Imam Abdullah Bey El-Amin, of Detroit, Michigan and his wife Cheryl Zahirah El-Amin, recently celebrated 30 years of marriage by renewing their wedding vows at Detroit’s Muslim Center. The ceremony was designed to show the gratitude to ALLAH for the many blessings that came out of the union that He caused to come into being.
The renewal ceremony had a double special meaning as it was put on by the three children of the couple and their spouses. Son, Maurice and wife, Camisha; daughter, Zarinah and husband Halim, and son Idris and wife Colette. Imam Dawud Alim, longtime friend and acquaintance of the couple officiated the ceremony. Prophet Muhammad (s), was quoted as saying “when a man marries he has fulfilled half of the religion, so let him fear G’d regarding the remaining half.†Also, in sura 52, ALLAH makes the beautiful promise to us “And those who believe and whose offspring follow them in faith – We unite them with their offspring; and We will not deprive them of any of their work. Every man (or woman) is pledged for what they do.†52:21
The evening was shared by many of the couple’s friends and family, which included representatives of people from Prophet Abraham’s seed as well as brothers and sisters from other religious groups. The guests wrote many “pearls of wisdom†and good wishes on slips of paper as they entered. These are being kept in a book of remembrance by the happy couple.
The evening ended with a scrumptious dinner and much cheer and good wishes.
New feature part of Secretary Land’s customer-service expansion
Customers served by the Shelby Township Secretary of State office now have the added convenience of a self-service option available 24 hours a day for easy license plate tab renewals, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land announced today.
“Expanding customer convenience has been my goal since day one,†Land said. “Like our online services and expanded office hours, our Self-Self Stations offer customers service that fits into their busy schedule. With just a swipe of your credit card, you can ‘scan, pay and go,’ and you’re back at home before you know it.â€
The ATM-style Self-Service Stations allow people to renew their license plate tabs with a major credit or branded debit card without needing service at the counter. They also give office staff more time to devote to customers with more complicated transactions.
The addition of the Self-Service Station is part of the next wave of customer conveniences recently announced by Land. The Shelby Township office at 50640 Schoenherr Road is one of eight traditional offices across the state that is receiving Self-Service Stations. She also announced that six traditional offices will be transformed into PLUS offices, giving customers access to a Self-Service Station and expanded Wednesday hours.
Additionally, commercial driver license testing kiosks are being installed in 40 more offices and customers now can buy their driving record at every Secretary of State office, which is a benefit to many job-seekers.
Land’s efforts to revolutionize the branch office system began in April 2004. They have resulted in the development of 38 PLUS offices and six SUPER!Centers. Customer satisfaction has consistently been high thanks to the modern, convenient services these offices provide.
Land reminds residents who have Internet access to check out the department’s online services and Branch Office Locator at www.Michigan.gov/sos before visiting any office. For example, license tabs and watercraft registrations can be renewed online. Browsing the site helps customers know what documents they’ll need to bring when they go to an office.
Jewish & Muslim students explore common health issues
The University of Western Ontario’s Jewish Medical Club and the Muslim Medical Students’ Association joined forces to explore health issues unique to Muslim and Jewish patients.
While raising awareness of health issues is the driving force behind a student-led presentation , Jewish and Muslim students from the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry hope their collaborative efforts can demonstrate the importance of overlooking differences and working towards a common goal.
“We believe that as future physicians, it is our duty to be culturally sensitive towards the patients we treat and we hope that this event will help raise awareness about the health issues affecting Jewish and Muslim patients,†says Abdullah Alabousi, a representative from the Muslim Medical Students’ Association.
“We hope that this event will serve as a symbolic demonstration that Muslim and Jewish students can see beyond their differences and work together to raise awareness about each others’ cultures,†says Danny Mendelsohn, President of the Western Jewish Medical Club.
Dr. Nabil Sultan, a London-based nephrologist (a physician with an expertise in kidney diseases, kidney transplantation, and dialysis therapy) discussed such topics as ‘Religion and Healing,’ ‘The Muslim Physician’s Perspective: Is it encouraged or ignored?,’ ‘Porcine Valves: Lard and Other Pig By-Products in Medicine’ and ‘End of Life Issues: Withdrawal of Care and Pronouncing of Death.â€
William Fisher, a Western professor of Psychology and Obstetrics and Gynaecology, spoke about Judaism’s perspective on contraception, abortion, end of life issues and the Jerusalem AIDS project – a collaboration between Jewish and Muslim physicians and researchers in Israel and Palestine targeted at preventing the spread of HIV in the region.
