American Soldier Tries To Unveil Iraqi Girl By Force


Jan 04, 2005


By Omar Al-Faris, JUS And Muhammad Abu Nasr, Free Arab Voice


It has often been said that the Americans occupying Iraq have no understanding of Islam or the Iraqi culture. They blast music from their tanks which is haram, violate the holy places and fail to understand the high level of women within the culture. It has been widely broadcasted that “veiled” woman are oppressed which could not be further from the truth. The veil is a sign of piety and a command of Allah (swt) in order to protect the purity of woman. Woman have the opposite status in Islam than is publicized and this latest incident in Ramadi shows that US soldiers are either are ignorant of the deep meaning of Hijab or don’t care. Either way, it fused a division between local police and US occupation forces yesterday.


Clashes erupted between US troops and Iraqi police at a US checkpoint in the center of Ramadi on Monday morning. Eyewitnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam that the battles broke out at about 10am when a US solider insisted on searching a veiled Iraq girl who was with her mother. The US soldier was determined to lift her veil, claiming that resistance fighters could disguise themselves in women’s clothing.


Witnesses reported that the Iraqi girl refused to lift the veil from her face, causing the American soldier to try to pull it off by force. At that point the Iraqi policemen intervened and clashed with the Americans, sparking a battle that lasted 15 minutes.


The reporter said that the fighting ended with the Americans arresting five members of the local police force, while four others escaped together with the mother and the Iraqi girl who was never unveiled. The stand of the Ramadi policemen against the American occupiers brought them the strong sympathies of the local people.


__________________

It's a new site that someone i know built....


it looks good for a start


here

<b>I also believe we are engaged in a struggle with Islam. Since the collapse of communism, Islam presents the only coherent challenge to our way of life. </b>


But it is primarily an ideological war and I do not believe, as Tony Blair and George W Bush seem to, that it can be won by imposing western democratic institutions upon Islamic countries with bombs and troops.


It might be won, however, by smothering Islamic countries with the accoutrements of western affluence, such as affordable white goods, television and the other gentle vices of western civilisation. The ordinary adherents of all ascetic creeds, of which Marxism and Islam are but two, tend to be susceptible to the softening temptations of avarice.


If we can buy off Islam in such a way then Turkish membership of the EU will have been a success and we might extend the invitation to other Muslim countries. So those curious whirling dervishes could even become symbols of hope.


<b>Warning against the Lures of Shaytan</b>


Allah warns the Children of Adam against Iblis and his followers, by explaining about his ancient enmity for the father of mankind, Adam peace be upon him. Iblis plotted to have Adam expelled from Paradise, which is the dwelling of comfort, to the dwelling of hardship and fatigue (this life) and caused him to have his private part uncovered, after it had been hidden from him. This, indeed, is indicative of deep hatred (from Shaytan towards Adam and mankind). Allah said in a similar Ayah,


[أَفَتَتَّخِذُونَهُ وَذُرِّيَّتَهُ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِى وَهُمْ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ بِئْسَ لِلظَّـلِمِينَ بَدَلاً]


(Will you then take him (Iblis) and his offspring as protectors and helpers rather than Me, while they are enemies to you What an evil is the exchange for the wrongdoers.) [18:50].


[وَإِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَـحِشَةً قَالُواْ وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَآ ءَابَاءَنَا وَاللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْفَحْشَآءِ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ - قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّي بِالْقِسْطِ وَأَقِيمُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ - فَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلَـلَةُ إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَـطِينَ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ وَيَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ ]


(28. And when they commit a Fahishah, they say: "We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded it for us.'' Say: "Nay, Allah never commands Fahishah. Do you say about Allah what you know not'') (29. Say: "My Lord has commanded justice and that you should face Him only, in every Masjid and invoke Him only, making your religion sincere to Him. As He brought you (into being) in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again.'') (30. A group He has guided, and a group deserved to be in error; (because) surely, they took the Shayatin as supporters instead of Allah, and think that they are guided.)


