil war. While the right wing screams about fighting socialism, the left screams about the rise of the south through the Republican Party, painting the south as a threat to the union and the cause of homosexual killings, the reason for no health care reform and an increase in racism against immigrants and minorities.

Zionists in this country are perhaps seeking to recreate the hatreds between the north and south that once turned brother against brother in this country, and that filled America’s fields and meadows with American blood, and the eyes of our people with tears.

Strange isn’t it that it’s the neoconservatives who run the Republican Party and the Zionists who run the Democrats who are absent from the political stage at this critical time in our country. We know why the neoconservative leadership is silent; they have the far right wing Christian Zionist fanatics to do their dirty work. These fanatics are more than willing to call Obama Hitler, and to claim that they are fighting socialism, as they hurl not so subtle racial slurs at the White House, because they believe they are serving God’s chosen people, the Jews. They don’t understand the difference between Judaism and Zionism.

The Zionist Democrats are also strangely silent, but possibly for a different reason. They don’t want to interfere with the good work of their Zionist brothers on the right. If the Democrat’s were to take up former President Jimmy Carter’s challenge to the country, to confront our racial fears and prejudices, it might lead to national reconciliation, which is not the goal. The goal is civil war, and the few of us who have not fallen under the spell of hatred and intolerance that was cast over our country after 9/11, have an obligation to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

Edmund Burke, one of the founders of the true conservative movement, in his critique of the French Revolution brought some important observations to our attention that might be relevant to our situation in the US today. One of those observations was that the antagonists, who were busy inciting hatred against the monarchy in France that led to the revolution, did so from the pulpits of the protestant churches in England, even though they were not Englishmen and were in fact strangers in the communities. Burke also observed that these preachers of intolerance and protestant religious fanaticism were not Frenchmen, and referred to them as the Old Jewry. Burke wrote:

It appears to me as if I were in a great crisis, not of the affairs of France alone, but of all Europe, perhaps of more than Europe. All circumstances taken together, the French revolution is the most astonishing that has hitherto happened in the world. The most wonderful things are brought about, in many instances by means the most absurd and ridiculous, in the most ridiculous modes, and apparently by the most contemptible instruments. Everything seems out of nature in this strange chaos of levity and ferocity, and of all sorts of crimes jumbled together with all sorts of follies. In viewing this monstrous tragicomic scene, the most opposite passions necessarily succeed and sometimes mix with each other in the mind: alternate contempt and indignation, alternate laughter and tears, alternate scorn and horror.

It cannot, however, be denied that to some this strange scene appeared in quite another point of view. Into them it inspired no other sentiments than those of exultation and rapture. They saw nothing in what has been done in France but a firm and temperate exertion of freedom, so consistent, on the whole, with morals and with piety as to make it deserving not only of the secular applause of dashing Machiavellian politicians, but to render it a fit theme for all the devout effusions of sacred eloquence.

On the forenoon of the fourth of November last, Doctor Richard Price, a non-conforming minister of eminence, preached, at the dissenting meeting house of the Old Jewry, to his club or society, a very extraordinary miscellaneous sermon, in which there are some good moral and religious sentiments, and not ill expressed, mixed up in a sort of porridge of various political opinions and reflections; but the Revolution in France is the grand ingredient in the cauldron. I consider the address transmitted by the Revolution Society to the National Assembly, through Earl Stanhope, as originating in the principles of the sermon and as a corollary from them. It was moved by the preacher of that discourse. It was passed by those who came reeking from the effect of the sermon without any censure or qualification, expressed or implied. If, however, any of the gentlemen concerned shall wish to separate the sermon from the resolution, they know how to acknowledge the one and to disavow the other. They may do it: I cannot.

For my part, I looked on that sermon as the public declaration of a man much connected with literary caballers and intriguing philosophers, with political theologians and theological politicians both at home and abroad. I know they set him up as a sort of oracle, because, with the best intentions in the world, he naturally philippizes and chants his prophetic song in exact unison with their designs.