Awards presented to NJ Muslim law enforcement officers
SOUTH PLAINFIELD,NJ–The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Saturday presented an award to the American Muslim Law Enforcement Officers Association (AMLEOA) at the annual banquet of the council’s New Jersey chapter.
More than 300 people turned out for the event in Edison, New Jersey. Rashida Tlaib, the first Muslim woman to be elected to the Michigan Legislature, spoke about the important role of Muslims in the political process. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad also addressed the crowd, and presented CAIR-New Jersey’s 2009 Champions of Justice Award to AMLEOA “for outstanding service to the community.â€
Ontario commits $80,000K to Muslim centre
LONDON, ON–The Ontario government is helping break the silence on domestic abuse in London’s Muslim community through a new grant that will increase support for victims.
The Muslim Resource Centre for Social Support and Integration, headed by Londoner Mohammed Baobaid, will receive $80,000 to provide immediate crisis assistance to Muslim women and families.
The resource centre will help connect the Muslim community to government programs and services.
“Social support and integration is missing in terms of programming in our society,†Baobaid said.
Permission denied:Mississippi mosque
The Madison County Planning Commission today denied a request from the Mississippi Muslim Association for a zoning change that would allow it to build a mosque on U.S. 51.
Commissioner William Amadio said the decision was based on the city’s refusal to commit to providing sewer service to the property. The proposed site, just north of the city limits, lies in Madison’s certificated area for the utility service.
“The only problem I have is you haven’t worked out your issues with Madison,†Amadio said. “I would deny your request based on you don’t have utilities worked out with Madison.â€
Madison city attorney John Hedglin said the city has no objection to whatever decision the commission reaches, as long as the Muslim Association would be willing to work out accommodations with the city regarding sewer service.
QMG welcomes Khalid Wahid
Quincy, Ill. — Quincy Medical Group announced that Khalid Waheed, MD, MPH is joining the Mt. Sterling Affiliate in April 2009.
Dr. Waheed received his bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery (M.B.B.S) from Deccan College of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India in March 2000. He received his masters in public health (M.P.H) from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Ill., in May 2005. His residency training was at North Oakland Medical Center in Pontiac, Mich.
Dr. Waheed worked as a duty medical officer in the Orthopedics Department at the Owaisi Hospital and Research Center in Hyderabad, India. He also practiced as a physician assistant at Mid-America Medical Center in Villa Park, Ill.
Dr. Waheed is a member of the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Pakistan Has Existed For Centuries: Congressman Al Green Met Houston Pakistani Community Leadership at the Consulate of Pakistan
HOUSTON – TEXAS: The Pakistan Enduring Assistance & Cooperation Enhancement Act (PEACE Act) also known as Biden-Lugar (now Kerry-Lugar) Act has been introduced in the US House. To understand the issues of the Pakistani Americans, Congressman Honorable AL Green (D-TX-9th) came to the Consulate of Pakistan in Houston on the evening of April 14th, 2009. A large number of Pakistani Community Leaders and Media Persons attended the program.
Pakistani Community Leaders stressed that too many conditions are being placed on the Kerry-Lugar Bill: This should be passed quickly and without the various stipulations. Pakistan should be declared USA’s most favored country and remove levies over the Pakistani Textile Products. Drone attacks are increasing antagonism against USA and making the recruitment easy for more people in the ranks of AL Qaeda and Talebans.
Congressman Honorable AL Green (D-TX-9th) said that although Pakistan came into existence in 1947, but it existed for centuries (using the words once used by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah). He said that he wants no innocent life be lost with these drone attacks and said he is concerned about this and believe that President Obama is very much worried as well. Question is America as the superpower needs to bring Peace to the World rather than become the Police of the World.