<b>People of the Scriptures try to extinguish the Light of Islam</b>


Allah says, the disbelieving idolators and People of the Scriptures want to,


[أَن يُطْفِئُواْ نُورَ اللَّهِ]


(extinguish the Light of Allah). They try through argument and lies to extinguish the guidance and religion of truth that the Messenger of Allah was sent with. Their example is the example of he who wants to extinguish the light of the sun or the moon by blowing at them! Indeed, such a person will never accomplish what he sought. Likewise, the light of what the Messenger was sent with will certainly shine and spread. Allah replied to the idolators' desire and hope,


[وَيَأْبَى اللَّهُ إِلاَّ أَن يُتِمَّ نُورَهُ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَـفِرُونَ]


(but Allah will not allow except that His Light should be perfected even though the disbelievers (Kafirun) hate (it)) [9:32]. [Linguistincally] a Kafir is the person who covers something. For instance, night is called Kafiran [covering] because it covers things [with darkness]. The farmer is called Kafiran, because he covers seeds in the ground. Allah said in an Ayah,


[أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ]


(thereof the growth is pleasing to the [Kuffar] tillers)[57:20].


Let's corrupt Turkey, it'll be the saving of them


Rod Liddle


December 19, 2004


All those of us committed to the notion of a culturally diverse Europe will be delighted that Turkey is about to be admitted to the EU.


Our continent is becoming drab and monocultural: it is difficult, sometimes, to tell a Swede from a Croat or a Lett from a Basque. They all wear the same clothes and listen to the same bland music, eat the new homogenous Eurodiet of pasta-lite, speak passable English and believe in nothing. The arrival of Turkey will add some welcome exoticism, an agreeable whiff of the orient.


We will embrace not merely the 50m or so implacably conservative Turkish Muslims from the weird and dusty moonscapes east of Istanbul, but also one of the world’s last communities of whirling dervishes.


These interesting and endangered people, disciples of the Mevlevi order of Sufi mystics, will, whirl in a counter-clockwise direction to escape the material encumbrances of this world and bring them closer to God. That’s a bit more fun than our traditional Christian services, isn’t it? They put on a whirling show every week in Istanbul and it is proving to be quite a hit with western tourists, or “travellers” as I suppose they would prefer to be known. In this globalised world increasingly we soft and affluent Europeans crave what the French call la différence.


The dervishes are renowned for their peaceable and affable disposition, which sets them apart from an awful lot of Turkish menfolk. In a recent opinion poll, more than 40% of Turkish men thought it was right to “discipline” and “punish” women for real or imagined transgressions.


According to an Amnesty International report this year, between one-third and one-half of Turkish women confess to having been beaten up by their loving husbands regularly. Others have simply been killed or forced to commit suicide. This long-standing tradition of persecuting women has, until recently, been aided by the civil code and the judiciary.


They in turn have all been informed by Islam, of course. I will not get into a theological discussion concerning precisely what the Koran, or Muhammad’s Hadiths, insist is the correct etiquette to be observed towards women. Perhaps we can just agree on the broad point that countries which are either Islamic or have a civil code drawn largely from Islam tend to view their women citizens in a manner that would not accord with the views of, say, Germaine Greer.


There has been much cheering at the fact that we will also welcome Turkey’s armed forces, which are very large in number and as we might recall from the traumatic first world war battle at Gallipoli, ferocious.


But remember, we’ll get the Turkish police force, too. And the “security services”.


Another Amnesty International report stated the following: “Torture in police custody remained widespread and was practised systematically.” By “torture”, the report referred not to the regrettable verbal bullying and bad manners which is without doubt imposed upon our own custodial charges, but, and I quote, “electric shocks, beatings, hanging by the arms”.


We will also welcome into our arms the “Turkish” Kurds. Or let me rephrase that; we will welcome into our arms the rest of the “Turkish” Kurds.


