Namaste,


I am a writer. My manner of speech is naturally poetic - which is to say that I use much illustration in what I write - because there is more to an account than the dates, times, and actions that took place. The world is not black and white to me, so I cannot express it in black and white. There is much that I feel that I do not believe I have the words to express coherently. May God grant that I have the proper speech to express myself accurately.


To understand the beginning of a journey, you have to understand both why it began, and where it began at.


The southeast of the United States is called the Bible Belt. It's a band of states in which the overwhelming majority of religious groups there are christian of some sort. Specifically the conservative sects - these are the hate mongering christians that are the source of most of the bad reputation that many attribute to christianity. They are Zealots, and I have expressed my view on that. I grew up straddling the religious fence between Mormonism on my father's side, and Southern Babtist on my mother's. Both families were religiously charged, save for my own two parents. So, it was my grandparents who actually fought over which faith I should follow. My parents married very young, so they didn't yet see themselves as Adults who could make decisions for their own children, although no parent ever makes the right choice. It isn't their Job to choose properly, they are supposed to simply provide the original template which their descendants will hopefully improve upon.


This same area, perhaps not unfittingly, is also one of the most notorious for all manner of prejudice. They hate homosexuals, people of any other race - this area of the US supplied more troops to the war in the middle east than nearly any other region, if you were ever curious about what most of those soldiers thought about while doing their aweful jobs - people of any other religion (and this includes between christian sects, sometimes), or in general anyone who isn't anglosaxon christian. It's true that a lot of people in America have a similar outlook, but none so fervently act on it as those in my homeland. So, I was raised constantly taught to hate black, jews, asians, anyone east of germany. I was too young to remember the moment or the time when I stopped listening to this, but since before I can even remember I have known that the presence of Hate was unnatural and dangerous. That isn't to say that I have never hated - I certainly have, but only once.


As I grew older and was able to comprehend more of what my two religions were teaching me, I became increasingly more uncomfortable. Firstly, they taught different things, and both claimed to be the authority. Obviously you can see how this will confuse a child. Secondly, some things - but only SOME - were slightly similar, and yet the two claimed exclusion. It progressed like this until my parents divorced - by which time I had no faith at all, I was 9. After this my father left, and so I was strictly Babtist, at least in practice. This means, to my family at the time, church on sundays and prayers during meals. At one point my siblings and I began to pray before bed each night, but I do not remember why. We did, though, until I left home. In any case, even by my present standards of habit, this is by no means remotely a serious approach to religion. Once my mother left my father, though, she talked about hating people or things a lot less, and she did not really talk about anything like race or other such subjects of prejudice. She stopped going to church at all, eventually, and we went with my grandparents still, until we eventually moved away to another county where they did not care to drive. I was eleven or twelve, and after this I only stepped foot in a church once every couple of months, and on certain holidays. So, relgion became a non-entity. At this point, though, I had become curious.


So, as a teenager it was in my nature to begin to rebel against what has come before me - that is, my parents' and my grandparents' traditions which had been forced on me. And by forced, I certainly do mean that I was dragged to church - I never wanted to go. Not because I didn't see a reason so much as being there just made me uncomfortable. The majority of sermons I have heard in my life have centered on how to judge other people, which people to judge, what will happen to them when they die - like they were always scaring us into not being or doing things. There was only ever a cursory mention of God's mercy, and there were always exceptions. What's more, I went to different babtist churches which all taught different interpretations of some of the same material.


I digress... so, as a result my first personal foray into my own sense of spirituality was Wicca. For those not familiar, modern day Gardnerian Wicca is a 1900's mish-mash of various european witchcraft/druidism traditions. the worship of the duality in nature. I was of course drawn in for the same reasons as any other teen in my demographic area - spells. Just do this and this and you'll get what you want. It is of course more complicated than this - wicca, I mean, I won't talk about magick here - but most teenagers never get that into it, normally it is simply a fad. I saw something there that I hadn't seen in Christianity, though, and it lead me into the heart of the Tradition, at least as far as research goes - I certainly had no access to any coven or something like that (I wouldn't be surprised if they burned a witch in that place...). Here I learned the first fundamental Seed that has since grown. That I am not seperate from God, nor is anyone. Christianity doesn't talk about it like that. God is a man in the Clouds who smites you when you do wrong and may or may not let you into heaven, depending on who you're talking to and who you are. I knew that a lot of what I was practicing was flappery and distraction, but I had friends to appease - such is the teenage life here - who I wanted to try and share this understanding with. They were never interested, and eventually I stopped and left all together. I've revisted the tradition in my Seeking since, but have never found much more there than this first inspiration.


Let me be specific, and say that Wicca itself did not give me this first Seed, but rather Wicca was the cause. There are many interpretations of the details of this tradition, and one of them that I came across was the belief that the God and Goddess (more or less official deities of Wicca) dwelled within a person, within all people an all things - that they were litterally the Duality of Nature, and all things posessed both of them in full measure. Now, I even at this time was hesitant to classify God by gender or nature yet, but when I came to this and thought on it, it was as though I could not push the thought from my mind - I was prompted to accept it, after a fashion, and considering other ideas was difficult. I have since then come across many other ideals, many other traditions with different beliefs, and there is yet nothing I have been guided to that has surpassed this Revelation. I call it that because it felt like somehow becoming less blind, less disconnected. I did not feel as finite as I had before it seems, or as lonely. I was fourteen, and this was the time in which the root of my faith took hold. I have never doubted that there was a governing intelligence since then, and have always been hesitant to define it, for when I look at God in myself, he is both totality and the void, making up all that I am and all that I am not - that sounds extreme, but I mean it to say that no matter what shape I give him, I always seem to only be looking at a part. As though you might look at a person's nose from two inches away, and move back another inch. You are seeing more, and it looks different, but you know it isn't everything - you know what a whole person looks like. In the same way, I know what a 'whole' God looks like, because I cannot directly comprehend it. He is at the limit of, and perhaps far beyond, my conscious mind's ability to conceptualize beyond a sense of unending vastness.