That sermon is in a strain which I believe has not been heard in this kingdom, in any of the pulpits which are tolerated or encouraged in it, since the year 1648, when a predecessor of Dr. Price, the Rev. Hugh Peters, made the vault of the king's own chapel at St. James's ring with the honor and privilege of the saints, who, with the "high praises of God in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands, were to execute judgment on the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron".[1] Few harangues from the pulpit, except in the days of your league in France or in the days of our Solemn League and Covenant in England, have ever breathed less of the spirit of moderation than this lecture in the Old Jewry. Supposing, however, that something like moderation were visible in this political sermon, yet politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement. No sound ought to be heard in the church but the healing voice of Christian charity. The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties. Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume. Wholly unacquainted with the world in which they are so fond of meddling, and inexperienced in all its affairs on which they pronounce with so much confidence, they have nothing of politics but the passions they excite. Surely the church is a place where one day's truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and animosities of mankind.

Burke called these dissenters a Third Estate that was inciting the people of France against the French monarchy. Frenchmen, fighting against Frenchmen caused France to fall to Zionism. It was Edmund Burke who said to us that when two parties are drawn into conflict and there is a third party, the power of the two in conflict will fall to the third party. The French monarchy was the only barrier to Zionist rule because it was based upon blood lineage and not a popular vote. After the French revolution and the murder and exile of the royals, who claimed blood lineage to Jesus Christ, France was left to the Zionists who bought France with the power of the purse. In the United States today, Zionism is that same third party. Burke talked about the affects of Zionist rule in France saying:

They have found their punishment in their success: laws overturned; tribunals subverted; industry without vigor; commerce expiring; the revenue unpaid, yet the people impoverished; a church pillaged, and a state not relieved; civil and military anarchy made the constitution of the kingdom; everything human and divine sacrificed to the idol of public credit, and national bankruptcy the consequence; and, to crown all, the paper securities of new, precarious, tottering power, the discredited paper securities of impoverished fraud and beggared rapine, held out as a currency for the support of an empire in lieu of the two great recognized species that represent the lasting, conventional credit of mankind, which disappeared and hid themselves in the earth from whence they came, when the principle of property, whose creatures and representatives they are, was systematically subverted. Zionism is also the third party in the US today, and we are also feeling and witnessing these same effects.

It is interesting that the hatred of Obama, and the anti Obama rhetoric and gun toting symbolism and threats of violence and revolution, seem to grow in proportion to US calls for Israel to end illegal settlement building in Palestine and a reinvigorated peace process that would see Israel make concessions to the Palestinians that Israel does not intend to make, and also calls for an audit of the Federal Reserve.

It is also interesting that this is exactly how the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin took place. First right wing Zionists began the seemingly harmless verbal insults, calling Rabin a self hating Jew, etc. When Rabin refused to challenge the rhetoric, it got worse, until they were carrying signs in the street calling Rabin Hitler, and even went so far as to burn him in effigy. Soon after a few cries from the left went out for the rhetoric to tone down, Rabin was gunned down by a right wing Zionist settler.

Of course to some people,suggesting that Zionists are pushing the United States into a civil war, or even a revolution if that is the case, seems as crazy as calling Obama Hitler, and also as difficult to believe as the silence of the Democrats. The difference is that suggesting that Zionists are pushing the United States into civil war and chaos could save this country, if given serious consideration, and if the necessary steps are taken to stop the momentum that is pushing us in that direction. Neither Republican incitement, nor the Democrat’s silence can, or will do that.

http://www.constitution.org/eb/rev_fran.htm

How Judeo/Christian jurisprudence failed the world, and why Islamic law might be our last chance for justice

Without doubt the jurisprudence of the Western world was inspired by the religions Christianity and Judaism. Secularists and atheists in the West have spent years trying to disprove the fact that indeed the laws of their lands were inspired by what is commonly accepted today as the Ten Commandments, other laws of the Old Testament and to a lesser degree the teachings of Jesus Christ.

As the laws of the West were being promulgated, it seems that Western lawmakers took the meaning of the law from the Old Testament, and their ideas of redemption and rehabilitation somewhat from the teachings of Jesus who preached love of enemies, mercy and redemption through God’s grace for all of mankind. Unfortunately in Western jurisprudence, Jesus’ ideas don’t come into play until the Old Testament laws have placed a person in prison where now as a convict, it is believed that the teachings of Jesus should have more bearing on his destiny than the judgment of the Pharisees.

There are those who believe that the term Judeo/Christian reflects the timing of the various periods of rule of these faith’s ideas, Judaism having preceded Christianity. In reality, it is quite possible that the juxtaposition of the terms reflects their position in respect to which commands the greatest amount of influence in our contemporary law and its interpretation. Even today, we find that our supposedly secular legislature in the United States looks quite a bit to the Old Testament for guidance, or at least inspiration in respect to its approaches to war, peace, justice and also punishments. There is practically nothing, either in federal or state laws that give the impression that we , as a country are any longer interested in rehabilitating or redeeming the soul of man except through the evangelicalism of the protestant church which focuses its zeal mainly on the Arab and Muslim world, and of course Africa.

