Boycott. Probably the most dreaded word in the corporate vocabulary. MCI/WorldCom. Undeniably the perpetrator of the most horrendous and damaging fraud ever committed in corporate history.

Is it enough that MCI:

- Committed accounting fraud approaching $10 billion?

- Caused the loss of $3 billion in pension funds?

- Caused investor losses exceeding $176 billion?

- Caused the loss of investor confidence in the free market system?

- Caused the lay-offs of tens of thousands of hard-working innocent employees?

- Caused the misery of hundreds of thousands of families struggling to make ends meet?

boycottMCI.com believes it is more than enough.

However, President Bush's Administration doesn't quite see it that way. The Bush administration, by both its actions and non-actions, has demonstrated that MCI is not only undeserving of prosecution, but to the contrary, will be rewarded for its fraudulent activities.

The Bush Administration has:

- Failed to indict and prosecute MCI for committing corporate fraud.

- Permitted the Federal Communications Commission to continue MCI's license to operate.

- Renewed MCI's contract for services with the General Services Administration to the tune of $1, 000,000,000 of taxpayer money.

- Likely approved the Security and Exchange Commission to settle its charges against MCI with delayed, little, or no fines at all.

http://www.boycottworldcom.com/

[img:e4e20d00a6]http://www.boycottworldcom.com/images/top_image.jpg[/img:e4e20d00a6]

30 Little-Known Facts About Israel

1. Did you know that non-Jewish Israelis cannot buy or lease land in Israel? A Jew from any country in the world is guaranteed citizenship in Israel, while the Palestinians who have been there for centuries are oppressed and persecuted.

2.Did you know that instead of sewing an insignia on clothing to distinguish race (like the Germans did to the Jews before WW2), Palestinian license plates in Israel are color coded to distinguish Jews from non-Jews?

3. Did you know that East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights are all considered by the entire world community, including the United States and the United Nations, to be occupied territory and NOT part of the State of Israel?

4. Did you know that Israel allots 85% of the water resources for Jews, and the remaining 15% is divided among all Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of the water is set aside for about 400 Jewish settlers, while the remaining 15% is distributed among Hebron's 120, 000 Palestinians?

5.Did you know that the United States awards Israel $5 billion in aid each year from American tax dollars?

6.Did you know that US aid to Israel ($1.8 billion annually in military aid alone) exceeds the aid the US grants to the entire African continent? This aid is used both to buy American weaponry and to buy arms made in Israel.

7. Did you know that Israel is awaiting an additional $4 billion worth of American military hardware, including new F-16s and Apache and Blackhawk helicopters. As Israel's main ally and supporter internationally, the United States is committed to maintaining the Jewish state's "qualitative edge" in weapons over its neighbors.

8. Did you know that the U.S. administration has notified Congress on numerous occasions that Israel has violated the rules on how US-supplied weapons are used? (In 1978, 1979 and 1982 during fighting in Lebanon, and once after Israel's bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.)

9. Did you know that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections from its sites?

10. Did you know that high-ranking military officers in the Israeli Defense Forces have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war have been summarily executed by the Israeli forces?

11. Did you know that Israel blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a US warship in international waters (the USS Liberty), killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors and the US did nothing about it? (Imagine if an Islamic country like Iraq did this!)

12. Did you know that Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council Resolutions?

13. Did you know that Israel is explicitly dedicated to the policy of maintaining a distinct Jewish character?

14. Did you know that Israel's current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, was found by an Israeli court to be "personally and directly responsible" for the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Lebanon where more than a thousand innocent Palestinian men, women, and children were axed to death or lined up and shot in cold blood?

15. Did you know that on May 20, 1990, a group of unarmed Palestinian laborers were lined up and murdered by an Israeli solider as they sat waiting for transportation back to Gaza? The terrified laborers who gathered in an area of southern Israel known as Rishon Lezion (known to Palestinians by its Arabic name Oyon Qara) handed their ID cards to the Israeli soldier. The soldiers ordered the distressed laborers to kneel down and face the ground and unexpectedly showered them with a barrage of bullets, killing seven and wounding many others. Needless to say, the soldier was not charged with any crime.