So, I consider my first revelation one of Connection.


Once the reality of God was impressed on me, my life began to take a turn for the better. I began to think more carefully about my course of action, about what i said to people, and how I felt about things. At first it was the thought of the afterlife - If I could not deny there was a God, then i could not deny there was an afterlife, that there was a greater consequence to my actions than what i will immediately understand. I would not say that I feared God, rather I feared failure, or wasting my life thoughtlessly. By and by, just through idle thought and some conversation with Christians - who have a structured viewpoint, and are therefore useful conversationalists because you can be certain of what they are talking about and generally how they mean it; and if not then I already had the necessary language to understand - about the nature of God, about morality, subjects like this, I began to think a little differently. At first I was hard headed - in fact, I have never stopped being hard-headed in many respects! - and unwilling to consider anything which would restrict my freedom as a teenager. I contemplated things like chastity, charity, etc., the actions of morality shall we say. But they held no place for my own life just yet it seemed like. I still lived with my parents, I had only just started working a job and certainly didn't have much money, and no sense of value for it anyway. In hindesight I understand now that Life Experience and Spiritual Experience are the same thing - so it is natural that I didn't fully grasp the importance of some spiritual responsibilities, because I did not understand the meaning of responsibility.


It was this growing sense of connection to God, actually - and I'd rather this not be used against me, with the understanding that I do not believe it is a sin, plain and simple, and God has never given me reason to believe otherwise - that prompted me to come out to my parents. About this time they were asking abour girls. My stepfather especially - for my mother had re-married when I was about 13 - put a lot of pressure on me to get involved with sports, though I was already practicing martial arts at this time (also a key factor in the developement of my spirituality, as my first teacher was a buddhist, and the first non-christian adults I had met). If I didn't play some sport, I wasn't masculine enough.


Well, combined with my teenage need to define myself as an individual, was the growing belief in my responsibility to be honest. The purpose and meaning of what we say to others, how we express ourselves and the reason we must do so, had been a great part of my thoughts at this time. Ultimately it was about the connection between the inner self and outer self - if I was not honest outwardly, how could I be sure I was honest inwardly? So, I told my parents that I'm Gay.


Both christians, both southerners, both very conservative despite their lack of religious Zeal, they instantly turned on me. Everything i said or did became suspect, they no longer trusted me, and chaos ensued. Ultimately, ran away from home, at 15. I would return once when I was 17 briefly, and it's been just me and my own spiritual family since then. I learned a valuable lesson about people, then, which would later be a valuable lesson about Spirit - that honestly often has a price, but the gains far outweigh the cost. This is true of interaction with people, and it is true with our connection to God. We must be Honest when we examine our Self, when we ask our questions and Seek the answers. Sometimes this honesty will cost us our habits, or the things we believe we care about, but only through that Honesty can we grow, and continue to Seek.


I moved to minnesota, a place in the northern central united states. To live with my Father. I mentioned that I have hated only once in my life, and this was him. He left me and my siblings without a word and i didn't hear from him until he came to pick me up at the airport. I had been caught, arrested, spent two days in Juvenile prison, and then was picked up by my stepfather and dropped off at the gate. During this time I contemplated God's justice, his benevolence. At this time I questioned it. it is difficult not to feel victimized by God when you are blinded with fear. During the flight to Minnesota, as the sun rose over the eastern wing that I was sitting next to, the thought occured to me again and I felt immediately gripped by guilt. Even as a teenager, I was not a deeply emotional person. I had mostly expressive emotion - anger, jealousy, this emotions that make us Act out - and had never been given to guilt. It prompted me to recognize the course of events as a whole, and by the time I landed I understood not fully, but more so than I had, the nature of the events and their lesson. Our suffering is very often our own cause - and when we are released from it we often feel relieved to be out of God's angry sight. But it was God that had delivered me, even in this minute instance. it gave me pause, and made me consider the suffering of others in much worse places than where I had been, and I realized that the whole affair was not suffering at all. It was a chance to be held still, to be forced into reflection because I so desperately needed it. You may say that I assumed all of this, and much of it was - I since have evolved into a new view of these matters, but based on the same idea - but each thought struck like a hammer on an anvil, and the gravity of my present situation, and the lesson that was being offered to me, began to weigh down on me.


I was an angry teenager, I had been an angry child. I had been angry since my father left and it had festered and grown and finally exploded out of me - and I had not given it a second thought, even amidst my thoughts of God and honesty. I felt I was being honest by expressing my anger, though much of it was simply reactionary as well, and certainly it was augmented by the instability of the teenage brain. But the source of it was my Father. My anger had clouded my senses and steered me into disaster, so God the merciful was placing me square in front of its source so that I could resolve it and heal. I didn't even know my father even knew where I was. He was married with two children by this time, and before I went to him I certainly never imagined he'd be in Minnesota - which is more or less a thousand miles from where I lived.


