Top 10 Dilemmas of the Muslim soldier in the British Army

Quite interetsing points made below - but this is exactly what they want us to do. Die for Britain. Die for Blair. Die for the Queen. But whatever you do, dont die for Allah. Interesting how this latest terror plot revolves around the issue of kidnapping "good Muslims" to maybe make "martyrs" of them.

Top 10 Dilemmas of the Muslim soldier in the British Army
http://www.7cgen.com/index.php?showtopic=7606
By Showkat Ali


1.Constantly having to prove yourself to your colleagues that your more British and loyal to the Union Jack than you are to Islam and Muslims

2.Agree with your colleagues when they bad mouth Muslims and Islam and not say anything even though u know that they are talking B……T and are ignorant and racist.

3.Not pray or fast in Ramadhan because that would label you a fanatic.

4.Keep quite when Muslim men, women and children are interrogated (abused) Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo style. Even forced to participate just to prove that your loyal to Britain

5.Accept military rations because to ask for halal meat would portray u as a fundamentalist Muslim.

6.Have hatred and contempt for your forefathers who fought and resisted British colonialism in the 1920s and 30s because like u they didn’t join the British army to kill fellow Muslims and establish colonial rule.

7.Rejected by your community, friends and family as a traitor ,chamcha and ghulam of the British

8.A minority of Muslims might plan and plot to kidnap u, torture u and record your beheading to be posted on the internet as a warning and deterrent to others who might be considering a career in the Crusader armies.

9.Find it difficult to get married to a practicing Muslim woman who wants a husband that the children would be proud of.

10.Problems on the day of judgement when Allah swt rejects your martyrdom because u died fighting under the union jack and promoting the colonialist Crusader agenda.

I challenge anyone to refute any of the above points based on Islamic evidences and that from the reality. Please forward widely, post on discussion boards, mailing lists and edit and add as u please. JazakAllah khair in advance

May Allah swt keep the Muslims communities unified in this time of great pressure and test. May Allah swt humiliate those who accuse believers without evidence and expose them as the liars once again e.g Iraq war, forest Gate raid, Muslims in Guantanamo bay etc. Please Help the ummah and forward this article.

Author: Showkotali@hotmail.com

Cameron's Crusade: Nobody is Immune

http://www.conservatives.com/pdf/unitingthecountry.pdf

Take time to read the document above - nobody is spared, all are considered extremist. The usual suspects - HT, MAB and MPAC are mentioned. MCB come in for a hiding. IHRC are also attacked for stimulating Muslim anger. But warm welcomes to new members of the extremist element in our community - Islamic Society of Britain, FOSIS and the Tableeghi Jamaat.

Allahu Akbar!

ISB who organise the annual 'Living Islam' / 'Leaving Islam' (depending on your accent) camp, promote pop nasheed culture, and go out of their way to show their British values, producing distinguished graduates such as Sara Joseph, Inayat Banglawala and Ajmal Masroor. I will come back to Mr Masroor later.

FOSIS - from Qutbian ikhwaanis to Afghan jihaadees to Radical Middle Way twits, this organisation has seen it all. Embraced by the government post 7-7 to promote its ideal template of a "British Muslim", FOSIS dropped its justice campaigns and rather than actually do anythign for Palestine, were content to pay large sums of money for Sami Yusuf to sing about it. Now it seems that due to negligent editing of their website, content about the government's war on Islam written by some poor voice of dissent was allowed to remain online, thereby brining FOSIS outside the fold of government lackeys. Interesting will be their reaction - will they deny the truth of what was written or will they pledge their allegiance to the Believers?

TJs - what on earth are they thinking? The most pacified, most apolitical, most peaceful people yuo will find anywhere in the world. They should love these guys. In fact, my respect for TJs has grown immensely since the attacks have taken place on them. They havent come out with press releases and public debates about their activities. They have just got on with them, which is just the point. They probably dont even know they are being watched and discussed in the public. They just get on with their work masha'Allah.