16. Did you know that until as recently as 1988, Israelis were permitted to run "Jews Only" job ads?

17. Did you know that the Israeli Foreign Ministry pays six US public relations firms to promote a "positive image" of Israel to the American public?

18. Did you know that Sharon's coalition government includes a party--Molodet--which advocates ethnic cleansing by openly calling for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from the occupied territories?

19. Did you know that recently-declassified documents indicate that David Ben-Gurion approved of the forced expulsion of Arabs from all Palestininan territory in 1948?

20. Did you know that the former chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yossef, who is also a founder and spiritual leader of the religious Shas party (Israel's third largest political party) openly advocates a 'Final Solution' to annihilate the Palestinians? Speaking at the widely broadcast sermon marking the last Passover, he declared of the Palestinians: "The Lord shall return their deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world. It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable."

21. Did you know that Palestinian refugees make up the largest portion of the refugee population in the world?

22. Did you know that Palestinian Christians are considered the "living stones" of Christianity because they are the direct descendants of the disciples of Jesus Christ? And the Palestinian Christians stand united with their Muslim brethren in the struggle against the Israeli occupation.

23. Did you know that despite a ban on torture by Israel's High Court of Justice, torture has continued unabated by Shin Bet interrogators on Palestinian prisoners?

24. Did you know that despite every Israeli attempt to disrupt Palestinian education, Palestinians have the highest ratio of PhDs per capita in the world?

25. Did you know that the right of self-determination is guaranteed to every human being under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [December, 1948], yet Palestinians were/are expected to negotiate for this right under the Oslo Accords?

26. Did you know that despite what is widely perpetuated and written in the history books that the Arabs attacked Israel in the 1967 war, it was Israel who attacked the Arab countries first, capturing Jerusalem and the West Bank, and called the attack a pre-emptive strike? 27. Did you know that, as an occupying power, Israel has a particular responsibility under the Geneva Conventions to protect Palestinian civilians?

28. Did you know that, despite Ariel Sharon's public call for a unilateral ceasefire, Israeli soldiers have not stopped shooting, killing or bulldozing Palestinian homes? The most recent example of this is the murder of three innocent women who were shot by an Israeli tank as they sat in their tent!

29. Did you know that the Zionists have been trying to destroy Masjid al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock for the last 50 years by digging underground tunnels beneath the sites to weaken its foundation causing it to collapse?

30) Nelson Mandela called the Israeli government an apartheid regime, just like South Africa used to be.

Salam alikom

What happened to the General forum it does not appear on the screen and also there was a topic I recieved by email once when I clicked it it said the topic does not exist??? :?

Salam

Major Scott Hawkins, my business partner, is in Kuwait with the US Marines 8th Tank Battalion as they prepare to return home from the war. From the turret of an Abrams Tank, he participated in some of the fiercest fighting of the war around Al Nasiriyah. My friend is a 42 year old, proud father of 4 daughters. When not fighting for his country he lives on a small horse farm near Berlin, Maryland.

He asked me to provide this letter to everyone who has prayed and supported him and his troops. I thought you should get a copy.

***************************************************

A Message From A Marine In Iraq

Our country did a good thing here.

Our battles were not with the citizens of Iraq, rather they were against an evil that had consumed their government.

I volunteered to come here because I still believe the words "In God We Trust" printed on our currency.

I truly believe that we are indeed, "One Nation Under God".

I believe that we are also a blessed nation and that we were called upon by God to assist in fighting an evil that was growing.

I have been humbled beyond words and I feel blessed to have been allowed to have been a part of God's plan for this region of the world. I have also felt God's presence - when I asked for his protection before battle and when I called out to him during battle. And now, I feel very blessed to be coming home, alive and in one piece to be a witness to God's work. I want to tell you about an experience I had:

When we were in one of the smaller towns south of Al Kut, I had an opportunity to meet a man named Hida Hessen. Hida has five children, three boys the oldest 10 and two daughters, the oldest 14. Hida and I spent many hours "talking" about his country. Our discussions were more drawings on MRE cases, animated hand and arms, and very broken English.