Somewhere in the region of 50,000 of them are here already, living largely in Stoke Newington and Turnpike Lane in northeast London. We let them in because we thought with some justification that the Turkish government might be inclined to persecute them.


Officially the Turkish government reckons it has killed 23,000 Kurds over the past couple of decades or so, which is right up there with the numbers of Kurds dispatched by Saddam Hussein in neighbouring Iraq. The Turkish government calls the people it killed terrorist separatists but the Kurds believe the majority were civilians.


Asked to choose between the Kurds and the Turks we might well become confused. Whatever the legitimacy of territorial aspirations of the Kurds, it is beyond doubt that the pre-eminent Kurdish party, the PKK, was an antediluvian Marxist terrorist organisation engaged in lucrative drug-running operations. It will be interesting to see if our Kurdish population trots back to Turkey when Ankara is admitted to the EU. Personally I doubt it.


And, once again, welcome Turkey. As we have seen, Denmark it ain’t. It is a singularity even alongside other potential or arriviste EU nations — Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova. Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest and the European Champions League seems to have convinced both the Turks and the EU that Europe starts not at the Bosporus, but just to the east of Lake Van.


I have no quarrel with this, any more than I have with the radical school of anti-colonialist African geographers who insist that Spain and Cyprus are part of what was once called the dark continent. Let everybody decide which continent they wish to belong to. Let democracy triumph over narrow geographical determinism.


The EU wishes Turkey to stop being beastly to the Kurds, hopes it will wean the Turkish police off re-enacting scenes from Midnight Express and best of all, wants Ankara to recognise Cyprus. All of which seem reasonable caveats to Turkish membership of a federal Europe.


But the EU might also drop any pretence at cultural equivalence, despite the protests from Ankara. Turkish women, Turkish atheists and Turkish homosexuals should be entitled to live their lives free from domestic or cultural oppression, and if that means a swift revision of the norms of Turkish society, so be it.


All of which marks me down as a bit of a hypocrite. I am usually no supporter of a federal Europe, partly at least because I object to the inevitable standardisation of hitherto sovereign and distinct states that has occurred over the past 30 years. In other words, I’m an anti-federalist because I object to precisely what Ankara is


objecting to now.


I also believe we are engaged in a struggle with Islam. Since the collapse of communism, Islam presents the only coherent challenge to our way of life.


But it is primarily an ideological war and I do not believe, as Tony Blair and George W Bush seem to, that it can be won by imposing western democratic institutions upon Islamic countries with bombs and troops.


It might be won, however, by smothering Islamic countries with the accoutrements of western affluence, such as affordable white goods, television and the other gentle vices of western civilisation. The ordinary adherents of all ascetic creeds, of which Marxism and Islam are but two, tend to be susceptible to the softening temptations of avarice.


If we can buy off Islam in such a way then Turkish membership of the EU will have been a success and we might extend the invitation to other Muslim countries. So those curious whirling dervishes could even become symbols of hope.


Source: The Sunday Times

http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http...glish/?id=12318


God's invisible hand’ saved Indonesia’s mosques


Indonesia's indestructible mosques defy colossal forces of tsunami under ‘God's invisible hand’.


By Victor Tjahjadi - BANDA ACEH, Indonesia


In Indonesia's tsunami wastelands on the northern tip of Sumatra island, little remains of whole towns lost to the colossal forces that came thundering in from the ocean.


But across these battered shores, dozens of mosques still stand, their minarets glinting defiantly in the sun - a phenomenon survivors in the deeply Islamic region credit as much to divine intervention as robust architecture.


"God's invisible hands prevents the mosque's destruction," said Mukhlis Khaeran, who saw the sea sweep away his home village of Baet outside the north Sumatran city of Banda Aceh, but leave the neighbourhood mosque relatively intact.


"He punishes us for our greed and arrogance but He will protect his house," Khaeran said, his arms covered with injuries sustained in the disaster that killed at least 100,000 people around the north Sumatran province of Aceh.


Mosques are an everyday sight in most of Indonesia, but especially in Aceh, credited with the being one of Islam's main gateways into the archipelago of islands which now forms the world's largest Muslim-populated country.