This became my second revelation - God teaches through Life. From then, I began to dedicate myself towards learning diligently. I became more reasoned at this time, and through the course of my stay with my father I did mend my wounds. I learned that my own life is meant to teach me certain truths, and that God would never abandon me as long as I was diligent. When i made mistakes I would pay, but I would only pay in order to learn. I released my anger here, coincidentally enough amidst the seasonal blizzard that seemed to go on for most of my time there. In the end I felt my place was back in Georgia - that while I had healed my own hatred, I had much to recover at home, and no more great need to be with my father. He at best appreciated me, and I at best appreciated him, but our relationship's foundation had been broken long before. So, i returned to Georgia, but not home.


I was taken in by my friend and her family. They were actually the first fervent christians I ever knew who simply accepted me as I was and encouraged my Seeking. Allison, my friend, I still live with, and she has been a living conduit of lessons since the day I met her. She was a dedicated 'saved' christian at the time. We grew close quickly, and when we came to the subject of spirituality, I related to her my own thoughts on God.


While I began to interest her in the deeper meaning of God's presence in the heart as I saw it, she explained to me the True Christian's view on Jesus as the savior. At this time I tried to open my mind and heart to the idea - trusting that it would only be allowed in if it were Truth - and only parts of it would fit. I would not fully digest those parts until much later on, and had very imminent worldy concerns to dominate my thoughts at the time. However, I now looked at my predicament as a Lesson - an assignment to be thoroughly understood and acted upon. it is hard to be critical of oneself in the right way with so little experience. On the one hand is the assumed social structure of a person and their place in the world, on the other was the concern for what my place in the world should be according to God if he had such preferences, and finally my own hopes and dreams hanging from my neck, as yet too loosely defined to allow me a solid foundation on which to stand.


So i worked, I slept, I ate, and i hung out with my friends. By God's merciful grace I was blessed with a group of spiritually minded people who had the same kinds of questions but many, many different views. However, it wasn't like when I was a child, two religions arguing together. Each of these people believe in a personal connection to God. Even Allison's views were radical christian opinions - certainly not Cannon, at least. one of them had a particular way of gaining guidance from God - he believed that Angels were the intercessors and messengers, who speak to us through the world, through inspiration, through dreams, and through happenstance. This was his explanation of Tarot cards. For those not familiar, Tarot cards are a deck of, traditionally, 78 cards each representing a particular symbolic facet of human experience. I have my own theory on the purpose and use of this tool, but at the time it was simply a matter, cut and dry, of asking a question and getting an answer.


So i began to study them, and to memorize their nuances. it took me a year to commit them to memory, another year to grasp their subtleties, and another two years to master them, or at least, become proficient at interpretation. They have been a cornerstone of my spiritual developement. One may consider it fortune telling, or some nonsense like that, but Tarot, regardless of the original intention, serve as a material vocabulary of symbolism. Through faith, discernment, and a thoughtful examination of Self, God can offer guidance through a language that your consciousness can more easily understand. I believe that if the intention is Pure, and one's faith is strong, then the message will be True.


Since then, I have decided that the function of Tarot is not to give direct answers, but to inspire self reflection and supply inspiration towards a certain line of reasoning. It is meant to highlight facets of Self and the relationship between the Self and the World, or the Self and anything else. I believe that God does not give direct answers. He Guides. We must be willing to do the work, to carry our burden, so to speak, if we are to be worthy of the answers we seek.


And yet, with my first years working with the Tarot, I did believe that it gave direct answers. I became lazy in my meditation and prayer, because I did not think it was necessary. I became lazy in my contemplation of Self, because I thought this handy tool could just show me what I wanted to see. My spiritual progress stopped, although I thought I was doing spiritual seeking. I did readings to discern the messages of the world around me. What did this event mean, what did this coincidence point to? Answers which made only bits of sense came through the cards, and often I would later realize that the answer had been true, but misleading. I became depressed about my spiritual growth and not a little bit hurt by my own 'mystical ineptitude'. it was allison who prompted me to leave the cards alone for a while and get back to the old fashioned meditation and contemplation. When I tried, I found I had lost my discipline, my fervent dedication. The fire in my spirituality had gone out.


It was at this time that my third Revelation occured. I had lost my fire because I had stopped feeding it. I had instead been standing idly by my life expecting God to just explain everything that was going on. I didn't realize that he was explaining my ignorance to me. I knew that I should be Seeking answers, that I should be mindful and thoughtful of my life, that I had to learn through life and no other way. Yet I had abandoned that truth which was just as strong in my heart as when it first came to me. I took up my Work then as just that - spiritual Work, which had to be done in order to Grow. i put down the cards for a long time, and didn't pick them up until I felt called to again. And then, I used them only to inspire contemplation, not direct my actions and assumptions.


When I say 'revelation' I want to be sure that you know what I mean. It was around this time in my life that I gained an understanding of this myself. A revelation and a realization are not the same thing in my vocabulary. Realization is simply coming across a line of reasoning, spiritual or intellectual, which suddenly makes sense, or clarifies/explains something else. A Revelation, in my vocabulary, is the amalgamated completion, or rather plateau, of many realizations. It is the moment when the necessary stones have been laid, and suddenly you are momentarily on stable ground again. You feel as though you have stepped onto some higher platform. There is elation, and perhaps a bit of fear as well. Each Revelation seems to somehow conflict with some other part of one's heart. A Revelation is the revealing, or perhaps rewarding of, a Tenet of your own covenent with God. And that covenent may be the same between God and every other person, but you haven't agreed to it until you have this moment of understanding and acceptance. You cannot deny the Revelation itself - for it leaves no room for doubt - and so you must begin the work of adjusting oneself to it. If you deny a Revelation, you may as wel stop seeking and in this I agree with some of the verses i have seen posted here. Willful ignorance of Truth is as bad as turning one's back on God all together, and only by living by the new Truth can you ever hope to find the next.