The US Church has seemingly lost interest in saving its domestic flock, except when it’s time to vote. In both the Church’s and the Synagogue’s domestic politics, we find a lot of Caiaphas and very little Jesus in their attitudes on abortion, capital punishment, marriage, homosexuality and entitlement and the legislation passed by our Congress that regulate these customs. Even in respect to law enforcement, we find increasingly that the idea of a constabulary whose aim is to serve and protect the citizen, is giving way to a system where the police officer is seen as an agent of the government whose purpose is to protect the property and interest of the government authority from the citizen who is no longer innocent until proven guilty, but is rather guilty until proven innocent, which is straight out of the Judaism of Pharisees. This seems the case, in spite of the fact that the government owns nothing and has no interest that is not also the citizen’s property and interest.

Prisoners who languish in US prisons, a disproportionate number of which are minorities, African Americans and Hispanics, have been excluded from our American evangelicalism, except when it comes to competing with Islam for converts. Christian converts are given privileges and special treatments in prisons that other prisoners who convert to religions like Islam, or Buddhism are not. There have also been attempts to impose difficult requirements upon Muslim preachers and Imams who which to work in the prisons, and also their Muslim followers. The Church and Synagogue went so far in their attempts to chase Muslim preachers away from the prisons that they launched false and absurd charges that Muslim preachers were radicalizing prisoners against the government, and recruiting them to be domestic terrorists. Even though it has neither been said nor proven, it is my opinion that prisoners like Imam Jamil Al Amin who is being kept in solitary confinement in a super max prison for a crime that he very obviously did not commit, are denied Qur’ans, and the right to pray in congregational prayers because of such lies that were whispered into the ears of legislators, and subsequently the DOJ and Prison Wardens, by evangelicals in competition with Islam.

Of course the case of one man is not enough to support my argument that Judeo/Christian jurisprudence, once touted as the most fair, impartial and independent judicial philosophy and system in the world has failed. Not only has it failed, but it has fallen to the extent that its core principles, stated values and cause are barely visible anymore to the public’s eye, and it is the public’s eye by which any system of justice should be viewed, and not through the eyes of professional jurists, theorists and judges.

Perhaps the most glaring example of the failure of the Judeo/Christian judicial system is the United State’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Palestine. We need go no further to mention the backlash against Muslims and Arabs following 9/11. The rounding up of innocents who were placed in secret prisons where they were tortured, not to get information to protect civilization from the violence of religious extremists, but rather to coerce false confessions from innocent people, hoping to provide testimony to support the war on terrorism initiated by Israel prior to 9/11, is also a sign of moral and legal failure.

Following 9/11 our government, with the knowledge and assistance of Europe, rounded up young men, denied them their freedom because of their race and religion, tortured them and killed them because these governments were looking for false confessions about fake Muslim plots to carry out fictional acts of terrorism. This is not to mention that bodies of jurisprudence, like the Omnibus Anti-Terrorism Law, Secret Evidence Act, and the Patriot Act which were adopted by our government, and similar laws adopted by government’s throughout the world who followed our lead as we enacted laws that stripped citizens of freedom, sought to deny people the right to self defense, that authorized illegal wiretapping and denied citizens the presumption of innocence and due process, all under the false guise of fighting terrorism.

The most persuasive sign of systemic failure is when a system fails to, or is incapable of responding to a crisis in a way that is consistent with its own self confessed values, principles and objectives. Judeo/Christian jurisprudence was not only incapable of rising to the challenge of blood lust and desire for revenge that permeated our society after the false flag attacks of 9/11, political appointees within our government were allowed to re-interpret and in some cases actually to rewrite laws to facilitate government lawlessness. US Prosecutors were dispatched with the command to round up Muslims and Arabs right here in the US to be deported, or arrested and tried sometimes twice or three times on the same charge until the prosecutor could find a jury that would convict people for acts carried out before laws were passed that criminalized past behavior.

