2. The Divine methodology of social morals is not theoretical; it is an educational one, with events and situations. A problem happens, Allah (SWT) leaves people deal with it the way they want, then finally He (SWT) sends Quranic ayahs to tell them where right is.
3. The Prophet (PBUH) represented a role model for the people in society. For instance, people were very poor, and when one of them went to the Prophet (PBUH) to complain of hunger, he found him in the same state too .The Prophet (PBUH) never ate except after the people ate. Being such an example, the Prophet (PBUH) helped the people to be patient; he (PBUH) was an example in everything.
4. The most important factor at large which helped the Prophet ( PBUH ) to plant good morals and to reform society was Al-Jannah ( paradise ). But how? He (PBUH) made it concrete in the minds of people, and used it as a stimulus to encourage people to do well. Our Prophet (PBUH) managed to find solutions for many problems with this stimulus. For example, to solve the problem of orphans and poverty he promised those who help those categories of poor people and orphans to be his companions in Paradise .Not only this , but even in the economical field he ( PBUH) preached that those who accurate their works are rewarded with paradise . He also used the reverse i.e. Jahanam (Hell ) to prevent bad manners . Modern psychologists are trying nowadays many theories such as "the reward- punishment" theory that has existed 14 centuries ago.
On the economical level, the society was very poor, but they moved towards developing all aspects of life . At that time, the role of businessmen started. Othman Ibn Affan, who was very rich, bought a water well from the Jews and offered it to the Muslims as a gift. The Prophet (PBUH) also set up a new market in Medina as the Jews were controlling the trade. There were also 70 youths from the companions who established a group to teach Ahlul – Saffa some handcrafts (small projects), to practise by day like turnery . Creativity found an outlet as well; using the minbar (pulbit) was the idea of a woman from the companions. She told the Prophet (PBUH) that to achieve better communication, he should stand on a high place to see the people and to be seen by them while delivering his speeches.
13 Feb 2011
Insights from the Prophet’s Social and Economic Reforms
Do you miss him *P.B.U.H* , as he did
We all know that Quran is valid in any time, and Allah says that his messenger is among us; so, is he among us? Of course he is, with his sunnah, with his legacy and the great heritage of knowledge and experiments in life which are yet to be all explored in the present days.
By revealing the path of the beloved (PBUH) and showing how the Prophet reformed in different fields of life, by exploring the life of the Prophet ( PBUH) and deriving various lessons , we do believe now that the idea of revival is not a dream: It is a reality which can work in our nation, but with one condition : following the footsteps of the Prophet (PBUH) and applying the lessons and meaning of his experiment as his model was the most successful one in all the human history.
23 Sept 2010
'Israel flotilla raid was unlawful'
The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission has accused Israeli forces of violating international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The three UN-appointed human rights experts said in a report released on Wednesday that Israeli forces showed "incredible violence" during and after their raid on the aid flotilla that left eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American killed.
The UN probe said there was "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "wilful killing" and torture committed when its troops stormed the aid flotilla last May.
Israel's military response to the flotilla "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality" and violated international law "including international humanitarian and human rights law." The three-member panel said.
"The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence."
The report is scheduled to be debated by the Human Rights Council on Monday.
The report also rejected Israel's stance that its forces acted in self-defence when they raided the flotilla, arguing that even those who did not attempt to stop Israeli soldiers from boarding the aid ships "received injuries, including fatal injuries."
"It is apparent that no effort was made to minimise injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner. The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution."
Israel's reaction
Israel rejected the report as "biased" and "one-sided."
"The report... is as biased and as one sided as the body that has produced it," the statement said.
"Israel... is of the opinion that the flotilla incident is amply and sufficiently investigated as it is. All additional dealing with this issue is superfluous and unproductive."
Israel insisted that it acted in line with international law, arguing that it had the right to retaliate against ships attempting to breach its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
However, the panel said that since Gaza was suffering from a humanitarian crisis on the day of the deadly raid, for this reason alone, Israel's blockade is unlawful and cannot be sustained in law.
Hamas welcomed the report and told Al Jazeera that the findings show that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights.
"More should now be done, the commander who led the raid should be taken to International Criminal Court." Hamas said.
The fact-finding mission, chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had travelled to Turkey, Jordan and Britain to interview witnesses and officials for the probe.
Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leone War Crimes Tribunal, and Shanthi Dairiam, as Malaysian human rights expert, are the other members of the panel.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/09/2010922195831956543.html
1 Sept 2010
23 Jul 2010
7 Jun 2010
Turkish PM accuses opposition of supporting Tel Aviv
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the main opposition leader Sunday of “advocating on behalf of Tel Aviv.”
Although Erdoğan did not give any names, arguing that he did not want to “promote them,” his remarks in the northwestern province of Bursa were clearly directed at Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
“Some people speak in the name of Tel Aviv, advocate for Tel Aviv,” Erdoğan said. “They question our way of diplomacy. The way you did things put us in this dire situation. As I said earlier, we do not work as the ‘mon cher’ diplomats do.”
Erdoğan said Turkey could not step aside since it has historical ties with the region and Jerusalem is a holy city for all three of the world’s largest monotheistic religions.
Kılıçdaroğlu had said Turkey should have made more diplomatic efforts for the Gaza aid flotilla, which was the target of a deadly attack by Israeli soldiers last week.
The CHP chief had also criticized Erdoğan for making a reference to the Torah and telling the Jewish people that their religion forbids murders. “Erdoğan uses the Ten Commandments as a tool,” he said. “But the eighth commandment says, ‘Thou shall not steal,’ what about that?” asked Kılıçdaroğlu, accusing the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government of corruption.
Erdoğan was harsh in his response. “Thank God, I have read both the Torah and the Bible,” Erdoğan said Sunday. “I have read the Quran various times, he should read them. He should then talk to the people around him before making such comments.”
Support for initiative
Erdoğan met Saturday with sports figures during the fifth leg of the Dolmabahçe meetings, which are being organized to discuss the government’s democratic initiative with prominent people.
Commenting on the agenda by using a sports analogy, Erdoğan said: “It is not the time to pass the ball around in the midfield. It is time to make unerring passes, to perform a team play and, in the end, to score a goal.”
Addressing criticisms leveled against the government’s slow-moving democratic initiative, Erdoğan said: “We have to sustain it. We cannot walk ahead with the guidance of yesterday’s parameters and the burden of the past on our backs... We cannot build the future by covering or burying the issues or delaying coming to terms with them.”
Erdoğan said he had been particular irked by recent remarks on a TV channel that equated the Turkish aid flotilla with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“Replying to my quotation of the New Testament, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ [the commentator] asked, ‘What are you going to do about the killings of the PKK by the security forces?’” Erdoğan quoted the person as saying.
“What kind of reasoning is this? On the one hand we have a humanitarian aid ship cruising in international waters; on the other hand are those who are trying to violate the rights of others to live under humane terms in their own country,” the prime minister said. “How can you confuse these two?”
A lack of communication pervades all of Turkey’s problems, Erdoğan said, adding that political institutions, state institutions and especially governments have long resisted participating in efforts to establish communication and negotiate.
“Nobody has been harmed by listening, talking, carrying out discussions in a civilized manner or by constructive criticism,” he said. “Turkey has changed as we have tried to arrive at a better understanding of each other.”
Meeting with Internet media administrators at another location in Istanbul on Saturday, Erdoğan complained about user comments below news stories that he said contained such unbearable insults against his person that they could “drive one to murder.”
2 Jun 2010
A letter from an Israeli chief of general staff to a muslim boy
Dr Babaammi Mohamed/Translation: Djaber Nacer BouhedjamO! muslim boy, Palestinian or Algerian, Turkish or Egyptian, Saudian or Iranian… know that all our plans are directed to you and all our energy is focused on you. We want you illiterate and coward.. We want you hypocrite and vagabond…
We want you a feet lover till kneeling… and pens reluctant till its breaking..
We want you lazy in learning. We want you passive just watching what’s happening..
Don’t think about your happiness, nor about your country’s glory, just grow up on our way. Hold high position for our sake. Be an abject servant in our eyes, and you’ll –absolutely- gain our satisfaction.
Be –O! muslim boy- when you grow, a war against your religion and your nation. Be an enemy to your Holy Book and to your prophet. Be peace to the unchaste and the unjust. ….
O! muslim boy, we wandered your home, and we were welcomed by all. We were helped by spies. And we were gifted your country’s resources thanks to the liars and the betrays.