The documenbt goes on to describe the ideal British Muslim, criticising concepts of 'izzat' or honour within the Asian community, arranged marriages, faith schools and basically anyone who identifies themselves as Muslim.

Going back to Mr Masroor - many years back after Guantanamo Bay had just opened, it is reported that he gave a khutbah in which he stated that Muslims should not feel sorry for the brothers in Guantanamo as "there is no smoke without fire". Ironically, Mr Masroor's brother, Mustafa al-Mansur, a very humble and decent brother masha'Allah, was raided and arrested 6 weeks ago under anti-terror laws. He was strip-searched, his home searched, detained for 7 days, humiliated and then let go without charge. That he was assisting the Muslim Contact Unit of the Metropolitan Police a week before his arrest seemed of little interest to the police. Not one spittle of his brother's years of "engaging" or as it is more commonly known, 'licking' was of any use to him. He was just another dirty Muslim terrorist.

Read more of Mustafa's account here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2001657,00.html

I pray that these political parties continues this unadulterated attack on the Muslim community so that more and more "moderates" realise that no matter how much they lick the boots of the tyrants, all they will receive is a kick in the face. It may even bring some much needed Muslim unity. What it will definitely do is make clear where our walaa lies and where our baraa lies.

Maktabah: Temporarily Closed

Our favourite bookstore has been raided. The plot as complex, intricate and unbelievable as ever. Basically, a plot to kidnap, hold hostage and carry out a recorded beheading of a British Muslim soldier (Her Majesty's army of course) and then .. well there is no more. Thats it! I suppose wait a few dyas to get arrested. This isn't bleedin Iraq. I mean, why bother - let them go over and get a Galloway-esque "one hell of a beating" at the hands of our boys, who are more then capable of it.

Just seems timing is ripe to coincide with Cameron's manifesto of hate.

May Allah protect the Maktabah brothers who for years have been doing a job nobody else had the courage to take on - inciting the believers to jihad fee sabeelillah. Before you run to burn all your books and CDs, ask yourself one question: what did you take from those books, CDs and DVDs? Your actions in these times of fitan will give you your answer.

Two Words

Bukhari No 7123.

Abu Zur'a related from Abu Hurayra that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "There are two words which are beloved to the All-Merciful, which are light on the tongue and heavy in the balance: Glory be to Allah and by His praise. Glory be to Allah the Immense (Subhana'llahi wa bihamdihi Subhana'llahi'l-'adhim)."

Listen to this - Ma'shaAllah!

Guns for Hire

Blackwater is a company that began in 1996 as a private military training facility in -- it was built near the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina. And visionary executives, all of them former Navy Seals or other Elite Special Forces people, envisioned it as a project that would take advantage of the anticipated government outsourcing.

Well, here we are a decade later, and it’s the most powerful mercenary firm in the world. It has 20,000 soldiers on the ready, the world’s largest private military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, including helicopter gunships. It’s become nothing short of the Praetorian Guard for the Bush administration's so-called global war on terror. And it’s headed by a very rightwing Christian activist, ex-Navy Seal named Erik Prince, whose family was one of the major bankrollers of the Republican Revolution of the 1990s. He, himself, is a significant funder of President Bush and his allies.

And what they’ve done is they have built a very frightening empire near the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina. They’ve got about 2,300 men actively deployed around the world. They provide the security for the US diplomats in Iraq. They’ve guarded everyone, from Paul Bremer and John Negroponte to the current US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. They’re training troops in Afghanistan. They have been active in the Caspian Sea, where they set up a Special Forces base miles from the Iranian border. They really are the frontline in what the Bush administration viewed as a necessary revolution in military affairs. In fact, they represent the life's work of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

For more on the frightening rise of this mercenary group see here

disturbing

Jimmy backtracks

"Despite two months of a highly publicized campus debate over whether Carter would or would not be invited to campus, sparks did not fly at Tuesday’s event," reports the Jewish Telegraph Agency. Carter used the event to backtrack one of his main claims. "In response to a question criticizing a section of his book that appears to justify the use of terrorism, Carter admitted it was a mistake…. Calling the wording ’stupid,’ Carter said, 'I apologize to you personally and to everyone here.’ He said he has asked his publishers to change the wording in future editions."