So it was about this time that I came into contact with a much larger group of individuals who were also spiritually minded. Many of these were more pagan in their beliefs - polytheists, wiccans (the rare adult kind), agnostic psychics, etc. - although some were very christian. They were an intelligent lot and a lot older than i was. I was 18 at this time, the youngest besides myself was in his late twenties. They were also very argumentive, though not in a violent manner. Opinionally Confrontational, shall we say. Every visit to our matron's abode - an older woman who actually formed the group as a kind of discussion forum for spirituality, herself an ordained minister - was an evening of this discussion. It was here that I learned the value of conviction. one must fully understand one's own beliefs, not simply follow them blindly. Each successive layer, each rung on the ladder if you will, is built upon the foundation of the previous Revelations. To this day, spiritual debate is my proferred method of seeking inspiration, far and above anything save personal communion. I questioned my own views, and was forced to support them again and again. And so to this day do I revitalize my conviction by doing this very thing I am doing now, and I learned a greater lesson then, that would become a fourth Revelation when I grasped its magnitude.


God is in all things, God IS all things, and he speaks through all that is around me. If I am mindful of my interaction with people, if I am mindful of the reaction they cause in me, of the questions they pose to me, then I may understand what it is I should be contemplating. We must live our Revelations, and we must at the same time constantly Question them. In questioning them we are able to demonstrate them to ourselves, and only in this way can we fully understand their importance.


Here is another way of saying that, because this one has always defied my attempts to express it properly. Conviction of faith is the only means by which one can benefit from it. Conviction is derived through demonstration of Truth. Demonstration of Truth only occurs when we ask for it. Or when others inspire us to ask ourselves for it. Humans will always challenge one another's beliefs, and I believe this element of human nature to be present for that purpose specifically - to derive conviction or drive us to seek Truth that we can be convicted in.


This revelation was marked by the same elation and fear as the others. In this case, fear came from the knowledge that I could not always reason my conviction, and sometimes was lazy about doing so. I was willing to accept my Revelations at face value until this time, and act on them accordingly through habit. Some may believe that spiritual Habits are the same as Spiritual Practices - they are not. What we do by habit we do unthinkingly, and by rote. Practice is mindful, present, and passionate. At this time I had many habits of expression, habits of thinking, habits of prayer and meditation which I was not really present for - I simply did them because I had gotten used to doing them. I took this Revelation and tried to make one positive Habit - to be mindful of my practice, and my acting on the tenets that had been shown to me. Not only accept their Truth, but constantly look for it.


To this day, such a practice, while at times taxing (less so as time passes), has both strengthened my conviction and furthered my understanding of the Revelations themselves. They expand over time, it seems, as I contemplate them more deeply. Or perhaps illuminate is a better word.


many events transpired between that time and this, but my most recent Revelation was one year ago, after leaving my homeland in the south to come to New York, where there is much, much more to live and to interact with than at home. It came to me while i was with my friends, discussing the possibility of a family in the future, once we're finished with school and such.


We all have some understanding of what Love is. Most would characterize it as a pull, some think of it as more like a reaction to something that resonates with you. Everyone knows it's a connection.


This last Revelation I cannot demonstrate, because I am still observing it's nuances, and have not yet grasped it's full implication although it has already changed my life. Love is Connection. We interpret it because it causes a feeling in us, this sensation of Connection. I mean this as litteraly as I can possibly mean anything, it is not a comparison or a metaphor. When you love anything you become connected to it. When you love God, you are connected to everything, because God is Everything. That connection should be strengthened and sought after above all other things. At first I thought this was kind of mushy, something out of disney movies and whatnot. But the more I have contemplated this Revelation, the more I have observed my own feelings and reactions, the more have I come to understand the reality of it, if not it's meaning for my life.


I have had many experiences in this life, some because I caused them through ignorance, and some that I went seeking. I have dabbled with all manner of occult affairs, and had many realizations about the relationship between man and God, and the purpose of Reason, of Curiosity, of Faith, Morality. These five revelations, these key stones of Growth and communion, are the foundation of all my thoughts, my actions, my intentions, and my purpose in life. I agree that one should love God and no other - there is no need, because to Truly love God is to Truly love all that he is and that he created. That means the same things as if one loved a person with all of one's being. But, we should always remain open to a furtherance of the truth we think we have. Again and again I see the same five truths demonstrate themselves int he world around me, sometimes in ways that I would not have imagined. It is from them that I reasoned my own five tiers of morality. I do not believe there is a Fault in using one's own reason and intellect to discern God's will. I believe this because these things are both gifts from God which are intended to serve a purpose. We use our intellect to remember and abide by God's Truth, but are often lead to believe that doing our OWN thinking is not good for us. it is in this way that the Mind of Man atrophies over the ages, and people become little more than innocent sheep to be lead by men who do think for themselves. If those sheep had been using their Gifts properly, they would not allow that to happen. The proof is in the pudding, as it were.


I accept no other Truth except that which God gives to me through my own hard work. I certainly take everything else into consideration. Certainly each Revelation is rested upon a foundation of Realizations, which occur only through observation of the world and God's movement within it.


To sum up,


1. God is in all things, God IS all things - you, me, that guy over there, the trees, the sand, etc. no exceptions - and so are all things thus connected. So is the universe one of unconditional equanimity, for we are all equally connected to and manifestations of God.