Honorable Consul General of Pakistan Aqil Nadeem welcomed everyone including the Honorable Congressman: “Pakistan has been the most trusted ally of US and deserves special treatment. The democratic Government in Pakistan is committed to a long-term, comprehensive partnership with the United States. Pakistan and U.S. are partners in the war against terrorism. No country has accomplished more in this war. Pakistan arrested some of the most dangerous AL Qaeda operatives presently in US custody including Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. With the exception of US casualties in Iraq, no country has suffered more at the hands of terrorists than Pakistan. Pakistan has suffered thousands of military and civilian lives in this fight. The war against terrorists is therefore Pakistan’s war. The key to success is that the Taliban should not find more recruits because of the consequences of hasty or ill-advised use of force. The recent developments in Swat need to be seen in this light. Pakistan needs US assistance to bolster its capacity to fight the terrorists – equipment, training, enhanced mobility, ability to hit militants accurately and ability to locate militants. The poor people of the FATA need to see some hope. In this regards, the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) can play a very important role. The PEACE Act also called the Biden Lugar (now Kerry-Lugar Act) Act has been introduced in the House. The Bill, which enjoys a bipartisan support, can fundamentally change the dynamics of Pak-US relations. Pakistan hopes that the Bill would soon be introduced in the Senate and passed expeditiously. The longstanding issue of Jammu & Kashmir is a source of concern, and the continuing human rights abuses and incidents of injustice there are spawning militancy – hence the need for a just solution. Till recently the peace process and the Composite Dialogue with India was progressing well. The two sides were engaged in developing effective CBMs. As a result of these CBMs, the bilateral trade increased manifold and a large number of people from both sides visited each other. However, due to the Mumbai attacks the composite dialogue has stalled. Pakistan wants the process to be resumed at the earliest. It also feels that the dialogue now needs to move from conflict management to conflict resolution. Pakistan strongly believes that the Kashmiris are a party to the Kashmir dispute and that they must be associated with the peace process on Kashmir.â€
Hafiz: A Role Model In Our Community
HOUSTON – TEXAS: Huffaz are those lucky persons, who have learnt the whole Quran by heart: They; their parents and family members must feel most humbled that God has given them this gift. Once they have memorized the Quran, it is incumbent upon them to understand and practice the virtuous teachings of Quran.
In order to create this understanding and environment of a Hafiz being a role model for the community and that people look upon him or her to perform the best so that others may follow in the footstep, a Huffaz Association has been formed in Houston. They organize various events.
This past weekend the Huffaz Association organized 2nd Huffaz Bar B-Q at Alief Amity Park. It was social gathering for the Graduated Huffaz (who have finished their memorization), while Field Trip for the Student Huffaz. The day involved several sports activities and delicious Bar B-Q. It gave an opportunity for the Huffaz to be at a public place, where the other people in the society were able to see the religiously educated Muslim Youth and interact with them.
This Program was sponsored by American Society of Islamic Awareness (ASIA) Center, Madrassah Islamiah and Bear Creek Masjid Madrassah. For more information about Huffaz Association, one can call 832-202-5496 / 832-768-9150.
I believe you are editor or maybe involved with the paper “Muslim Observer†I just wanted to share this with you just like I shared with you the speech of Mr. Haqqani.
I am commenting on the following article and probably you would like to share it with the MO’s editor/owner.
There is an article in the MO in Mar 20-26 issue by Mr. Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy with title “Pakistan – Towards Theocracy?â€
First of all, the title showed me that someone probably has a problem with Theocracy (i.e. Allah being the Highest in legislationâ€).
Secondly, it was proven when I went thru the whole article and was deeply disappointed.
Mr. Pervez is living up to his name as in the history I have never seen or met a good Pervez.
Maybe there are, but I have not come across.
He deeply criticized and mainly on the basis of whatever the west is making us believe.
He totally backed the western ideals not only with his observance, but also thru using certain titles.
And I am making my points short and not going through the whole thing:
I believe my main objection started since the paper I was reading was called “Muslim Observerâ€.
My understanding was that Muslim Observer would have articles backing up the Muslim point of view and not of Western.
Maybe if the paper’s name was just “The Observer†I would not have been disturbed at all.
Perhaps they should consider that to broaden the horizon for articles to be included.
In the article, Understanding Religion and Science, in Muslim Observer (April 10-16, 2009), Mr. Mirza Beg very eloquently explained that faith in any religions and its scriptures is blind and science is based on evidence. They cannot be mixed. He implies that those who read scientific meaning out of certain verses in scriptures are dishonest and only those who read moral meanings are real believers.