And what exactly is the egregious wording?

On page 213 of his book, Carter wrote: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel."

In other words, the Palestinians will stop resisting occupation—condemned as illegal under international law—when the Israelis agree to stop slaughtering Palestinian school kids, plowing under century-old orchards, dividing up historic Arab land into squalid Bantustans, stealing tax money, siphoning off precious water, throwing kids in medieval torture dungeons, and converting Gaza and the West Bank into the largest open-air prison on the planet.

The rest is here

The jail, the torturer, and the most unlikely defence witness

Now this is a test ...

The jail, the torturer, and the most unlikely defence witness

"Two years after US soldiers used bolt-cutters to break Moazzam Begg's shackles and release him into British custody, America has found a new way to torment the man leading the campaign to close his former prison."

"Attorneys acting for one of the guards accused of torturing captives held in the "war on terror" asked Mr Begg to be their client's character witness. It seemed an extraordinary request to make of a man who is still coming to terms with the three years of psychological and physical torture he endured in the notorious prisons of Bagram airbase in Afghanistan and later at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."

"The guard in question is Damien Corsetti, a specialist Bagram interrogator who even among his colleagues was known as the "king of torture"."

Read More

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2186508.ece

From Aladdin to Lost Ark, Muslims get angry at 'bad guy' film images

From Aladdin to Lost Ark, Muslims get angry at 'bad guy' film images

Crude and exaggerated stereotypes are fuelling Islamophobia, says study

Lucy Ward, social affairs correspondent
Thursday January 25, 2007

Guardian

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1997959,00.html

Popular films ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to children's cartoons are depicting "crude and exaggerated" stereotypes of Muslims and perpetuating Islamophobia, according to a study published today.

A report by the Islamic Human Rights Commission argues that films as diverse as The Siege, a portrayal of a terrorist attack on New York starring Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis, the Disney film Aladdin and the British comedy East is East have helped demonise Muslims as violent, dangerous and threatening, and reinforce prejudices.

While The Siege is attacked for inter-cutting Islamic ritual and terrorist violence, potentially linking the two in the minds of audiences, Aladdin faces criticism for depicting Arabs as "ruthless caricatures" with "exaggerated and ridiculous accents".

The study, titled The British media and Muslim representation: the ideology of demonisation, argues that Hollywood has a crucial role in influencing how the public views Muslims.

A survey conducted as part of the research revealed that Muslims in Britain felt negative images of their faith on the big and small screen had consequences in their daily lives. Those interviewed "found a direct correlation between media portrayal and their social experiences of exclusion, hatred, discrimination and violence".

Bias

As well as deep unease with big screen portrayals, the research also found a perception of "unashamed bias" in the media against Muslims, with 62% believing the media to be Islamophobic and 16% describing it as racist. Only 4% considered its representation "fair".

The authors call for more power for cinema censors to be able to curtail or even decline certification of "objectionable material", as well as more effective media watchdogs and increased responsibility in coverage of issues involving Muslims on the part of newspapers and television. The report, part of a series produced by the commission - a research and campaigning body - with the backing of the Joseph Rowntree charitable trust, is significant in that it seeks to provide a direct voice for the Muslim community in Britain.

Massoud Shadjareh, spokesman for the commission, said: "Rather than guess what the Muslim community's needs and aspirations are, it actually comes from the community itself rather than organisations that represent it."

There was widespread agreement among more than 1,100 Muslims questioned by researchers that media reports involving Muslims in Britain are "selective, biased, stereotypical and inaccurate", with Muslims generally considered as "others" and outsiders.

Arzu Merali, head of research at the commission and co-author of the report, said the representation of Muslims in film and television was particularly important, given recent research indicating that eight out of 10 Britons had no close contact with Muslims.