This golden era lasted, till we thought it will never end. From 47 to 67 and what was between them and what came after, we were heroes in your eyes, and noble people in the world’s. The laws were stepped on for us, and the international agreements were broken for our satisfaction…
We were… and we were… but, -O! muslim boy- it seems that we are losing the control, we are being defeated. We are being inside disrupted. Lebanon and Gaza –and others- gave us a tough course.
Today, this convoy come carrying those noble men. Do you think that we are silly to let them pass to their goal?
It would be the catastrophe!!
The best solution is to kill them and tell the world that they are terrorists and that we are oppressed. We have done the same with the prophets in the history. And we are sure that the negligent will trust us. Your countries are full of such.
Beware –O! muslim boy- to follow the steps of the persistent or to join the resistant… if you do so… be sure that it is your end.
An answer from the boy will be next..
An answer from the boy will be next..
--------------------------------------------------------------
The answer of the muslim boy to the Israeli chief of general staff
O! You –the evil and bad people- we know you as well as we know ourselves. Our Holy book talked about you. Our beloved prophet pointed out your bad intentions. Do you remember the humiliation you received from Salahuddine?!..
We are coming –O! cowards- to free Gaza and Palestine inchallah. Wait your fate, we don’t fear death.
You tasted humiliation –from our hands- twice; the first in Lebanon and the second in Gaza, and still you’ll taste it many times. Today is the world’s role to do it for you. Turkey is the army of victory revived and a troop of a coming triumph…
I am preparing to meet you; striving in my study, observing my values and morals. I love all good people, and love to do good for all.
I am watching you, an eye here the other over there, desiring to meet you and to meet your sons and grand sons. They are frightened like a wet chicken and easy broken like a boiled eggs… with empty hearts and void minds. They have no concern and no purpose. May Allah bestow on them a wear of humiliation.
Wait us .. we are waiting!
Dad and mom, .. my teacher, seek to teach me, to educate me..teach me how to be patient and how to help people be so. Help me to strive and to control my desires. Prepare me for that day, so I ca be a good leader who can defeat the occupiers.
Don’t let me a victim of nonsense, don’t let me a target of the corruptive players and artists. Be my guard I’ll be your hope. Be my castle I’ll be your citadel.
Only at that time we can declare:
“Salahuddine is shining from amongst the woe, and “al faith” is born from the womb of the nation. At that time we can say, Allah’s promise becomes a reality: “and surely Allah will help him who helps His cause; most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty”, “and on that day the believers shall rejoice, with the help of Allah; He helps whom He pleases”
Have you understood the course you stupid Israeli?
I don’t think so, you didn’t understand the heaven message, so I think it is difficult to understand anything else.
Wait us … we are waiting.
1 Jun 2010
Turkey: Punish Israel for massacre
"The bloody massacre Israel carried out against ships carrying aid to Gaza deserves condemnation," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
The premier who was addressing lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party added that "nobody should test Turkey's patience."
The Israeli navy assaulted the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy on Monday, killing at least 20 activists, mostly Turkish nationals, and injuring 50 others, Palestinian sources reported.
The invasion took place as the convoy was still in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, 150km (90 miles) off the Gaza coast.
Denouncing the Israeli raid, the Turkish premier also urged the international community to punish the Israeli regime for the "bloody massacre."
"The insolent, irresponsible and impudent attack by Israel, which went against law and trampled human honor underfoot, must definitely be punished," he charged.
On Monday, Erdogan promised a proper response to the Israeli attacks on the international convoy.
The Freedom Flotilla was carrying hundreds of activists and journalists and thousands of tons of humanitarian aid to the impoverished people of Gaza, which is under blockade for three years.
Some 487 activists were detained and taken to the southern Israeli prison of Ashdod, while 48 others will be taken to Ben Gurion international airport to be deported to their home countries.
AGB/MMN
31 May 2010
Israeli PM backs attack on Gaza aid
"The prime minister reiterated his full backing for the IDF and inquired about the well being of the wounded," Netanyahu's office told AFP on Monday.
The Israeli navy killed at least 20 people aboard the ships, mostly Turkish nationals. About 50 others were also injured, according to Palestinian sources.
Netanyahu, who is currently in Canada, cancelled plans to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday in the wake of the deadly Israeli raid.
"Netanyahu decided to cut short his visit to Canada and return to Israel early," read an official statement, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting regarding the brutal assault later on Monday.