The US judiciary became the primary battleground for the war on Islam being waged through our government by the Church and Synagogue, as war on terrorism, which is why our media never covered a single terrorism trial, except the trial of a French citizen named Mossaoui who shouted very negative and ridiculous claims about Islam to the jury during his testimony. He is a supposed Al Qadea operative that shared an e-mail with a US citizen of Jewish faith, who was killed in Iraq. It was reported upon the Jewish-American’s death, that his personal belongings included a Qur’an and anti-US propaganda that was littered with Qur’anic references, possibly to be left strategically at false flag crime scenes where Islam would be scapegoated as the usual suspect.

Instead of focusing on the crash of the US judicial system taking place before our very eyes, the media kept their lens focused on the illegal wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars kept American blood boiling and our fear level high enough to convince us that any challenge to our government’s errant behavior and the destruction of our judiciary was unpatriotic, undermining the troops, and making the US vulnerable to more attacks. Not until recently has the American public began to realize that the war on terrorism is a monumental hoax that has cost us billions in dollars, a priceless value in the lives of our young men and women who gave their lives in these crusades, and also those who have been injured and disabled for life. It also cost us our moral authority and our prestige and good standing in the world. Where were the judges, the lawyers, the great legal theorists and law professors? Why did they sit silently and not challenge those who were clearly undermining our judiciary and in fact our country?

The genocide in Palestine by contrast to Iraq and Afghanistan is a much more plain and convincing sign of the failure of the Judeo/Christian judicial theory and system of the West in my view. Through this conflict we have learned that Judeo/Christian law is not blind and equal if you are not Christian or Jewish, non white and rich. We also learned that there is no moral obligation either stated or implied towards those who are not Christian, Jewish European, or rich and famous. Keep in mind that the Ashkenazi Jews that rule Israel are white and European, and that it is their Talmud, even more than the Orthodox Jew’s and the Zionist Christian’s Old Testament that is undermining the world in respect to the rule of law and moral justice.

The fact that Israel has been allowed to implant itself through ethnic cleansing in the Muslim world based upon a fictional right supported by a suspect interpretation of their Old Testament historicism, should be enough to cause any jurist of any legal philosophy to cry foul. That this ethnic cleansing has been allowed to take place over 60 years, in violation of every law known to God and man is another proof that Judeo/Christian justice is not available to non Jews and non Christians, or Christians of the wrong race or culture. In fact Judeo/Christian law has proven incapable of recognizing the equal value of all human life and the equal potential for good of every human soul.

The most ironic and also the most disheartening fact in respect to the systemic failure of Judeo/Christian jurisprudence in respect to the colonization of Palestine by the European Ashkenazim, and the subsequent 9/11 failures, is that this is not the first time that it has failed so dramatically and destructively. It’s first historic failure of this magnitude was during the human slave trade of Africans to the West’s “New World” and the second was arguably the genocide against the Native Americans and then the periods of European colonization when neither the Church, or the European colonial governments were able to see or understand the evil of their project, even though their own judicial philosophy should have suggested to them that what was taking place in India, Africa and Latin America was not only a moral crime, but it was also the failure of Judeo/Christian jurisprudence to judge accurately and fairly the actions of its own society and leaders, and to hold them accountable.

It is important that we not only recognize this systemic civilizational failure in our lifetimes, but it is also important that we address it appropriately. The Judeo/Christian judicial philosophy has inspired and guided the establishment of independent judiciaries throughout the world, including many in the Muslim world. This judicial system of Judeo/Christian laws is arguably the single most significant cause of violence in the entire world, and might also be the cause of much of the world’s poverty, and much of the world’s crime. Its rhetoric fills the hearts and minds of people young and old with delusions of perfect justice that simply does not exist in the Judeo/Christian world and that could never be attained by a system, the very foundation of which is racial and class preference.

Anisa Abd el Fattah is the founder and Chairwoman of the National Association of Muslim American Women. She has a PH.D. in Islamic Jurisprudence from the Islamic College for Advanced Studies in London.