The problem with portrayals in film was not the fact that they were negative images, but that they were the only images: "You don't get a good Muslim guy in a movie." Any suggestion that films such as Aladdin were never intended to be realistic portrayals was "analogous to saying similar things to the Jewish community in the early 1930s", she said.

The fact that films such as The Siege pre-dated the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers challenged any argument that negative portrayals of Muslims as potential suicide bombers are a "natural" result of atrocities such as the Madrid and London bombings, Ms Merali added.

The report says the tale of indiscriminate terrorist violence in New York "brings into focus some of the worst American fears - that is, Muslims or Arabs attacking the country, murdering men, women and children ... and 'attacking our way of life'."

Repeated juxtaposition of Islamic ritual practices such as prayer in a mosque and the call to prayer from a minaret with scenes of exploding bombs and indiscriminate killing implies that "terrorist acts are intrinsic to Islamic beliefs and practices", the study argues.

Executive Decision, featuring a plane hijack by Palestinian terrorists, also shows terrorists reciting prayers before and after murdering innocent passengers, "almost defining terrorism as an Islamic ritual", it adds.

Other films criticised include Raiders of the Lost Ark, where, say the authors, the Egyptian backdrop is portrayed using a stereotyped shorthand including veiled women hurrying through bazaars to the sound of snake-charming music.

Harsh

The cartoon Aladdin faced protests on release in 1993 because its opening song referred to a place where "they cut off your ear if they don't like your face", forcing Disney executives to edit out the lines. Today's report says: "Rather than portray the Arab culture and Islamic religion in a positive or neutral light, the producers associate it with harsh punishments and oppressive practices.

Some of those interviewed believed that the film industry is used as a tool of foreign policy in western countries to demonise Muslims and galvanise public distrust. A Bradford man, aged 35, said the film industry needed "a new bogeyman" after the collapse of communism. Others said the media was the chief instrument of Islamophobia, particularly through the frequent linking of "Islam" and "Muslim" with words such as extremism, terrorism and bombing.

Many felt the media failed to give enough opportunity to Muslims to represent themselves. Those Muslim figures who do appear in the media are seen as either holding extremist views or are "marginalised Muslims" who do not represent the Muslim community.

Myths and messages from the movies

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Indiana Jones must find the ark of the covenant before the Nazis. The report says: "The cultural stereotypes and scenarios are patently obvious," pointing to a street scene featuring bazars, veiled women and bearded men in traditional dress, all set to snake-charming music

The Siege(1998)

Depicts a wave of attacks by Palestinian terrorists in New York city, in response to an Islamic religious leader's abduction by the US military. Report says that the film reinforces "the monolithic stereotype of the Arab/Palestinian/Muslim being violent and ready to be martyred for their cause".

East Is East (1999)

A mixed-race Anglo-Pakistani family in 1970s Salford struggle against the traditional background enforced upon them by their father. The report says the representation of the Muslim husband as a polygamous wife-beating tyrant "fits into many of the negative perceptions people have of Muslims"

Executive Decision (1996)

Palestinians hijack a Boeing 747 to launch a nerve gas attack on Washington DC. Report says the film "plays on the worst fears ... about a potential terrorist lurking in every Arab/Middle Eastern/Muslim-looking person, and the incompatibility of Islamic and western values"

Aladdin (1992)

The report queries why a children's cartoon describes Aladdin's homeland as "barbaric", and notes that "good Arabs" including Aladdin are given American accents while the rest of the cast have "exaggerated and ridiculous Arab accents".

House of Sand and Fog (2003)

An abandoned wife is evicted from her home, which is taken over by an Iranian family forced to flee their country following the 1979 revolution. The report says the film constructs a "negative description of the revolution, without enabling any detailed or balanced analysis of the event"

DPP: There is No War on Terror

'There is no war on terror'

Outspoken DPP takes on Blair and Reid over fear-driven legal response to threat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1997397,00.html

Clare Dyer, legal editor
Wednesday January 24, 2007

The director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken Macdonald, put himself at odds with the home secretary and Downing Street last night by denying that Britain is caught up in a "war on terror" and calling for a "culture of legislative restraint" in passing laws to deal with terrorism.