2. God teaches through Life lived. All suffering, all joy, all of life is a streaming message from God, endlessly. The only way to Grasp that message is to pay attention to life. Because God is in all things, all things are his Voice, and there is no word spoken that does not come from his lips. Only through mindfullness and thoughtfulness can we understand the truth in what we are hearing.


3. Life is Spiritual Work - we must be diligent and devoted, and we must use what we are given, if we are to continue to Grow. All of our Growth is dependant on our own desire to do so. If we stop, God will not just hand us the next Truth. Truth must be earned through faith and Work.


4. It is not enough to blindly accept Truth at face Value. Truth is not a sentance, or a verse, Truth is a function of reality, a law by which all things are put into motion. We may know it's presence through Revelation, but we may only understand it's value and meaning by questioning it's validity and testing it in life.


5. Love is Connection.


and by these laws,


Harbor no negative intention - one must Love all of God, not parts of him, and God is All, therefore love All as you would love God, and harbor no ill intent. Ill intention towards oneself or one's fellow man, is the same as harboring ill intent towards God, and ultimately oneself.


Do not judge yourself or others - regardless of culture, race, tradition, past sins, or anything else, all things are Equal, for God is all of existence. Your own deeds or the deeds of others serve their purpose in the universe, and you should make no judgement on the value or worth of a person based on what only God could know. Let man sort out his offenders as he will, but have only compassion and love for those that offend you, and do not judge them, for their own actions are the seeds of their own lessons from God, and lessons to all those who look on.


Never harm another - physically, psychologically, economically, etc. - except in direct defense of human life - our actions have consequences. Our words, our deeds, even our thoughts. To do harm to one is to spit upon all that God has made for you. Cherish all of creation and always seek to attend to its wellbeing. This is the only way to be free of pain.


Recognize unconditional equanimity among all beings - be neither prideful nor self-degrading. God is All, and All has equal purpose. All things die, all things pass, no man triumphs over another on the final day. Therefore deal with all beings equally, and give the same respect to a beggar as to a king; a prophet as to a heathen.


Be as responsible as you can for your fellow human being - Just as all things are a message from God, so are we all individually the embodiment of God's message, and it is our responsibility to offer our message freely to all who would listen. In this seek to offer compassion and understanding to every being, just as God offers the same to you. We are all dependant upon one another, and it is through human compassion that God's gifts are oft delivered. Therefore do Good works freely and with gratefulness to do so, or expect no such responsibility of others.


These are the tenets of my faith as they stand. This is not the full extent of my thoughts on God, or many other matters, but it is a start, and it encompasses the moments in my life, as well as the surrounding theme of each era, which I feel demonstrate the origin of these tenets and my feelings on them both at the time and presently.


This post was made in response to the invitation to do so, and after the ordeal of composing it, I would very much like to hear about the progression of other members' spiritual growth, both Muslim and non-muslim alike.


With God's mercy and grace, hopefully I expressed this all clearly, without too much distraction. I do personally hold these tenets and truths to be universally occurring in human nature. I believe that most religions practice similar tenets selectively, picking and choosing what situations they are valid in. I feel that this is a major flaw in the Religious practice of this age.


Namaste


Mahasvapna

Greetings.


I am wondering what the perception is of Muslims (from Muslim countries) who migrate to America (or UK, Europe etc) in search of jobs or a better life. I've said previously that there were many muslim students at my university in Texas. Many of them took jobs in the US and moved here permanently away from their countries (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Turkey etc).


How are these Muslims who move here away from their homelands viewed by the muslim world. Is migrating to the US discouraged? Do these Muslims who come here face any ridicule?


Thanks in advance.

Mobile Biological Weapons Facilities


"Winnebagos of Death"


In the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) presented to the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Intelligence Community (IC) stated that, "Baghdad has transportable facilities for producing bacterial and toxin BW agents and may have other mobile units for researching and filling agent into munitions or containers, according to multiple sources. Iraq has pursued mobile BW production options, largely to protect its BW capability from detection, according to a credible source." The NIE stated that Iraq had seven mobile facilities, with the first constructed as early as 1997. With these units all producing at capacity, the NIE concluded that it would take Iraq approximately 14 to 26 weeks to produce the amount or BW UNSCOM assessed was actually produced prior to the Gulf War.





http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/...mobile.htm


Reports of such facilities originated in 2000 from an Iraqi chemical engineer known as Curveball. From January 2000 to September 2001, the Defense Intellegence Agency's (DIA) Human Intelligence disseminated almost 112 reports from Curveball regarding mobile BW facilities in Iraq. These reports did not come directly from Curveball, however, but were transferred through a "foreign liason." U.S. Intelligence only once met with Curveball, in May 2000, and later expressed concerns, which were not mentioned in the October 2002 NIE. Among those were that Curveball might be an alcoholic and that he spoke English (the foreign liason had stated that meeting with Curveball was impossible because he did not speak English). Although there were other sources coroborating Curveball's reporting, Curveball's reports were the centerpiece of the IC's assessment of Iraq's BW program.


Three other reports confirmed IC estimates of mobile biological facilities. Another asylum seeker (hereinafter "the second source") reporting through Defense HUMINT channels provided one report in June 2001 that Iraq had transportable facilities for the production of BW. This second source recanted in October 2003, however, and the recantation was reflected in a Defense HUMINT report in which the source flatly contradicted his June 2001 statements about transportable facilities. Another source, associated with the Iraqi National Congress (INC) (hereinafter "the INC source"), was brought to the attention of DIA by Washington-based representatives of the INC. Like Curveball, his reporting was handled by Defense HUMINT. He provided one report that Iraq had decided in 1996 to establish mobile laboratories for BW agents to evade inspectors. In May 2002, DIA issued a "fabrication notice" which said that the information the INC source provided was "assessed as unreliable and, in some instances, pure fabrication." Even with this notice, this source was included both in the October 2002 NIE and in Secretary Powell's speech to the UN in February 2003. There was a fourth source cited, but the details regarding the report were classified.