At times our discussions were very emotional as he cried while telling me about the suffering his family incurred under Saddam's henchmen. He talked about the lack of food and medical care. He showed me the scars on his son from breaking a bone that was not treated. He showed me the cloths that his children wear, and the crude stitching that holds them together, because there were no new cloths for purchase for the children under Saddam. I knew they had suffered greatly as I saw firsthand how his loyalists had shielded themselves behind women and children as they shot at us.

We also talked about positive things. He expressed his excitement for the new democracy that was coming to his country and his concerns regarding the economy. I could see hope building in his eyes when I explained to him that Iraq was for the people of Iraq and that the oil belonged to the Iraqi people. I explained that the oil and democracy together would be good for his country.

He then told me that he had prayed that America would come and save his country from Saddam and he thanked me again.

Then something happened that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

We started talking about God. He explained to me what he knows about Allah and Muhammad, and he asked me about Jesus. After we talked for a little bit he told me, in the way that I will never forget that he felt that there was only one God over all of the heavens and earth. It was a very simple statement that based upon our discussions that he believed that we shared the same God.

Now you have to understand that this was not a discussion between two highly educated theologians who could logically argue the technicalities that separate our beliefs and how we worship. This was just two simple men coming to an agreement that there was far more in common between us then different because we share the same God. With that, Hida took out his prayer rug and showed me how he prays. After that, I knelt to one knee, bowed my head, and closed my eyes and showed Hida and his children how I pray. Then, without words, we prayed together for the same things. We prayed for success for his democracy, and we prayed for God's protection for our families and the Marines that were outside his home.

I know in my heart that God was still listening to both of us.

Major Scott Hawkins, USMCR

Forward Air Controller, 2 MEB, A Co., 8th Tanks

****************************************************

You are welcome to share Scott's message with others as you feel it is appropriate. If you'd like to write to Scott - his email address is hawk@sysops.com

If you have any questions, feel free to call or write me.

All The Best To You and Yours!

Tom

Thomas S. Cropper, Jr.

President

SYSOPS INC

229 W Main St STE 1

Salisbury, MD 21801

410-742-7420

tom@sysops.com

Would I be right in saying that the Qur'an teaches that Jesus was taken up to heaven and will return as judge?

Aslaamu'Alikium Wa Rahamatuh Allah Wa Barakatuh.

Masha'allah...from time to time one finds some beautiful and inspiring poetry and stories on the web...

Alhamdulillah...I'll try and share them with you...

The Nail In The Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all.

He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there."

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

You are my brother/sister and Iam honored !

Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.

There is no other God but Allah!!!Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!

The prophet Mohammed PBUH stated that “verily, amongst the countries of Allah, Makka is the most adored country to Allah”. The new scientific discovery which was declared in 1977 and which amazed the scientist says that “Makka is the center of the lands of the world.

It took many years to confirm this scientific fact through scientific research. It depended on a group of complicated mathematical tables which the scientists have computerized. The Egyptian scientist Dr. Hussain Kamalud Deen related the story of this amazing discovery. He says: He started a research with a different object.

He was preparing a research which gives an instrument to every body all over the world which enable him to recognize the direction of Qibla, “the direction of the location of the holy city Makka” because, during his various tips abroad he felt that this is one of the main problems which faces a Muslim when he wants to pray particularly if the Muslim traveler was in a place which has no a Mosque as it happens to students who study abroad. Therefore, he thought of making a new map to the globe so that to determine the direction of Qubla on it.

After laying down the outlines of the research in his preliminary or tentative research, as well as the map of the five continents, this fact, suddenly, appeared to him. He got amazed. The Egyptian scientist found that the Honored Makka city is located at the center of the world. He used a divider and put one of its end on the location of Makka and then he passed the other end on ends of all continents. It confirmed to him that the dry land on earth is distributed around the holy city of Makka in a regular manner and consequently he found Makka to be the center of the dry land on earth.