Let me first define “blind Faith†as I understand it: Confident belief in value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing without sufficient evidence or the use of intellect. The famous skeptic Mark Twain defines: “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.†What is the difference for Beg’s faith in any one of religions or in the religion of Islam if faith is blind?
I ask myself: Do I accept Mr. Beg’s definition of religion? How do I define my faith in the religion of Islam? Did I continues to accept Islam based upon sufficient evidence or blindly? Did I arrive at Islamic faith by applying our intellect evenly on every matters of importance to me? On contrary, am I applying intellect and accepting evidence only when it favors the form of Islam that I believe in and reject evidence when it conflicts with my faith?
On these matters, my point of view is that faith in the religion of Islam cannot be blind because the foundation of Islam, the Qur’an, demands from its believers the use of intellect.
Verse 4:82 states: Do they not ponder on the Qur’an? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy. [Qur’an 4:82]. “Discrepancy†between what? It may be the discrepancy between ideas and principles within the Qur’an, or between the Qur’anic and the systematic human understanding of the structure and functioning of natural world.
The universe, a creation of God, is a divine book in material medium and phenomena of nature are described by the Qur’an as ayaths (verse) that are to be read by human to learn and wonder about the amazing grandeur of God. Universe in material medium and the Qur’an in human vernacular are books of divine origin and, therefore, stories read from both the divine books must be one and the same and cannot contradict. Therefore, based upon verse 4:82, human reading divine books cannot contradict. If we see a contradiction, read the books again and again until both stories merge into one.
If I agree to Mr. Beg’s proposition that the science of the nature and the science of the Qur’an belong to two separate domains that cannot be mixed, truly I become dishonest to myself. I cannot swear by science to my patients in my office to prop up my recommendations and scorn at science in my mosque a little later.
Northampton, MA – The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) is pleased to announce that lawyer, recording artist, columnist, and grassroots organizer Shahid Buttar will join the organization in mid-May as Executive Director. Buttar will lead BORDC and the People’s Campaign for the Constitution (PCC) as they raise awareness about the impacts of national security policies on civil liberties and privacy interests.
Previously Counsel to Muslim Advocates’ Program to Combat Racial & Religious Profiling, Buttar has long advocated in defense of the Constitution. A 2003 graduate of Stanford Law School, he served as Professor Lawrence Lessig’s Constitutional Law Teaching Assistant andas Executive Editor of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal. Based in Washington, DC, from 2003 to 2008, Buttar also served the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy as Associate Director for Communications & Outreach.
Buttar’s most recent work includes a FOIA request of a secret policy recently enacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines (DIOGs). The request, which Buttar filed as the new administration took office this January, was granted expedited processing for the rare reason that it relates to “a matter of widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exist possible questions about the government’s integrity.†The FBI committed on March 18 to disclose the document, but has not yet done so and may ultimately maintain secrecy over the document’s most objectionable sections on “ethnic behavior†and “geo-mapping†that effectively mandate ethnic profiling of numerous communities across the US. Says Buttar, “The FBI has a long history of violating the rights of law-abiding Americans. Unfortunately, the DIOGs repeat the Bureau’s worst historical excesses, and have evaded scandal only because they remain secret.â€
At BORDC, Buttar will facilitate grassroots mobilization across the US in defense of civil liberties and privacy interests threatened by national security programs. In addition to the expansion of FBI powers, BORDC will also challenge warrantless surveillance, executive secrecy, preventive detention, and local and state coordination with federal immigration law enforcement and domestic intelligence collection. According to Buttar, “The emerging surveillance state is a travesty violating our nation’s values of freedom and democracy. The Obama administration’s promises have not been fulfilled by the reality of its actions, and the President’s own calls for grassroots mobilization demand an active movement for civil liberties restoration. Because the ‘war on terror’ has become a war on the Constitution, Americans of conscience must defend the Bill of Rights, now more than ever.â€
Chip Pitts, president of BORDC’s board of directors, is thrilled to have Buttar join the organization. “We are incredibly happy to have someone of Shahid Buttar’s passion and grassroots qualifications leading BORDC. With him as our executive director, there is no limit to our ability to reinvigorate the grassroots civil liberties movement and effect substantive change in American government.â€
Formed in 2001 after the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee is a national organization defending constitutional rights and civil liberties violated by “war on terror†policies. BORDC’s mission is to promote, organize, and support a diverse, effective, national grassroots movement to restore and protect civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
The organization’s purpose is to educate people about the significance of those rights in our lives; to encourage widespread civic participation; and to cultivate and share the organizing tools and strategies needed for people to convert their concern, outrage, and fear into debate and action to restore Bill of Rights protections. As part of BORDC’s national action campaign, 8 states, 406 municipalities, and 89 labor unions, organizations, religious bodies, and college campuses have passed resolutions vowing to protect civil liberties.