On 05 February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell in his remarks to the United Nations Security Council, stated that the reported mobile production facilities were "one of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons." Like the intelligence estimates made before the speech, the reports of mobile BW facilities was the cornerstone of his BW case against Iraq.


Members of a mobile exploitation team examined a suspected mobile biological weapons facility (trailer 1) that was recovered by U.S. Forces in Irbil (northern Iraq) in late April 2003. A second, similar trailer (trailer 2) was later identified and recovered in May 2003 from a site adjacent to the Al Kindi research facility at Mosul. The trailers resembled the mobile laboratories described by Secretary of State Colin Powell. A team of military experts conducted a preliminary technical field investigation of trailer 1 soon after its capture. They assessed the trailer to be part of a possible Iraqi mobile BW weapon production system, with its equipment being capable of supporting a limited biological batch production process. A second examination was undertaken by a team of scientific experts, after Al Kindi personnel suggested the trailers were for hydrogen production. Their report concluded, “The trailers have equipment and components possibly compatible with biological agent production and/or chemical processes that might include hydrogen production.”


Other reports have suggested that the suspected trailers were used for weather balloons, much like the AN/TMQ-42 Hydrogen Generator of the U.S. Army. Weather balloons were frequently used by Iraqi artillery batteries to determine the trajectory of rockets by collecting atmospheric measurements.


According a story by the Los Angeles Times published on June 21, 2003, an intelligence official was quoted as saying that the trailers did not carry the necessary autoclaves and other equipment necessary for the sterilization of laboratory equipment that is necessary to cultivate pathogens for biological weapon production. Moreover, the official said, "the canvas tarps covering the sides of sides of the trucks appear to be pulled away to let excess heat and gas escape during the production of hydrogen. The tarps would allows in far too much road dust and other contamination if the equipment inside were meant to produce biowarfare agents."


In addition, there were no traces of biological agents found in the trailers. The London Observer, on June 15, 2003, citing British intelligence sources, reported that it was "likely that the units were designed to be used for hydrogen production to fill artillery balloons, part of a system originally sold to Saddam by Britain in 1987."


The Iraqi Survey Group, in its final report, reported that though it could not disprove the existence of Iraqi transportable fermentation systems that could have been used for BW, but it had not uncovered any evidence to suggest that there such systems did exist. The two mobile trailers that recovered near Irbil and Mosul in 2003 were examined by the ISG team and determined to be unlikely for BW for the following reasons: There was a critical absence of instrumentation for process monitoring and control of the process. The positioning of the inlets and outlets on the reactor would make even the most basic functions (such as filling completely, emptying completely, and purging completely the vessel) either impractical or impossible to perform. The lack of the ports required to introduce reagents would exacerbate this problem.


These aspects of the design alone would render fermentation almost impossible to control. The low-pressure air storage system capacity would be inadequate to provide the volume of compressed air required to operate the fermentation process over a complete aerobic production cycle. In addition, it would not be practical to charge and use the existing compressed gas storage with nitrogen or carbon dioxide for anaerobic fermentation. Similarly, the collection system for effluent gas would be wholly inadequate to deal with the volume of effluent gas produced during a complete production cycle. Harvesting any product would be difficult and dangerous.


ISG judged that the facilities were instead intended for use as hydrogen generators for Republican Guard artillery units for use with radio-sonde balloons. Although the equipment was poorly constructed, it would be consistent with the hydrogen generation process detailed in documents from the Al Kindi Company. Moreover, reports and other documents provided by high-ranking officials from Al Kindi, detailing milestones in the manufacture and testing of the trailers, are consistent with the reporting on their stage of construction. For more details on ISG's judgements of the discovered trailers, see the Annex in its 2004 Report.


On April 12, 2006, The Washington Post reported that a separate team of British and American experts had been sent to Baghdad by the Defense Intelligence Agency in May 2003 to investigate these trailers. The team’s report, titled "Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers”, was filed on May 27, 2003, two days before President Bush’s statement regarding their presence in Iraq as evidence of Saddam Hussein WMD program. This claims came despite the team's report which concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons but were almost certainly intended for the development of hydrogen for weather balloons. The Washington Post article also reported that this evidence was shelved away and ignored, with US Government officials continuing to claim that there was evidence that the trailers had posed a biological warfare threat. David Kay, the ISG’s first leader, was quoted as saying that he had not known of the separate research group’s presence in Iraq or of its findings until near the end of time of service as the ISG leader, or late 2003.

Bismillah


:bismillah:


Alsalam 'alaykom, for our young children, who wish to be future reciters and good Qari' of The Holy Quran, contribute to the below site, and join also "The International Holy Qur'an Award in Dubai





Young Qaris


You might one day be one of the best reciters of Quran :)


Best of my wishes and luck to you my children :)


Salam

Namaste,


Here is a matter that came up in conversation yesterday with two friends of mine who know very little, perhaps less than I did when I came here a couple of weeks ago, about Islam.


One of them mentioned that he was afraid that in the future, as the population of the Islamic community expands as it has steadly been doing, there was a possibility of a massive militant movement by the Islamic community to litterally take over the world. Whether as a holy war or some sort of cleansing - his thought was that because of the belief that the lives of non-muslims have no value in the tenets of Islam, when numbers and support are vast enough, this will be the natural result.