Despite a long-lasting independence struggle, Aceh, parts of which are under traditional Islamic sharia law, has remained a Muslim heartland for Indonesia, which mostly practices a very relaxed interpretation of the faith.


Spiritual beliefs in Aceh and around the Indian Ocean were tested to the limit on December 26 when an epic earthquake sent towers of water crashing ashore, obliterating virtually everything in their path.


But while some spoke of "God's wrath", hundreds turned to their mosques, in panic for shelter from the advancing tides and later for spiritual comfort in a time of desperate need.


In the village of Kaju, also outside Banda Aceh, hundreds of homes were annihilated while the local mosque suffered only a few cracks in the walls.


"There is a saying among Acehnese that a mosque is God's house and no one can destroy it but God Himself," said Ismail Ishak, 42, who was digging rubble from his crumbled house while searching for seven of his relatives.


In Pasi Lhok, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the north Aceh town of Sigli, 100 frightened people sheltering inside their mosque were spared while almost every house in the surrounding five villages was pulverised, according to chief cleric Teungku Kaoy Ali.


In Meubolah, a town on Aceh's western coast less than 150 kilometres (95 miles) from the quake epicentre which bore the full force of the tsunami, leaving at least 10,000 dead, mosques stand sentinel over a vanished town centre.


Banda Aceh resident Achyar said when he saw the waves pounding in from the sea, his first instinct was to turn and run for the nearest mosque.


"I climbed the mosque tower and hung on to an electric wire until water receded," he said. "Many of my friends, many of them ethnic Chinese, died because they climbed to the second floor of their shops and were trapped there," he said.


Another, less divine, explanation for the survival of the mosques is that many are built much more sturdily than most of the other structures in the towns and cities of Aceh.


However one mosque in Sigli was made only of wood but still survived unscathed despite all the other buildings around it being destroyed.


Banda Aceh's grand Baiturrahman mosque suffered partial damage from the quake and tsunami, but proved invaluable to the city's survivors in the minutes, hours and days that followed the cataclysm.


For many it became a rallying place to search for missing friends or relatives, a makeshift hospital to treat the injured and a morgue to collect the dead.


With much of Banda Aceh likely to remain in ruins for months, residents were quick to repay their debt to their cherished religious buildings, working swiftly to ensure the Baiturrahman mosque was one of the first places restored.


On Sunday, some 300 survivors gathered for their first prayers since their five-times daily ritual was halted - a major step on the long road back to normality in Aceh.

Assalamu'alaykum....


sorry i can't frequent this forum anymore. now i'm really busy. i need some help from my brothers and sisters here.


1) if there's a new Web Application on Holy Qur'an, how would you like it to be? what are the contents that should be in there (i.e. recitation downloads, Q&A, Asbaab an-Nuzul etc.)


2) do you know any link where i can get the translation of Holy Qur'an in any language, as many language as possible, provided that the source is reliable
.


please send your reply to:


lifutushi@yahoo.co.uk


jazakumullahi khairan katheeran...


Assalamu'alaykum...

For all their differences, Israeli, Palestinian secularists and Americans consider the Islamic Resistance Movement an obstacle to their vested interests. This major Islamic resistance group’s name in Arabic is Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, nicknamed Hamas.


Unlike the secular Palestinian Authority, which is trying to negotiate a ‘Bantu-state’ on the 20 percent of Muslim Palestine, the religion-based Hamas wants to liberate all of Palestine, not just the Occupied Territories. It considers Palestine to be a waqf (holy inheritance) and the presence of Zionists therein is an affront to Allah.


"The question of the liberation of Palestine is bound to three circles: the Palestinian circle, the Arab circle and the Islamic circle. Each of these circles has its role in the struggle against Zionism" (Art. 14).


To wage the struggle, Hamas encourages individual Muslims to join the jihad (struggle). Tactics include martyr bombings against Zionists and opposition to moderate Palestinians, like those of Yasser Arafat’s al-Fatah group, who want to negotiate a separate peace (piece?) with Israel.