Sir Ken warned of the pernicious risk that a "fear-driven and inappropriate" response to the threat could lead Britain to abandon respect for fair trials and the due process of law.

He acknowledged that the country faced a different and more dangerous threat than in the days of IRA terrorism and that it had "all the disturbing elements of a death cult psychology".
But he said: "It is critical that we understand that this new form of terrorism carries another more subtle, perhaps equally pernicious, risk. Because it might encourage a fear-driven and inappropriate response. By that I mean it can tempt us to abandon our values. I think it important to understand that this is one of its primary purposes."

Sir Ken pointed to the rhetoric around the "war on terror" - which has been adopted by Tony Blair and ministers after being coined by George Bush - to illustrate the risks.

He said: "London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'.

"The fight against terrorism on the streets of Britain is not a war. It is the prevention of crime, the enforcement of our laws and the winning of justice for those damaged by their infringement."

Sir Ken, head of the Crown Prosecution Service, told members of the Criminal Bar Association it should be an article of faith that crimes of terrorism are dealt with by criminal justice and that a "culture of legislative restraint in the area of terrorist crime is central to the existence of an efficient and human rights compatible process".

He said: "We wouldn't get far in promoting a civilising culture of respect for rights amongst and between citizens if we set about undermining fair trials in the simple pursuit of greater numbers of inevitably less safe convictions. On the contrary, it is obvious that the process of winning convictions ought to be in keeping with a consensual rule of law and not detached from it. Otherwise we sacrifice fundamental values critical to the maintenance of the rule of law - upon which everything else depends."

His comments will be seen as a swipe against government legislation allowing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists without trial, later held incompatible with human rights by the courts, and the replacement law that permits suspects to be placed under control orders instead of being brought to trial.

Sir Ken referred to the government's opt-out from the European convention on human rights to pass the detention law - possible under the convention only if the "life of the nation" is threatened. "Everyone here will come to their own conclusion about whether, in the striking Strasbourg phrase, the very 'life of the nation' is presently endangered," he said. "And everyone here will equally understand the risk to our constitution if we decide that it is, when it is not."

The criminal justice response to terrorism must be "proportionate and grounded in due process and the rule of law," he said. "We must protect ourselves from these atrocious crimes without abandoning our traditions of freedom."

The Many Faces of a Detainee

larger image http://tayyibun.com/Cage.jpg

more info: www.cageprisoners.com

niqab ban

I was walking to college today, a few paces behind a Muslim sister in niqab. Suddenly a women rushes up to her and a flurry of words are exchanged. A man rushes into the fray.

Then i saw a camera....they wanted an interview. She had no time for that and went about her own business.

I guess this explains it...
Daily Mail

I hope this doesn't sound like a rant but...

It is upsetting to see Muslims refusing to support each other just because the other adheres to a different opinion on a particular issue. There are many scholars who say wearing the niqab is a valid opinion based on the evidences. Therefore we should respect this opinion as an acceptable difference between the Muslims, just like the Madhabs.

If we cant help our and brothers and sisters, isn't is better to stay silent rather than to actively hinder their efforts just to win a few brownie points from the Non-Muslims.

We are ALL Terror Suspects

After reading the story below, I challenge anyone to honestly claim that this is not a war against Islam. What we are being told is that those 2 million Muslims who travel to Makkah every year are all potential terrorists. For those people who refuse to write campaign letters, attend demos or speak out against the government for fear of being put on a watch-list, are they now going to abandon this pillar of Islam?

We have been warned: The Propeht (saw) told us that our deen would be taken away from us bit by bit until all we were left with was salah, and then that too would be taken from us.

Terror watch on Mecca pilgrims

THE intelligence agencies are monitoring every Muslim who travels from Britain to Mecca on pilgrimage in a wider effort to piece together intelligence on suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist activity.