Again he prepared the map of the old world before the discovery of America and Australia and he repeated the experiment. Again he found Makka to be the center of the dry land even in the case of the old world. Dr. kamalud Deen says. I started my research by drawing a map that measures the distances of all location on earth from Makka. Then I linked between the longitudes which are equal so that to know how the longitudes and latitudes would appear in relation to location of Makka. Then I drew the borders of the continents and the other details on this web of lines. The experiment need to perform some of the complicated mathematical formula by the help of computer so that to determine the required distances and cures. It also required a computer program that helps to draw the web of longitude and latitude. Only by chance, I found that I can draw a circle which makes Makka its center and its border out of the six continents of the world and the surrounding of this circle orbits with the border of the external continents. Then, Makka and by the power of Allah, is the heart of the earth.

This correlates with what has been expressed by science in the discovery of scientist that it is the center of radiation gathering of the magnetic gravitation, which is a strange phenomena experienced by whoever visited Makka for performing Hajor Ounra in a state of heart piety. Such a pilgrimage feels an intuitive attraction to whatever in it. Its land, mountains and its entire corner. He feels a desire to get melted in and merged with its entity by his heart and body. This is a continuous feeling which exists since the creation of Earth. The earth like other planets and stars undergoes a continuous process of gravitation with other planets and stars the earth is affected by this gravitation therefore it releases what we may call a radiation. This inner meeting point was discovered by an American scientist of topographia. He confirmed its existence and location from a geographical point of view. In this regard he was not having any religious motive behind it.

In his laboratory, he accomplished great efforts which made him to work day by right. He worked and examined the map of the earth and by the help of various tools and instruments. Then he unintentionally discovered that the center of meeting of the cosmic radiation is Makka. Here appears the wisdom behind the saying of the prophet Mohammed PBUH which corresponds to the Quranic sign that says, “thus have we sent by inspiration to thee An Arabic Quran that thou mayest warn the Mother of cities and all around her and warm them of the day of assembly of which there is no doubt: when some will be in the garden, and some in the blazing, fire” [42:7] therefore, we can realize the wisdom behind closing Makka to be the place for Kaaba and making it the center from which the Islamic message spread to all over the world. Thus, everyday science is confirming an Islamic fact, which have been revealed before fourteen centuries.

Source: The scientific miracle in Islam and Sunna Nabaweyya. By: Mohammed Kamil Abdel Samad.

salamu alikum

Any information about the laws and when a male can and cant have another wife would be useful.

thanks in advance.

well i realy wrote this in reply to thunderbolt's topic, but now i believe it deserves a thread of its own.

Quote:I fully agree with you that it was absolutely obligatory for men to accelerate towards jihad in Iraq. No matter what the consequences were. We are not making Jihad to receive reward from human beings. No but rather in order to fulfill a part of our religion towards Allah.[/quote:692cdd76a5]My point realy grows around that statment you made. No doubt we do Jihad not to be rewarded by mere mortals, but by Allah, yet what use will our Jihad be to our brothers if we brought no change? My dear sister, change wont happen with a few angry people rioting here and killing there. Change wont happen with rapping ourselves with bombs and blowing our our selves in public buses, cafetarias, markets, etc. If they play dirty, we will keep on playing clean. If they wage wars on nations whenever they get constipated, we will remain wiser and play our turn with heart.

i didnt get this from anywhere, maybe I have to learn more, yet until now, my personal belief is jihad, does not necessarily mean suicide. if there is no other way then that is acceptable, yet there are always other means. takes longer time? maybe. more effective? certainly.