NEW DELHI: India has faced several elections since the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) on December 6, 1992. However, this is the first time that key politicians in the electoral race for Lok Sabha are blaming their rivals unabashedly for being responsible for the demolition, which led to widespread communal violence across the countries. It is indeed ironical that none of the politicians who are indulging in this blame-game have throughout the past 17 years made any special effort to settle the dispute amiably and to demand punishment for those allegedly responsible for the demolition. It may be recalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a Finance Minister in the cabinet headed by then premier P.V. Narsimha Rao, when the mosque was demolished. It is for the first that Singh’s criticism of those responsible for the mosque’s demolition stands out as marked with an almost fiery aggressiveness. His main target has been his key rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s candidate for the prime ministerial position, L.K. Advani.
Blaming Advani for mosque’s demolition, speaking with the media, Singh said: “What is the record of Advani? He was present at the time when Babri Masjid was demolished. If he was a strong leader, he would have staked his reputation in preventing the carnage.†“What has been the contribution of Advani to India except bringing down the Babri mosque?†Singh raised the question. One is of course tempted to wonder why did Singh not pose the same questions earlier. Singh has tried justifying his decision to start raising these questions now on two grounds. Despite Advani having repeatedly lashed at Singh for being a “weak†prime minister, he chose to remain silent till now. But now, as Singh said: “Enough is enough.†“I owe it to myself and the people of India to show where the shoe pinches,†he said. He decided to start speaking out his mind only after having been declared the Congress party’s candidate as the prime minister. Clearly, this suggests that Singh is trying his best to draw political mileage from a 17-year old issue by targeting Advani.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad, has moved a step further holding both the BJP and Congress as responsible for the mosque’s demolition. Not too long ago, the same leader, who is a Railway Minister in the union cabinet, was never short of praises for Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and even the UPA chief Sonia Gandhi. But with his party and Congress having parted company over sharing seats in Bihar for Lok Sabha elections, Prasad has selected the Ayodhya-issue to hit out at his rivals. “The BJP and Advani were mainly responsible for the demolition but the Congress cannot escape responsibility for its failure to protect it,†Prasad said at an election meeting in Darbhanga (Bihar). He repeated the same point while interacting with media in Patna. “When the Babri Masjid was demolished, the Congress was in power at the center. There is little doubt that it provided tacit support to the BJP instead of preventing them from demolishing the mosque,†Prasad said. He also termed the BJP as Bharat Jalao (burn) party.
Prasad’s comments invited an immediate reaction from the Congress as well as the BJP. “The Congress is not responsible for the demolition. Advani is responsible for it. We have regretted the demolition a number of times,†Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily said.
Blaming both Congress and RJD for raising Ayodhya-issue to woo Muslim votes, BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said: “They all (Congress, Samajwadi Party & RJD) have been playing politics on Ayodhya issue to cater to a particular vote bank (Muslims). Since the Congress and RJD are fighting elections separately and Lalu Prasad is finding the going difficult in Bihar, he made this comment keeping in mind the competitive vote bank politics.†The BJP also demanded sacking of Prasad from the cabinet for having used unparliamentary language while blaming Advani for the demolition.
Acknowledging that Prasad’s comments have some basis, the left bloc leaders have questioned as to why have they been raised now. Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary Shameem Faizee said: “As far as Lalu Prasad’s comment is concerned, it is not far from the fact. But why has he realized this only now?â€
Interestingly, UP Chief Minister Mayawati, who is Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief, has taken a lead over her rivals while referring to Ayodhya-issue. Rather than indulge in a blame game, while addressing an election meeting in Faizabad (UP) she expressed support for resolution of the issue by talks and mutual understanding between the two communities. Mayawati also assured the people she would implement the court directive on the matter. By categorically voicing her support for settlement of the issue peacefully, whether through legal means and/or talks between the two communities, Mayawati has clearly signaled that she does not want political noise being made over Ayodhya leading to any communal chaos.