The state of the Muslim Ummah (Community)

With the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful


The State of the Muslim Ummah (Community)


As we look around at the world today, it is almost impossible to escape the feeling that something is tremendously wrong, and out of balance. Never before in our life times have things seemed more chaotic, while at the same time seeming to be orchestrated, shaped and imposed by a power or influence that is extremely dark and negative. Who ever imagined that one day the United States of America would be embroiled in wars whose aims are not to safe guard freedom, nor to address gross injustices or to defend itself from an imminent threat? Who among us would have ever dreamed that the United States of America would one day come to represent an oppressive, and occupying power that has set itself on a collision course with more than 1.5 billion people based upon what they believe. Who among us would ever have believed that the United States of America, a country founded by monotheists seeking a place where they could worship God freely and without fear of government persecution, would one day invade countries and kill people simply because they believe that there is only One God, and that Muhammad ibn Abdullah of Mecca is the last of His prophets, and that a Book called the Qur’an, that was revealed to that illiterate and humble man living in a desert over 1400 years ago, is God’s last Divinely revealed message to mankind. Who would ever believe that the United States of America would become the worldly power used to forcefully impose a New Secular World Order upon God’s earth, the aim of which is to reorder God’s creation, to abolish His laws, and to establish new man made laws whose purpose is to bring mankind into submission to the darkest inclinations of the human soul, which are greed for wealth, violence and lust for kingdom, dominion, and immortality.

A country whose Constitution once guaranteed the rights of all men to
believe in God freely and to express that belief freely openly, has become a country that goes to war and kills people because of what they believe about God, and his message to mankind. What is even more starling and unbelievable is that many Arab and Muslim governments have aligned themselves with these Secularists, and irreligious fanatics in their attempt to reorder the human society and to recreate it according to their laws and desires. They even help to kill and to starve Muslims and our children, looking for power, favors and protection from the godless.

A country whose Constitution was once the gold standard for social contracts that recognized and sought to protect the God given and inalienable rights of all human beings, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is now a country that spends days and weeks and months and years publicly debating whether or not torture works, and whether or not we should adopt and endorse the use of torture, even though it is against our laws, and traditions and is clearly not only illegal, but also immoral. Imagine that one of our country’s faith leaders would submit to that debate, the idea that we are not to contemplate what Jesus would do in a ticking bomb situation, but rather what Jesus would expect us to do and how far he would expect us to go to save innocent lives by torturing people to get information from them. This is the thinking and logic of one of the leaders of a religious organizations that professes the belief that Jesus Christ gave his life on a cross where he was tortured, because he would not forsaken his belief in One God, and in the message that he taught, which was revealed to him by that God. According to this imposters belief, Jesus Christ was tortured an died upon a cross for what he believed, yet he would expect his followers to torture to save lives. This failed logic also ignores the simple truth that you cannot know if someone has information about a ticking bomb unless you already have that same information. Even a lie detector test will fail in a situation where a person is being tortured. The truth is that they are sadist and they enjoy hurting others, especially Muslims.

The logic of that man is not the logic of Jesus, it is the the logic of the Pharisees, who felt that Jesus deserved to be scourged and killed because he refused to submit to their authority, and because he would not compromise his message to the Hebrew people, calling them to repentance for the false worship of men they had adopted after entering a covenant with God to worship him only, and to preserve the Book and the laws that had been revealed to the prophet Moses. Jesus gave hope to those of other tribes saying that God would send them a prophet, and described the prophet Muhammad (sa) who did receive a Divinely revealed and universal message for all of mankind.

This Secular World Order that is advancing like a storm, rumbling across the landscape of God’s earth has a history, and it goes back to the beginning, back to the story of creation where a disobedient entity that felt it had the right and power to challenge God for dominion over God’s creation said to God in rebellion, that he would not bow down to man, but rather should rule mankind because he was created of fire, and man from dust. These are metaphors representing the power to destroy over the power to procreate. It represents the power of fear used to subjugate mankind, in competition with the power of love as an incentive for life and the loyal worship of our Creator. Fire cannot create or give life, it cannot nourish or advance life, and it can only frighten and destroy unless it is controlled by a benevolent spirit that is of greater power. Thus, we have the quintessential battle between good and evil, acted out for us as the battle between Satan, the rebellious entity and Adam, the worldly father of mankind, created of love and dust, life giving and sustaining substances that are more powerful than fear of destruction, and lusts for kingdom and immortality in a darkened soul. So the objective of the rebellious entity is to prevent illumination, because the light shows mankind the pathway to God, our sustainer and source of real power.

Most of us who are familiar with religious texts and ways of thinking, look out at the world and see the fulfillment of prophecies, and those of us who seemingly recognize the times we are living in as the proverbial Last Days, will also realize, or rather remember that such days do not portend the end of the worlds, but rather they portend the coming of a day that the Qur’an says will be a Day that no one can put back, meaning it is Day that is unavoidable, the date for its arrival being fixed and will not be changed.