The humanitarian convoy was carrying thousands of tons of supplies and hundreds of politicians, activists and journalists.
The Flotilla was seeking to break Israel's crippling blockade of Gaza and deliver basic necessities to the impoverished Palestinians living in the coastal enclave.
12 May 2010
Born in Gaza
Firas Mazloom was born with two holes in his heart. His condition could have been fixed by routine surgery, but Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip has crippled the medical system there. The doctors do not have the training or the equipment to perform the necessary operation.
Firas went to Israel for a check up after he was born and was supposed to return for a follow-up. But Gaza is blocked off from the outside world and Firas never made it back to Israel for his heart operation.
His parents say their request to cross the border was turned down six times because his case was not considered an emergency.
But when their son's condition suddenly started to deteriorate and the doctors in Gaza could no longer help him, their only solution was to send him to an advanced hospital in Israel - and now it was urgent.
An Israeli doctor accepted the request and Firas' parents, Amal and Assad, started a race against time and bureaucracy to get their son out of Gaza.
Just when they finally managed to push through the red tape to get their son out of Gaza, Firas died.
The journey to Israel would have taken only an hour, but after three hours of obstacles and delays, Firas' journey never began.
Ran Yaron from Physicians for Human Rights helps Palestinian patients get access to the medical treatment they need.
He says: "Since Israel controls the only gate out for Palestinians who seek for care unavailable, it has responsibility to let them out.
"Nearly 25 per cent of the patients who apply for exit permits are denied due to rejection or to delays. I do my best to help Palestinians, not only because they are human beings ... but also as an Israeli I feel responsibility for them."
But Israel's main concern is security. Colonal Moshe Levi, the Gaza Strip coordinator of the Israeli army, says: "Four out of five requests we received every day, we approved. This is 80 per cent from the requirements from the Palestinian side we approve.
"Our challenge is how to create a balance between the security needs and between the civilian needs. This is the main issue, this is the main challenge of Israeli policy here."
One year later, the pain caused by the death of their first child has subsided because Amal is due to give birth again. She is expecting another boy - they will call him Firas.
Hope has been restored for this young family in the besieged Gaza Strip, but the political situation remains unchanged.
There are still more than 1,000 patients in Gaza who are desperately waiting for the bureaucracy to allow them adequate health care.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/general/2010/05/2010566436254229.html
4 May 2010
3 May 2010
Christians targeted in Mosul blasts
A shopkeeper has been killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, as two bombs went off near buses carrying Christian students.
More than 100 people, including students and other civilians, were injured in the blasts on Sunday morning.
Abdul-Rahim al-Shammari, the head of the provincial council's security committee, said a roadside bomb exploded first, followed by a car bomb moments later.
The buses were transporting university students from the mainly Christian town of Hamdaniya, 40km east of Mosul.
"All of them were Christian students. They go in buses like that to Mosul's university after the troubled times when Christians were targeted in the past," Nissan Karoumi, the mayor of Hamdaniya, said.
Dr Muhsin Shamzi, who works at a hospital in Irbil, said at least 17 critically injured patients were taken to the hospital.
Protection urged
About 750,000 of Iraq's 30 million population are Christians.
The US-based National Council of Churches last week sent a letter to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, calling on her to urge Iraqi officials to do more to protect Iraq's Christian community.
The organisation said they were particularly worried now as Iraq struggles to seat a
government after the March 7 parliamentary elections.
"Our concern is now particularly acute because it is possible that tensions will increase as various political forces continue to vie for power following the recent elections,'' the letter said.
"We fear that a growing climate of mistrust and animosity will further threaten the fragile Christian community."
In November, the US-based Human Rights Watch warned that minorities including Christians were the collateral victims of a conflict between Arabs and Kurds over control of disputed oil-rich provinces in northern Iraq.
While sectarian violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq since its peak between 2005 and 2007, attacks remain common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul.
30 Apr 2010
French anti-burqa law won't offenders
AFP
France will jail and impose huge fines on anyone who forces a Muslim woman to wear a full-face veil, according to a leaked version of a proposed law revealed on Friday.
While women will face only a 150 euro ($A214) penalty if they choose to don a burqa or a niqab, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to slap one-year prison terms and 15,000 euro ($A21,410) fines on those who make others wear them.