Hamas militant resistance and absolute hostility toward Israel have caused the pro-Zionist mass-media to depict it along with the Hezbollah, al-Aqsa Martyrs, Brigade and Islamic Jihad as terrorist. Although this caricature is understandable, it is not accurate because it begs the questions of who is a terrorist and whether negotiations serve the Native Palestinian interest.


Despite scores of conferences, summits, resolutions and official statements, Israel still occupies Palestine, and Palestinians must endure humiliations and privations that beg allusion to the Nazis treatment of Jooooz, Gypsies, etc..


An examination of the historical records prove that Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement, and a more honourable champion of Palestinian rights than the Palestinian Authority.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee said: “Since the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe, over five centuries ago, the West has destroyed 16 civilizations out of 26. “


In other words, instead of ushering in peace, justice, solidarity and friendly co-operations, it produced massive wars, carpet bombing, weapons of mass destruction, and practiced double standards about democracy, individual freedom, and equality of races and genders in the eyes of law. To its long list of victims of invasions, Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq and Palestine are the latest additions.


The western intellectuals and most of its leaders know full well that the only source which can provide peace, stability, brotherhood, solidarity, and mutual understanding throughout the world is Islam. The other world religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity and Judaism have been fossilized by the western secular onslaught and is easily assimilated into the pagan and secular western culture – whereas Islam rejects assimilation outright.


The western intellectuals and politicians are aware that Islamic Shari’ah can still provide real answers to the present-day global problems because unlike secularism that limits the human life to this world, Islam is not exclusivist. Islam is inclusivist in the sense that it is the only universal religion that accepts all the revealed truth from the first man Adam to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Furthermore, Islam is the only universal religion that produced genuine multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-national civilizations – such as, Muslim Spain, Mughal Hindustan, Muslim Palestine, etc., etc.

I can't belive how impossible it is to actually find any that work. I've searched through three pages of Google putting in "Islamic Screensavers" or "Quran screensavers" None of the links work, those that do the downloaded program doesn't work. So, does anyone have working on their PC right now an Islamic Screesaver, one with Quranic verses is what i'm looking for and it must work on <b>windows 2000</b>. If you have one working right now on your pc and <b>you're running windows 2000</b>. Can you please send me the link to where you got it from,


Jazakallahu khayran

Some 2 million Muslims from all over the world are converging on the Haramain to perform the Hajj, the assembly of the united Ummah that is also the greatest act of personal ibadah that any Muslim can perform. The Muslims that come to perform the Hajj come from every part of the world and from all sectors of the Ummah, to stand together in the same simple clothes, resembling the shroud in which we will one day be buried, standing equal before the Creator regardless of their wealth, power and social standing, and praying for forgiveness for their past deeds and errors. At least, that is how the Hajj is supposed to be.


The reality, unfortunately, is often all too different. For one thing, there is now little opportunity for Muslims from around the world to meet and mingle as a single Ummah, as the organization of the Hajj keeps them apart and they are encouraged to arrive as late as possible and leave as quickly as possible after the Hajj. While many Muslims make huge sacrifices to come to perform the Hajj, for other it is like a luxury holiday, as they use their wealth to purchase facilities and indulgences that separate them from the bulk of the Ummah, who are all too often exploited and abused by local officials, guides and tradesmen whose greatest honour should be to assist them. The fact that many of these hujjaj see these hardships as part of the test of the Hajj, and do not allow them to spoil what remains a remarkable spiritual journey for them, does not change the fact that the Hajj is routinely hugely mismanaged by the Saudi authorities responsible for it.