A senior Whitehall official has disclosed that the operation targeting trips to the holy city in Saudi Arabia by more than 100,000 British Muslims is part of a trawl by MI5 and MI6 for information about movements of suspected terrorists. It follows evidence that British Islamic terrorists have visited the city before carrying out attacks in Britain and abroad.

Read more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2558373.html

here we go again

Muslim Pc refused to shake hands

Sir Ian Blair questioned the validity of the refusal

A Muslim woman police officer refused to shake hands with the head of the Metropolitan Police on faith grounds.

The officer, who has not been named, was granted the exemption at a passing-out ceremony where new recruits met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

The woman's refusal was based on her view that her faith prevented her touching a man other than her husband or a close relative.

Sir Ian had questioned the validity of her refusal, Scotland Yard said.

A spokeswoman for the force said: "This request was only granted by members of training staff out of a desire to minimise any disruption to others' enjoyment and to ensure the smooth running of what is one of the most important events in an officer's career."

She added: "The officer maintains that she puts the requirements of being a police officer above her personal beliefs and only exercises the latter when she has choice to do so.

"Any refusal to engage in this manner would not be tolerated by the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service)."

Probationary period

The woman was allowed to pass out in December last year because she had completed all the elements of the 18-week recruit training course.

This included officer safety training, which required officers to come into physical contact with each other.

The officer will now be required to complete a two-year probationary period.

Muslim groups defended the police officer, saying her beliefs would not affect how she carried out her job and called for greater understanding of different cultures.

Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: "I don't think shaking hands is something that makes or breaks a relationship.

"I don't think in any sort of job that is something that becomes an obstacle to one performing one's duties."

'Not set in concrete'

Sheikh Ibraham Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said people should not be alarmed by the officer's beliefs and that Muslim law "was not set in concrete".

He added: "If the officer is called to a male victim who has been shot, the laws go out of the window.

"If she has to resuscitate that dying person, Muslim law will then change and allow her all sorts of physical contact because a life is at risk and life is so precious.

"Muslim law will say, 'forget everything, save this life'."

Training for Terrorism??

Training for terrorism?

So it would seem, from what the media is throwing up. The latest conclusive evidence against these brothers is these photographs of them praying together in the Lake District, years old chemistry notes from college and someone writing Bismillah on top of their notes. I think I ought to say thank you to my dear Mum for getting me into a routine of writing '786' on top of my homework - how long before they crack that code? Mind you, wouldnt be such a bad thing, may see an end to one certain boy-band.

Interesting article on new blog www.openmindsblogspot.com by Fahad Ansari comparing the furore over the Big Brother racism with the deathly silence over that last respectable racism, Islamophobiam, on display in the mass media every day, notably the Dispatches programme and the reporting of the trial of the alleged 21-7 bombers.

http://www.openmindsblogspot.com/HOME/tabid/36/EntryID/10/Default.aspx

[Excerpts]

"Unfortunately, this current debate has also indirectly exposed how deep-rooted Islamophobia is within British society that when it is clearly on display in the mass media, nobody even bats an eyelid."

"Moreover, by singling out Muslims for demonisation for holding beliefs shared by many other religious communities, the programme’s inherent Islamophobia was all too clear to see. Certain Muslim beliefs which were negatively portrayed as the doctrine of extremists are actually shared by Judaism and Christianity. For example, homosexual behaviour is prohibited in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Unlike Muslims, Jewish people in Britain can govern their civil disputes according to their own religious law and anyone visiting Stamford Hill in North London would indeed find himself in what essentially is a “state within a state”. All three religions discuss at length the concept of jihad or ‘just war’ or Milhemet Mitzvah (obligatory war); and just like Islam, Christianity and Judaism also divides mankind into Believers and Disbelievers, labelling the latter respectively as kaffir, gentile or infidel."

"Old chemistry notes belonging to another suspect from his days at college were treated like a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook. That he wrote the words “In the Name of Allah” on the top of the page (something repeated by numerous Muslim students around the world as a way of bringing God’s blessing to one’s work) was treated like a confession."