Now, I started to argue with him, but honestly I've seen a few verses and comments that actually point right at that eventuality.


It isn't my intention to incite Muslim bashing - there are several here that i've had discussions with who don't seem as though they would jump on board with this. But, is this what Muslim youth are being taught as well? That is, are they being Taught a path of peace of one of war?


The may have come up here before. I perused, but didn't find anything on these lines here. However, the truth of the matter is that since I've been here, all i've heard is basically that those who turn away from Islam, those who hear and don't convert, and a number of other particular minorities, have no living value as human beings.


What response is there to this? It's a scary thought, and while I'm confident that America, while they are not the most politically correct nation, has sufficient technology and economy to handle such a threat, in sheer numbers it just doesn't matter, I think. We often take for granted the power that people have - we tend to fear governments just because they are big, but no government could possibly outfight the entirety of it's own populace, for instance.


So, word amongst the lesser educated is that the nation of Islam plans to convert the world and kill off the non-believers.


I believe it's a direct result of the terrorist matter - obviously not all muslims are terrorists, of course - and possibly little more than that. At the same time, I have to admit that given what i have heard so far it isn't entirely impossible. Especially if a particularly charismatic leader were to arise in the Islamic community who wished to manipulate fanatics towards an evil end. ultimately, i cannot offer a solid argument in either direction.


What say those who are more educated?


Namaste


Mahasvapna

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page....017&method=full


By Christopher Hitchens


In the good old/bad old days, the procedure for making a former human being into a saint was well understood.


There had to be an interval of at least seven years after the death before beatification - the first stage in the process - could even be proposed. (This was to insure against any gusts of popular enthusiasm for a local figure who might later prove to be a phoney.)


There had to be proof of two miracles, attributable to the intercession of the deceased.


And there had to be a hearing, at which the advocatus Diaboli, or Devil's Advocate, would be appointed by the Church to make the strongest possible case against the nominee.


I am not a Roman Catholic and the saint-making procedures of the Vatican are really none of my business. But it strikes me as odd that none of the above rules have been followed in the case of the newly-beatified woman who called herself "Mother" Teresa of Calcutta.


She was first put forward for beatification only four years after her death. Only one miracle has been required of her, and duly found to have been performed.


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And, instead of appointing a Devil's Advocate, the Vatican invited me to be a witness for the Evil One, and expected me to do the job pro bono.


Their reason for asking was that I made a documentary called Hell's Angel, and wrote a short book entitled The Missionary Position, in which I reviewed Mother Teresa's career as if she had been an ordinary person.


<b>I discovered that she had taken money from rich dictators like the Duvalier gang in Haiti, had been a friend of poverty rather than a friend of the poor, had never given any account of the huge sums of money donated to her, had railed against birth-control in the most overpopulated city on the planet and had been the spokeswoman for the most extreme dogmas of religious fundamentalism.</b>



Actually, it's boasting to say that I "discovered" any of this. It was all there in plain sight for anyone to notice. But in the age of celebrity, nobody had troubled to ask if such a global reputation was truly earned or was simply the result of brilliant public relations.


"Wait a minute," said a TV host in Washington a few nights ago, when I debated all this with Mr John Donahue of the Catholic Defence League. "She built hospitals." No, sir, you wait a minute.


Mother Teresa was given, to our certain knowledge, many tens of millions of pounds. But she never built any hospitals. She claimed to have built almost 150 convents, for nuns joining her own order, in several countries. Was this where ordinary donors thought their money was going?


Furthermore, she received some of this money from the Duvaliers, and from Mr Charles Keating of the notorious Lincoln Savings and Loan of California, and both these sources had acquired the money by - how shall I put it? - borrowing money from the poor and failing to give it back.


How could this possibly be true? Doesn't everyone know that she spent her time kissing the sores of lepers and healing the sick? Ah, but what everyone knows isn't always true. You were more likely to run into Mother Teresa being photographed with Nancy Reagan, or posing with Princess Diana, or in the first-class cabin of Air India (where she had a permanent reservation).


You could see her in Ireland, campaigning against a law which would permit civil divorce and remarriage (though she publicly defended Princess Diana's right to be divorced).


You could encounter her on the podium in Stockholm, accepting yet another huge cheque and telling the Nobel audience that the greatest threat to world peace was... abortion. (Since she added that contraception was morally as bad as abortion, she essentially held the view that condoms and coils were a deadly threat to world peace. The Church does not insist on that degree of fundamentalism.)


And when she got sick, she would check herself into the Mayo Clinic or some other temple of American medicine. As one who has visited her primitive "hospice" for the dying in Calcutta, I should call that a wise decision. Nobody would go there except to check out, in one way or another.


"Give a man a reputation as an early riser," said Mark Twain "and that man can sleep till noon." Give a woman a reputation for holiness and compassion and apparently nothing she does can cause her to lose it.


Of Albanian descent and a keen nationalist, she visited the country when it was still a brutal dictatorship and "the world's first atheist state" to pay tribute to its grim Stalinist leader.


She fawned upon her shrewd protector Indira Gandhi at a time when the Indian government was imposing forced sterilisations. Above all, she urged the poor to think of their sufferings as a gift from God.


And she opposed the only thing that has ever been known to cure poverty - the empowerment of women in poor countries by giving them some say in their own reproduction.