"No one may wear in public places clothes that are aimed at hiding the face," says the text of a new law that is to be presented to parliament in July, according to a copy seen by the pro-government newspaper Le Figaro.
The law will create a new offence of "incitement to cover the face for reasons of gender", the paper said, and this offence will incur a 15,000 euro fine and a year in prison.
Legislators decided to impose a much smaller fine on women caught wearing the veil in public "because these women are often victims", one of the authors of the law told Le Figaro.
Women caught wearing the full veil can choose to attend a "citizenship course" instead of paying the fine, the paper said.
Sarkozy decided this month to opt for a total ban on the full-face veil, despite warnings from the State Council, France's top administrative body, that the law could be struck down as unconstitutional.
The president has declared the burqa and the niqab - veils worn by Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf - unwelcome in France, calling them an affront to French values that denigrate women.
There has been a fierce debate in France, home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority of between five and six million people, with supporters of a ban arguing that veils are a sign of creeping fundamentalism that must not be allowed to take hold.
But opponents accuse Sarkozy of pandering to the far right with such moves and note figures showing only 1900 women wear the full veil in France.
Belgium on Thursday became Europe's first country to vote for a ban, sparking dismay among Muslims and warnings of a dangerous precedent.
© 2010 AFP
22 Apr 2010
Belgium to vote on face veil ban
Belgian lawmakers are set to vote on a proposed ban on wearing face-covering veils in public, a day after neighbouring France proposed enacting similar legislation.
The scheduled vote on Thursday in Brussels comes after the federal parliament's home affairs committee voted unanimously on March 31 to endorse a nationwide ban on clothing that does not allow the wearer to be fully identified.
The ban would include the full-face niqab and the burqa, a shapeless full-body cloak that covers the face with a fabric grille.
Those who ignore the ban could face a fine of up to $34 and/or a jail sentence of up to seven days.
Belgium's governing parties and opposition both appear to agree on the ban, and the full house is expected to easily endorse the draft law.
If enacted, the bill would make Belgium the first European country to ban the garments.
'Respect the law'
Xavier Baselen, a member of Belgium's Reformist Movement party, which drafted the law, said the ban is needed for reasons of public order.
"It's true that when you live in a country you have to accept the laws of that country," he told Al Jazeera.
"In Belgium we decided [that] to be visible in the street is [a] real important law at a public order point of view.
"So people who come to live here have to respect the law the way we have to respect the law in other countries."
But Salma, a 22-year-old in Belgium, told Al Jazeera that she fears being targeted for wearing the niqab and is often harassed on the streets for it. However, she said she will not remove it.
"If you forbid the niqab, you deprive that person of their right of expressing themselves," she said.
"I will continue to wear my niqab. I will remove it if a representative of the law will ask me to identify myself, but will put it back on straight away."
French proposal
The move is to come a day after Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, announced moves to enact a full ban on the face-covering veil in public as well.
Sarkozy told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the veil "hurts the dignity of women and is not acceptable in French society", Luc Chatel, a French government spokesman, said.
Chatel said the bill banning the veil from all public spaces would be presented to ministers in May.
"We're legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and a rejection of our values," he said.
Criticism and praise
The French proposal has attracted both fierce criticism and praise in the home of the largest Muslim community in the 27-member European Union.
Almost 10 per cent of France's 62 million population is Muslim.
Many feminists from France's poor, multi-ethnic suburbs have spoken out in support of a ban, saying it could help young women who did not want to wear the veil but were forced to do so by their partners or families.
Others, however, see the ban as part of a rising hostility against Islam and its symbols, and argue that many Muslim women actually want to cover up.
The debate has spread as far as Afghanistan, where some women's rights activists expressed outrage at the French proposal, saying they disliked the burqa but women should be free to wear whatever they wanted.
The vast majority of Muslim women, in France and elsewhere, do not wear a full veil, but the niqab, as it is known, which covers the face apart from the eyes, is widely worn on the Arabian peninsular and in the Gulf states.
The burqa is worn in some areas of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
12 Apr 2010
Islam through a Christian women
http://www.veecos.net/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3006:islam-through-a-christian-women&catid=20:intellect-articles&Itemid=18
It was a long duration that I spent trying to introduce Islam to a non-muslim. I found it an opportunity to do something for this person, for my beloved teacher, for my nation and above all in the sake of my Merciful God. I tried my best to be clear and useful in giving information and in answering the questions I received, because I feared to be the cause that someone hates Islam.