Also, the Islamic Human Rights Commission is to launch their latest report on this very topic next week. Very timely.

http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=2411

The Islamic Human Rights Commission’s latest report, ‘The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of Demonisation’ , is published on 26th January 2007. The report focuses on the British media and Muslim responses. It contains survey results from over 1200 Muslims and analyses TV, News, Film and Literature.

The report examines how persistent categorization of Muslims into narrow terms of (negative) discussion inheres in the British media. The report advocates a freer and fairer media that includes marginal and minority voices.

Anyone wishing to attend the launch at the Foreign Press Association should contact the IHRC office on info@ihrc.org or (+44) 20 8904 4222. Please contact the office on the same numbers for PDF review copies, a summary and further information.

Dispatches: What's the Big Deal?

Here it is the whole film, as out of ocntext as it can be, but in fairness barely anything incorrect in what the preachers say. Its very easy at this stage to distajnce ourselves from these "wahhabis" but every Muslim should ask themselves, is anything they said on gays, jihad, women, hudood, al walaa wa'al baraa, etc not from the Quran and Ahadith?

Excellent replies by Yasir Qadhi and Abu Usamah below

An Insult to Pigs

Apologies about the image above but I was terrified of causing offence by posting an image of Jade Goody without any make-up on. I say this at the risk of offending any animal rights activists out there.

Finally, Britain's finest example of its tolerant multicuturalism has got the boot for her incessant attacks on a nation of over 1 billion people.

So why is this Channel 4 filth making its way onto Holding on to a Cinder? Not for any love I have for BB and its deviant participants but because it has highlighted a number of issues, not least the intense level of racism within White British society. A number of articles have been published regarding this but I will just post one which really caught my eye by Martin Jacques.

British society is dripping in racism, but no one is prepared to admit it

[Some excerpts below]

Almost from the outset, Big Brother's racism has had a new and novel dimension. Because Gordon Brown was in India at the time, and was asked about it during his trip, the issue immediately acquired an international dimension. In an earlier era, of course, this would have been dismissed as of no consequence: the natives could safely be ignored. But no longer. We saw this just a year ago in relation to the Danish cartoons and their ridicule of Islam. Europe used to ignore what the former colonial world felt. There was no feedback loop. But such was the reaction in the Islamic world that it could not be ignored. That, though, was in the context of the Muslim world which, in global terms, remains weak and marginalised.

Racial abuse of Indians is a very different matter. India is a rising giant; we can no longer afford to ignore, as we once did with impunity, the views and feelings of a country that represents one-fifth of humanity. We live in what increasingly looks like a global goldfish bowl where what we do at home will be seen by the rest of the world - and duly reacted to, in a way that cannot be ignored.

The test of our behaviour, of how racist we are, is no longer what the white British think. That started to change with the self-awareness and growing confidence of our own ethnic minorities. But the matter does not end there. The test now, in this instance, is what Indians in India think, how they perceive us.



Read the whole article below

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1994723,00.html

America Strikes Pakistan...Again!

The markings on the unexploded missile shown to journalists were clearly indentifiable

Link

'Freedom fries' up for sale

Ex-US congressman jailed for graft

Ney pleaded guilt to having accepted gifts and money in return for official favours [AFP]

Bob Ney, a former Republican congressman, has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison, the US department of justice has said.Ney, who was sentenced on Friday, pleaded guilty to having solicited and accepted gifts and money from Jack Abramoff, a political lobbyist, and his associates in return for official favours.

Alice Fisher, the assistant attorney general, in a statement said: "Today's sentence makes it clear that our government is not for sale".

Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of the US district court for Washington DC also imposed a fine of $6000 and ordered Ney to serve two years of supervised release following his 30 months imprisonment.

Ney had faced a maximum of 10 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced as part of a plea bargain in which he agreed to cooperate with a wider investigation into Abramoff and official corruption.

He admitted to opposing legislation and inserted statements into the legislature's official record at Abramoff's request, in return for thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

In court he said he was fighting "the demons of addiction that are within me".