Now, so they tell us, a woman in Bengal has recovered from a tumour after praying to Mother Teresa. I have received information from both the family and the physicians that says it was good medical treatment that did the job. Who knows?


I must say that I don't believe in miracles but if they do exist there are deserving cases which don't, in spite of fervent prayers, ever benefit from them.


When Mr Donahue was asked if he believed the statutory second miracle would occur, he said that he thought it would. I said that I thought so, too.


But I have already seen a collective hallucination occur as regards Mother Teresa, though it was produced by the less supernatural methods of modern, uncritical mass media.

<b>Say
</b> (O Muhammad): <b>Who is Lord of the heaven and the earth?
</b>


Say: Allah!


Say: Take ye then others beside Him for protectors, which, even for themselves, have neither benefit nor hurt?


Say: Is the blind man equal to the seer, or is darkness equal to light?


Or assign they unto Allah partners (e.g. mother nature) <b>Who created the like of His creation so that the creation
</b> (which they made and His creation) <b> seemed alike to them?
</b>


Say: Allah is the Creator of all things,


and He is the One, the Almighty. 13:16

To help a Muslim in some important work and to do it for his sake or to remove his troubles and worries is an act which has been promised much reward by the Prophet. Abdullah bin Omar said that our Holy Prophet said, “'One who helps someone in his need, Allah helps him in his work, and one who removes any worry or trouble of any Muslim, Allah, in return, removes anyone of his worries on the Day of Judgment'. (Abu Daud, Kilab-al-Adab, Bad-al-Muvakhat)


A hadith tells us that the Holy Prophet said "A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim", and “A brother does not leave his brother helpless nor does he lie to him nor yet makes false promises, nor treats him with cruelty." (Tirmidhi: AI Birr wa-al- Silah)


Another hadith runs as follows, "If a Muslim is being insulted and degraded and his honour besmirched somewhere and another Muslim leaves him helpless, Allah would leave the latter helpless on occasions when he would need help. And if any Muslim helps him in when he is insulted and degraded, Allah shall help him when he would need help" (Abu Da'ud: Adab)


Helping a Muslim includes appropriate refutal of any wrong charges or insinuations levelled against another Muslim. Abu Darda' report that our Holy Prophet has said, "One who defends the honour of his brother, Allah keeps the fire of hell away from his face on the Day of Judgment.” (Tirmidhi: al Birr wa al Silah, Chapter 20)

Assalaamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh,


Here is a link to a set of 16 recordings by Sheik Anwar al-Awlaqi (in english) of the seerah of our beloved prophet Muhammad ( - peace and blessings be upon him) covering the early years. up until the hijirah.


Maa sha Allah - ( - peace and blessings be upon him) may Allah grant him jannah and the health to continue in dawah. What an inspiring lecturer he is.


<b>The Life of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) - The Makkan Period</b> - by Anwar al-Awlaqi


1 - Introduction


2 - Background History


3 - The Religious Situation of Pre-Islamic Arabia


4 - Early life


5 - Important Events


6 - In Pursuit of the Truth


7 - The Glad Tidings


8 - The Revelation


9 - The Reaction Part I


10 - The Reaction Part II


11 - The Early Immigrants Part I


12 - The Early Immigrants Part II


13 - Major Events


14 - The Later Years of Makkah


15 - In Search of a Base


16 - The Road to Madinah


[<b>The Life of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) - The Makkan Period</b> - by Anwar al-Awlaqi


- Wa 'alaykum as-salaam wa rahmatullaahi wa barakatuhu

Assalamualaikum


Since naseeha enjoyed my poetry and put it in her "ISLAMMESSAGE THROUGH THE TIMES TOP 10"


i thought i would post another poem:


Behind enamel blocks, therein it lies,


It moves in all directions clock and anti-clockwise


If used correctly, it can cause ranks to rise


But shooting without aiming could lead to your demise.


A small piece of flesh without a bone in sight,


It can cure friendship and also incite fights,


Then cowardly behind your teeth, safely it sits tight


And YOU get a jab and a hook from the right.


It bears witness about Allah and His Prophets (saw)


The hereafter is where you’ll see the real profits


It remembers Allah plentiful, but think nothing of it


It recites the Quran wonderful, so start and you’ll love it.


It also has a bitter side


If it boasts and talks with pride,


You’ve backbitten if you speak but hide


It’s called slander if you lied,


Abusive language leaves eyes wide


Make an effort, make truth your bride.


“He who keeps quite, gains salvation”


“Backbiting is worse than fornication”


That’s our Prophet’s(saw) declaration


Please take into consideration


Take time out for contempletion


About Allah, Lord of all creation.


It recites Quran to gain reward,


Use it for speeches, make it your sword.


Anything that will please the Lord,


To waste precious time, that we can’t afford.


With Allah's name begin your day


Remember Him while you work or play


Keep evil doings out of your way


On the straight path you will stay.


If it sings, change it to nasheeds


Pick up an Islamic book to read


Most important repeat your creed


For the Hereafter sow your seed


For that day you’l need every good deed.


Use it to supplicate, use it to repent


At the All-Mighty’s doorstep, drop and lament


Solely for worship is why we were sent


Let not Satan be an impediment


And keep Allah’s remembrance immanent.


Keep Muslims safe from its attack


Be they red or be they black


Disunity is the biggest drawback


So keep the unity free from slack


Oh Allah! Keep us on the straight track.


Its correct usage whoso guarantees


And of that between his knees


The Prophet(saw)will make certain he sees


Our entry into Paradise with ease.


A humble effort, not a song


An attempt to pass a message on


It can do good, it can do wrong


This poem was about the tongue.