The beginning was in October 2008, when a Romanian girl wanted a chat on skype. As I do with everybody I accepted the invitation and tried to know what she wants. As I set as a problematic for my on-going research that the majority of skype users prefer to talk to the opposite sex (I am still investigating this hypothesis).
We started the chat about general and variant topics, I tried to find a point where I can talk about religious matters as I noticed later that she is an orthodoxy. I liked to talk about this topic also because I wanted to know about others beliefs.
The chat went on for nearly 17 months with an average of 2 hours per day. It was a clear and a direct discussion, expressing our different points of view. But unfortunately after this long period I couldn’t move further to my Goal. The girl was firmly attached to her religion, because she doesn’t believe in Islam as she call it “an established religion not a true one”. Although I can say that she learnt some issues about Islam.
The questions rose after analyzing this experience were; what was wrong in my introduction about Islam, is it my lack of communication? Or the strong belief of the other part was the cause? Or may be there is something external that interrupted receiving the message?
The Lack of communication:
Yes maybe is the cause. The girl one day was angry, because she interpreted the link I sent her as forcing her to revert to Islam. Later she set some issues that seems to her that are against women, like: polygamy, the witness of women, the marriage of the prophet PBUH with Aisha and Zayneb... etc. I quoted what some muslim scholars said concerning these issues, but later I received her E-mail saying that my answers made things worse then before. Is it because I didn’t know how to quote?
The belief of the girl:
The girl as I mentioned before is an orthodoxy. The word orthodox literary means: (of, pertaining to, or conforming to the approved form of any doctrine, philosophy, ideology, etc)(1) , so it suggests that this girl considers that she is on the right path, so she is not ready to listen to what other religions says. I set a hypothesis that the orthodoxy are the most people who are not easy to revert to Islam. I collected the list of new muslim converts I found that among the 56 person 7 are orthodox(2) .
The external causes:
Once I asked this girl about her opinion about Islam, she sent to me a link and said: “Here is a link, what our orthodoxy teach about Islam. You can read it, because I believe the same, what our Holy Church teaches us”(3) . I analyzed the article she sent and understood according what she reacted in the discussion we had. The article gives false information about Islam, for example: “The religion of Islam is predominantly a distortion of the Old Testament Mosaic religion and the (Pharisaic) Talmudic religion, to which was also added a dose of the pre-Islamic Arabian pagan customs, and a light sprinkling of heretical teachings about Christ”(4). So according to this, Islam distorted both Judaism and Christianity and is a continuity of Paganism. This may raise hatefulness and Islam phobia. The article and the teaching of the church could convince its adherents by touching and twisting the true bases of Islam, such as the spread of Islam, the revelation and the life of the prophet PBUH. I would mention only one quotation to see how intelligent was the church to make people away from believing anything about this religion. It is said that: “Mohammed's lineage, and that of many inhabitants of Arabia, was from Abraham's maid Hagar; she bore Ishmael, of whom the Angel prophesied in Gen. 16:12 that he will be a "wild man, his hand will be against every man and every man's hand will be against him".
It is true that I might be incapable in introducing Islam as it should be, because of bad transmitting of the message and because of the church teachings, but also the bad situation of muslims in the world (weakness, uncivilized, ..etc) helped in conception of the bad image.
(1)- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/orthodox
(2)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Islam
(3)- An e-mail received in april 8th 2010.
(4)- http://www.trueorthodoxy.org/non_christian_islam.shtml
23 Mar 2010
Obama (or Netanyahu) as modern Moses!
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has delivered another "The US and I personally are in love with Israel" speech to America's pro-Israeli lobby - with a twist.
Her three-part speech at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) on Monday underlined Washington's unshaken strategic and moral commitment to Israel "for ever" and, in the second part, threatened Iran with tougher sanctions and warned it will never allow it to develop nuclear weapons.
In the third, and much awaited part, of the speech, Clinton delineated a hardcore realist approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict in the context of US security in the Middle East that envisions a freeze on settlement paving the way for direct talks that culminate in two states.
Like Moses, Obama - an unflinching supporter of Israel who has its interest and security at heart - will take it and the region to the promised land.
[Supporters of John McCain, the Republican candidate in the 2008 US presidential election, also depicted Obama, albeit sarcastically, as the "One" - that is, Moses - during the campaign.]