He abandoned his re-election campaign in August because of questions over his links to Abramoff.

Click here to see more

The Indian Mutiny: Rejection of Empire

John Game writes that the Indian mutiny against the British Empire in July 1857 is an inspiration to today’s anti-imperialists

This year is the 150th anniversary of the greatest armed rising against British imperialism the world has seen. It began as a mutiny of the largest army in Asia – the East India Company’s Bengal Presidency Army – and turned into a general rising of the peasantry across the whole of what today is northern India.

Read more

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10446

The Perfumed Prisons

Kuwait royal sentenced to death

It is not clear how closely related Sheikh Talal is to Emir Sheikh Sabah

Reports from Kuwait say a member of the ruling family has been sentenced to death for drug trafficking.

Correspondents say it is thought to be one of the first times that such a sentence has been given to a member of the ruling Sabah family.

Sentencing Sheikh Talal Nasser al-Sabah to death, the judge said he had "willingly walked the path of evil".

It was not immediately clear how closely related Sheikh Tala is to senior members of the ruling family.

The judge in the case said Sheikh Tala's crimes had "threatened society... especially young people", a Kuwaiti newspaper reported.

He was also fined US $35,000 dollars.

Sheikh Talal was convicted of trading in hashish, money laundering and the illegal possession of weapons, press reports said.

The court's verdict can be appealed.

Another three people were sentenced to life in jail in connection with the case - including a Bidoun (a stateless Arab), a Bangladeshi and an Indian. Two others, a Lebanese and an Iraqi, were sentenced to seven years in jail each.

Stranger in the World

What is in the best interests of a child?

To be raised by a drug-addict mother and her abusive boyfriend away from her father, brothers and sisters, in an area where she constitutes a tiny minority among a oppressive majority? Or to live in the native land of her father with him and her brothers and sisters, where she is not regarded as a foreigner, a terrorist or the Other, where she is free to practice her faith and her beliefs?

Anyone reading the Times today (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2541433,00.html) would have chosen option 1. For the primary reason that Misbah (for that is her name, not Molly) chose to study Islam, attend a madrassah and abide by the school uniform.

Many are bewildered at her decision and would argue that it is strange. Indeed the Prophet (pbuh) said that "Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings to the strangers."

Glad Tidings indeed to Misbah Rana

As if they haven't got enough land already, they try to monopolise the moon as well!

Israelis purchase land on moon

Website selling land on moon reports flow of Israeli shoppers following NASA's decision to build base on moon. The cost – NIS 250 (USD 60) per half dunam, in the meantime land sold out

In December over one thousand Israelis had purchased land on the moon. The price of each plot of land with an area of half a dunam (about 0.123 acres) is NIS 250 (about USD 60) as reported by the official moon property's website on Wednesday.

During the 1970's, the American Dennis Hope registered the moon and all the planets in the solar system except for the planet earth under his name.
According to the land registry's laws, any citizen is allowed register any property under their name, as long as it is not registered under anyone else's name already, and no one objects to the registration.

Hope took advantage of this loophole and registered the moon under his name.

Daniel Yaron, CEO of Crazyshop, the company which markets moon property in Israel, explained to Ynet why Israelis are interested in purchasing land on the moon: "People decide to buy land on the moon for two reasons: One is the gimmick of giving a gift – a piece of land on the moon."

"The other reason," he continued, "is that now, we see that this is becoming more realistic after NASA's decision to construct a manned base on the moon by the year 2020. Some people think that in a few years from now this property may be more valuable."

Yaron agrees that "at the moment there is nothing to be done with the plot," but said that "in the future it may be possible to do something with it, to realize the purchase one way or another. After all, it is a matter of foresight, 70 years ago if someone had said 'buy land in Israel' people would have asked "why should we?""

Upon purchase, the buyer gets an ownership certificate and a photographed map of the purchased area. So far some 55.5 million acres of land on the moon have been sold to people all over the world.

For those who are interesting in making a purchase, at the moment the property inventory has been sold out.

SOURCE: YNetnews