It is the arrival of this day that those who love God and who trust in Him await with fear, and it is a Day that the wicked and rebellious soul does not recognize, believe in, or fear, and it is this lack of belief or concern for the destination of their souls after death that will be the cause for their punishment and destruction. God told the prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an to remind the wicked of this Day, so they might learn to fear God. It is a day when every soul will be called to account for its violations of Gods laws and sins, and it is a Day where the righteous souls who have born the hardship of struggle towards God in a world wrought with evil, will find its relief, and its salvation.

The Qur’an says the angels will greet the righteous and say this is the promise of God fulfilled, so enter the garden with happiness in security. The righteous will return to the Garden from whence our father Adam was expelled as punishment for his disobedience. God’s promise to illuminate the path for those who desire to worship Him, will be fulfilled and the righteous will inherit the kingdom that Adam was temporarily denied. The Qur’an says those who enter the garden will be dressed in garments of green silk and brocade, and they will wear jewels, and sit upon thrones. The Qur’an says they will be fed the purest of foods and they will drink the most satisfying drinks while enjoying the companionship of the best and most beautiful of God’s creation. By contrast the wicked will be covered with burning tar that will cover their faces and bodies and they will burn until they are completely destroyed only to be reconstituted to be burned and destroyed over and over again. The Qur’an says they will drink a drink of the draining of wounds like puss.

The Muslim Ummah or community of Muslims exists in the world today as a sanctuary for those who believe, and who have the desire to return to the garden and to receive their inheritance and to live in peace in proximity to their Creator. I use the word sanctuary to suggest that within the company of Muslims it is accepted to believe in God, and to worship Him and to love Him, and to serve Him, unlike in the world without God. This ummah, which is not defined by geography or race, or color, but only by belief stretches across God’s earth. There is not a place on earth where there are not Muslims. We can imagine that this is due to the fact that we are carriers of something that no other people possess, and that is the truth, and the last message. What is that message? It is that mankind must repent and return from false worship of idols back to the worship of the One True God, or on the Day of Judgment the rebellious soul will be condemned to hell. It is the knowledge of God, His laws and His way that is the barrier to the complete dominion of God’s earth by the wicked and this is why they are at war with Islam. It is because darkness and light cannot co-exist. God said in the Qur’an that He hurled the truth and knocked the brains out of falsehood and that when truth arrives falsehood perishes because it is the nature of falsehood to perish. Falsehood is an illusion, like the power of Pharaoh, sorcery and illusion, while God’s power is real, perfect and complete, and it will not only destroy the Pharaohs of this world, it will destroy their sorcery and illusions, thereby freeing the human being from enslavement to falsehood and fear.

It is this message, this hope, this salvation that has made Islam the leading system of faith and life in the world. It is this power, this hope and opportunity that has caused Islam to be the fastest growing religion in the world. It is this brotherhood that is providing the comfort and the protection of the believers and it is this brotherhood that is organized to oppose and to defeat the forces of evil that seek to destroy belief in the One True God, and His laws, and to wipe out those who worship Him and Him alone.

The Hajj is a reflection of the state of the Ummat. When we see that it is well organized and orderly, and that the people are there in great numbers, it is the fulfillment of God’s promise to the prophet Muhammad (sa) where he said “Call them to the pilgrimage and they will come…” This is referring to the believing people. The Qur’an says they will come by any way possible, and will be lean on account of the distance and hardship of the journey. This doesn’t only that they are physically under nourished, but rather that they are a people who have traveled from a state of ignorance to truth and they have shed all of the excesses of life that impair the journey, or return to God, such as lusts and greed for anything except God.

The Hajj is the physical and spiritual manifestation of Ummah since it is where we gather in this world as we will, Insha Allah in heaven. We are all the same in dress, all the same in appearance, different only in name and experience and desire and need. We all come to Hajj for repentance, we all come to Hajj seeking nearness to God, seeking brotherhood, seeking peace, seeking forgiveness of sin, and also seeking guidance and restoration of our power. The rituals of Hajj are purifying because this ummah should be pure. We should not be committing sin and violation of God’s laws knowingly and purposefully. We should not be aiding others to carry out sin and to obscure the truth or to destroy and persecute the innocent. We should not be aiding the wicked to destroy God’s laws, or to abolish His order and replace it with a secular world order. We are a sanctuary and our presence should be saving and sustaining the believing people, and God’s earth.