If you doubt it, Clinton said, look at what we've done yesterday, meaning the healthcare bill.
Realists vs neoconservatives
Two decades and seven transitional agreements since the peace process started, the US and Israel can't seem to agree between themselves, let alone with the Palestinians, on the necessary condition to resolve the Palestinian question.
US realists including the Obama administration (and the Israeli Labor Party) believe that a two-state solution is good for Israel as a "democratic Jewish state". Clinton made it as clear in her speech to Aipac today.
Otherwise, continued Jewish settlement will exacerbate Israel's security and lead to apartheid state, to quote Israel Defence Minister and Labor leader Ehud Barak.
Likewise, a Palestinian state is consistent with US national security as it would help boost the "moderate" anti Iranian, anti-Islamic fundamentalist movements, Clinton pleaded with her audience.
Escalation in Palestine would endanger US lives in Middle East war zones, according to General David Petreaus, the head of US Central Command.
On the other hand, US nneoconservatives, like the previous Bush administration and by extension the Israeli Likud party, reckon that US support for the "Jewish state" - a strategic ally and "moral soulmate" - must be unconditional.
It's up to Israel alone to define the outcome of any negotiations with the Palestinians according to its security imperatives.
Israel's approach to Palestine, they argue, must be seen in the context of the US war on terror and against violent extremists in the region from Hamas in Gaza to the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Two decades of more-of-the-same
For two decades, progress and regress in the peace process was measured by balancing out the two approaches. When the gap is substantial as it has been over the last year, paralysis or a fallout can be expected.
In 1991, the Bush administration refused to back down, and its confrontation with Israel - over the same settlement issue - paved the way for convening the Madrid International peace conference.
The urgency is far higher today. Unlike Bush Sr, who presided over a US victorious in the Cold War and the war against Iraq, President Obama presides over major foreign-policy crises as he tries to finish a war in Iraq and escalate another in Afghanistan/Pakistan.
Moreover, the deterioration in the occupied territories is creating a credibility problem for the Obama administration as it tries to rally Arab support against Tehran and radical fundamentalist groups.
However, as long as Likud and Labor are governing together and in coalition with the two most radical Israeli parties, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, US pressure will fail to lead to concrete concessions.
As in 1992, US will save face only when a new less extremist Israeli government comes into being. But would that resolve the Palestinian questions?
Palestine, nuance or nuisance
Meanwhile, the Palestinian and Arab leaderships are watching Hillary Clinton from the sidelines, hoping that the US present the Netanyahu government with ultimatum will be disappointed.
But even if the Obama administration forces the Israeli government to accept its approach, the result could hardly meet the minimum requirement of the Palestinians.
A Palestinian state as a compromise between the US and Israel, might enjoy the trappings of sovereignty, but in reality it would be no more than a Bantustan.
Palestinian leaders who still need Israeli passes to move around and out of occupied Palestine, already welcome foreign dignitaries in front of a guard of honour as they did when they welcomed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend.
However, as Clinton warned, the Israeli civilian and military occupation will soon reach the point of no return, rendering separation into two sovereign and viable states impossible.
In fact, the borders problem will soon be insolvable without major ethnic cleansing - which means war - or apartheid, leading to de facto one-state solution.
The disagreement goes on ...
Ultimately it was in the latter part of her speech that Clinton revealed the administration's three-part explanation why Israel must accept a Palestinians state.
Israel faces three main challenges - demography, technology and ideology - that work against its security and against the security of the US.
Although she promised that the US will augment its military and diplomatic support for Israel, she arged that rockets from Gaza and Lebanon have no military solutions.
Furthermore, Palestinian population growth, coupled with expanding Israeli settlements, renders separation (as we said above) impossible.
Likewise, Israel's policies in Palestine is feeding Middle Eastern and other "extremists" with much ammunition, that a peaceful solution will deny them.
Needless to say, the Netanyahu government and the US neocons have answered to all of the three challenges: a bilateral commitment to combat terrorism and extremism, not give in or reward the extremists.
As Netanyahu will tell you, Islamist extremists don't need reasons for actions. They are terrorists because they are. Or, in his words, the reason for religious extremism and terrorism is the terrorists and the fundamentalists.
Obama can play Moses all he wants, but Netanyahu seeks King David persona!