Going back to the mujahideen in Iraq, those arabs that left their homes and families to protect something maybe even themselves still dont understand. just the other day i have watched on the Abu Dabi TV channel an interview with a few of those arabs. they actualy said that they felt that something strange is boiling ever since they were greeted in Iraq. these people didnt recieve any proper training to carry a gun, yet were thrown in the front lines against the most powerful army in the world. not only that dear sister, one of them also said that they were being bombed from BOTH sides. they were being bombed from within Baghdad.

the result was nothing more than a pile of empty bodies of people that came believeing they are protecting their religion and land, only to do absolutly nothing but bring tears to their families and loved ones. if they have been patient and stayed in their houses, nosed not into things they dont understand yet, they might have contributed to our rise. to our change, to the better. not through war, for it is not always the way out.

I do not carey any hatred or disgust against those brave men who went to Iraq, no, dont get me wrong. these people deserve alot of respect. but that is all. they didnt effect me, you, brother thunderblot, the US military, or anyone in anyway (excluding their families which they effected them by alot of tears and grief). But let me ask you, if they still lived, if they studyed and learned and worked, wont they have effected us more? the money they would have given a poor man in the street would be greater to our nation than that extra grave they made us dig. dont you agree? helping that old lady across the street would be of more use. for god's sake, if they got children, then teaching them and making them good muslims to rule tomorrow's world would be better.

am I selfish? maybe. but that realy depends on our aim. each one of us has an aim in life. ofcourse we all want to go to heaven, but how to get there, that is where our roads part. before i go to heaven, personaly, i would like to help this world to get better. the way its running right now, i wont be surprised if it blows into smithereans in the next two minutes.

i study economics at school, have been studying it the past 3 years. there is something called the business life cycle, once believed to be a life cycle of every business, only to know that it realy is the life cycle of every country. prosperity wont last, soon, there will be recesion and then depression. EVERY country, every nation. look at history and see how empires rise and fall. takes centuries some times, but no one lasts. no one.

this era is no doubt the imperialist, USA's era. but as i said, it wont last. people say that next in line to be shaking this world is china, i personaly believe it will be pakistan, yet going into that will takes us further from the subject than i believe i currently am. :wink:

As salam Alykom all members

We have noticed lately some posts that are not compatible with the main theme we desire for this forum. Members slander each other and just post replies for the sake of posting.

As an Islamic forum, we need to set some rules hoping that every one shall respect:

1. We need to post useful Islamic material.

2. Any one has an Islam related question of course is most welcome in an effort that members may provide the answer.

We need to maintain ethical language (no hard language, swearing or the like). NO SWEARING allowed This include small words even like S**T and A*S and the big hardcore Swear....Be warned you WIL BE CENSORED if anyone Will be using such words

3. No foul mouthing against moderators or admins.

4. Post that Signify and Racial of Means of provoking will be edited and warned if persistant will be banned. Flamers will be warned a few times if persistant they will be banned for about 3 days then reinstated if they APOLOGISE and promise to refrain from doing so again

5. If a member expresses a problem, if you can help go ahead, if not just wait for other contributions may be you can learn.

6. No Posting Anti Islamic websites..this is only giving popularity to such sites

7. We need to maintain a brotherly relation after all we are all Muslims. And even for our non Muslim members, we are still commanded by Quran to maintain good relations with them. So defuse this feeling among us all.

8. We encourage you to look for useful topics and post them, in case topics are taken from another site, please include the source for property rights.

9. Exellent topics shall be moved to the home page of islamsms.com.

10. Based on the above mentioned, the forum team retains the right to delete/ edit any topic that if found not compatible with our rules. Mainly of course topics which may touch, slander or abuse Allah, Quran or our beloved Prophet Mohamed (PAPBUH).

11. Violations of the rules or regulations will be met with 1 or 2 warnings. After this time, you will be banned for a set period (3-9 days maybe). Constant abusers will face permanent bans. If things are said in the heat of the moment, the comments will be edited out but this doesn't constitute a warning.

12. The forum team would like not to be held accountable before Allah for whatever material may be posted here which bears any wrong info. After all we are humans and may miss or falter. May Allah assist, support and guide us to maintain this forum in the best we could in the eyes of Allah.

We are here to learn, help each other, share useful knowledge and Insh a Allah gain reward