In the Qur’an God cautioned the prophet Muhammad to be careful of the leadership of this Ummat. He told the prophet Muhammad to be careful about who is given authority in the mosques. He commanded the prophet Muhammad to replace the wicked, whose prayers are not answered and whose worship in the mosque is equal to whistling and clapping of hands, with the pure and pious who will strive and fight in the way of God, and not merely give water and creature comforts to pilgrims, and those who attend the mosques. The mosque is the center of Muslim ummat, and it must be kept clean, and it must be pure and it can only be led, and cared for by the righteous servants of God who have achieved proximity to God because God said about these people that he would hear their prayers and make their efforts successful, while he said about the hypocrites and the sinful unrepentant soul that it will be ineffective and all of its efforts would fail.

This ummat is in a perpetual state of Hajj, even when we are not in Mecca we are convening the lesser Hajj every Friday Jummah in the mosques. It is the time for repentance of sins, fellowship and guidance. It is the time for discussion of community affairs and settling disputes and distributing charity and visiting the sick and those who have been imprisoned.

The world is at war with Islam, but we are at peace. They are lying and hiding behind words that only fool people who have no God. The Qur’an says that those who God guides no one can mislead them, and those who God empower, no one can defeat them. The state of this Ummat is strong, yet it can be stronger. In spite of the loss of life and destruction of property, and the continuous attempts at our destruction, the believing people continue the journey, inviting every human being to take sanctuary with us, because God did create this Ummat as a sanctuary for mankind. As they kill millions of Muslims, the numbers of Muslims grow by millions. God says in the Qur’an about those who return to God in such circumstances, that even if they had been at home peacefully sleeping their beds and the time to transcend this life had come, they would have left us. It is only the circumstances of the illusion of their deaths that concern us, because these circumstances were allowed to challenge us and to test our abhorrence for injustice and sin, and mistreatment of the poor and weak. We will not exact justice because it appears that they died. We will exact justice because they were killed unjustly.

The prophet Muhammad (sa) taught us that no one should ever fear treachery from us, or theft from us, or violence and rudeness or offense from us. God told us in the Qur’an to even help the wicked and our enemies towards righteousness and cautioned us not to cause evil by provocation, incitement and misguidance.

It is very sad that Satan has sunk his stinger deep into the heart of the United States and other supposedly great powers and caused them to be used to attempt to wipe out Islam by killing its adherents and destroying their countries while attempting to confiscate our wealth and resources. They will never succeed, but worse and sadder is the fact that the innocent blood spilled has a price and the soul an owner who will demand His right and payment. Who will be able to pay?

We must remove our love and hearts from this world. We must enjoy the blessings of this life and the next, but not in sin. The material things should never mean more to us than salvation and nearness to God and eternal home in paradise. We must remember who we are as an ummat, and our purpose and we must be about this business of ours.

Make the word of God, which is the truth, available to all of mankind by every means except compulsion. Purify the mosques and establish the daily prayers. Attend the Jummah and use this day for all of its special attributes. No longer tolerate that any except the pure and righteous believers have authority over our mosques and our affairs. We must be guided by love, and desire for all of mankind to be spared hardship. We do this with charity, kind speech, personal and communal cleanliness, orderliness and minding our own business. The single should marry, and the married should procreate. Those burdened by vices and sins and addictions should never despair of God’s mercy and we should not cast them out for Satan to devour. Let them be part of the fellowship so long as they do not advertise or openly and promiscuously advocate sin and rebellion. In all of this let us remember that God said in the Qur;an that He has created a sanctuary for mankind so that mankind will be safe from being picked off and snatched away by Satan and the desires. We, this Ummat is that Sanctuary.

Allah bestows peace and blessings on the prophet Muhammad, his family and companions. Allah forgives this Ummat and guides us and blesses us. Oh Master, give us the wisdom and strength to bear the challenges with which you test and purify us and give us the grace to lead and protect the righteous. Make your Ummat a sanctuary for the sick, the poor, the frightened and the weak, and those who are seeking to know you and to worship you and you alone. Bless us with kind hearts and do not curse us to be cold hearted and violent. Make us exemplary to the world and a testament to your power and glory. Temper our anger and lusts for kingdom and immortality and make us accepting of your authority, your Decree, and your law. Make us successful, and give us refuge from the torment of the grave and from the hellfire. Ameen.