Even more serious than this is the fact that, under Saudi management, huge parts of the Hajj have been abandoned and virtually forgotten. The symbolism of the journey from Makkah to Mina and Arafat, as the march of the great army of Islam, has been largely replaced by personal religiosity. When Muslims gather stones at Muzdalifah and fling them at the shaitans at Mina, the stones represent the weapons of the Islamic armies, being wielded against the three jamarat, which represent not only Shaitan in the abstract but the shaitans in the world today. Also largely forgotten, linked to this, is the Qur’anic command that Muslims must proclaim their dissocaition from the mushrikeen at the time of Hajj (al-Qur’an 9:3). This is a command that had huge significance when it was revealed in the ninth year of the Hijrah, and is just as significant in the modern world that is dominated by the powers of kufr and their puppets in the Muslim world.


It is hardly surprising that the current Saudi regime prefers that these elements of the Hajj be forgotten. But they should know, as all Muslims should, that the Ummah awaits the day when, insha’Allah, the Hijaz is liberated and the Hajj can insha’Allah be performed properly, as it should be and as it was in the days of the Prophet, may the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him. (Muslimedia)

<b>"Rasulullah (SAW) explained: </b>If one of you were to be stabbed in the head with a piece of iron it would be better for him than if he were to touch a woman whom it is not permissible for him to touch." <b>(Reported by al-Tabaraani; see also Saheeh al-Jaami, 5045). </b>


This refers to the punishment for touching, so how about worse deeds, such as embracing and kissing, and even worse kinds of illicit activity?


<b>Rasulullah (SAW) said</b>, "Whenever a man is alone with a woman the Devil makes a third." (Al-Tirmidhi 3118, Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab, Tirmidhi transmitted it as authentic) note:


So we should always try not to be alone with a woman who is not mahrAm to us and not even go close to Zina. The Same goes for us Sisters.


<b>Imaam al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said</b>: The ulama said that the phrase And come not near to unlawful sexual intercourse is more eloquent than merely saying Do not commit zinaa, because the meaning is, Do not even come close to zinaa. This means not doing any deed that may get close to zinaa or lead to it, such as being alone with a member of the opposite sex, touching, looking, going to evil places, speaking in a haraam manner to a woman to whom one is not related, thinking about and planning immoral acts, and so on.


<b>Touching a Strange Woman with Lust</b>


It has been reported that the person who touches a strange woman with lust, on the day of resurrection his hands
will be shackled to his neck. If he kissed
her, his lips will be cut off and thrown in the fire of Jahannum. If he committed adultery then his thighs
will bear witness to it and testify against him on the Day of Qiyâmat. It will say to him, "I was mounted for something impermissible." Allâh will look at him with anger. The flesh of his face will fall off and he will proclaim "What did I do?" His tongue will testify and say, "I spoke to whom it was not permissible for you to talk to." His legs will testify, "I walked towards something unlawful." His hands will testify "I held something which was prohibited for you." His eyes will testify "I gazed at unlawful things." His private parts will testify "I committed the act." An angel will say, "I heard it" while another will say, "I’ve written it down." Allâh will say "I was aware of it and I concealed it." Then Allâh will say to the angels "Let him taste of my punishment. My anger has increased on one who has no shame." (Kitâb-ul-Kaba’ir)


<b>Anas (RA) reports that Nabî (SAW) said:</b> "Imân is a garb with which Allâh clothes whomsoever he wishes. If a person commits adultery this garb is snatched away and if he repents it is again returned" (Kitâb-ul-Kabair).


<b>Rasûlullah said:</b> "…adultery of the <b>eyes </b>is when it looks at that which is Harâm; adultery of the <b>ears </b>is when it listens to that which is Harâm; adultery of the <b>tongue</b> is when it utters Harâm; adultery of the <b>hands</b> is when it touches Harâm; adultery of the <b>feet </b>is when it walks towards Harâm; adultery of the <b>heart</b> is when it desires and hopes for that which is Harâm; adultery of the <b>private parts </b> is when it succumbs to that which is Harâm." (Targhib wa Tarhî B )


From the above Hadîth it is clear and apparent that Islam forbids not only the act of adultery but all acts that invite and encourage the act of zina. Islam <b>shuts </b>the door to the root of every evil.