The ordinary voter is strongly aware that primary aim of the leaders making noise over Ayodhya-issue now is nothing else but a political gimmick for electoral gains. Not surprisingly, he/she remains unfazed by politicians indulging in rhetoric over highly sensitive Ayodhya-issue.
MULAYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) – The cave Sakhi Allah now calls home was a potato store when he was a child, growing up in the lush river valley of Afghanistan’s remote central highlands below his current front door.
Like most of the villagers of Mulayan, every time he steps out he looks down on the shattered remains of a life ripped apart by decades of civil war.
His home was sacked by the Taliban and years as a refugee have left him, and those neighbors who also straggled back, too poor to rebuild their homes.
Instead they moved into centuries-old caves that overlook the valley, probably hollowed out by Buddhist monks long before the valley’s conversion to Islam.
“Life is much more difficult than when we were young,†said the 27-year-old father of six, seated on a worn red carpet in the single unpainted cave where his family eat, sleep, cook and rest.
“We have been back for four years, and I would prefer to live in a house, but we don’t have any money.â€
A pipe takes fumes from the stove out through a hole in the mud front-wall. There is little decoration beyond a bunch of plastic flowers stuck on the wall and a small red plastic mirror, but Sakhi said his family are still better off than others.
“Some people don’t even have a donkey to bring water up from the river.â€
With no money to rebuild the village, they have moved even the village mosque into a cave, now immaculately whitewashed with a newly reinforced roof.
“We had no other space to set up a mosque,†said Haji Mehrabuddin, who consecrated the cave and presided for several years over its two rows of carpets and a rough-dug niche that points the way to Mecca for prayer.
The village is set in the fertile Bamiyan valley. It looks idyllic, tucked among snowy mountains, but has always been a dangerously tempting prize for regional rulers.
Just a few minutes away is the “city of screams,†the stumpy remains of a vast citadel sacked by Ghengis Khan and a potent reminder of past disaster.
When it rains, the ceiling falls
Before they were driven from Kabul in 2001, the hardline Taliban treated the valley’s ethnic Hazara inhabitants brutally, in part for their adherence to the Shi’ite branch of Islam which the Sunni Taliban despised.
When they finally took control of Bamiyan, the Taliban killed many of its inhabitants and razed homes and buildings like the bazaar. They then blew up two giant Buddha statues that had presided over the valley like guardians for hundreds of years.
Most of the 200 families in Mulayan village were killed or fled with the valley’s other inhabitants and never returned, residents say. Around 20 families who did straggle back had little option but to move into the caves.
Rebuilding a home would cost at least $1,000, and no one has that much money, said Asmat Allah, a pale 70-year-old with startling blue eyes who once had a 10-room home.
Now his family of 14 cram into two dugouts, scraping a living like other villagers from potato and wheat farming.
“When it rains, clumps of mud and stone fall from the ceiling, and it is very cold,†he said.
The cave dwellers of Bamiyan say they have seen no help in nearly eight years from the government of President Hamid Karzai, up for re-election in August.
Children attend a school 20 minutes walk away, and say they love their home but hope for a life beyond the fields.
“I want to be a doctor, to serve the people,†said 16-year-old Karim Allah, who saw some of the ravages of the Taliban before fleeing to Kabul.
But haunting those dreams is the fear a resurgent Taliban could defeat foreign troops backing the government in Kabul and return to the now peaceful valley.
“The news makes me worried the Taliban could come back. I get sad looking at our old houses,†he said, staring across the valley at dusk.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury on Monday sought to cut off the flow of money to the head of a group considered responsible for killing more than a dozen Chinese police officers ahead of last year’s Beijing Olympics.
“Abdul Haq commands a terror group that sought to sow violence and fracture international unity at the 2008 Olympic Games in China,†said Stuart Levey, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
The U.S. move will freeze any assets Haq has under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits American citizens from doing business with Haq.
Haq is overall leader and commander of the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party (ETIP), which was branded a terrorist organization in 2002, Treasury said.
“Today, we stand together with the world in condemning this brutal terrorist and isolating him from the international financial system,†Levey said in the prepared statement, calling his group “tied to al Qaeda.â€
A police station in China’s restive Xinjiang region was attacked four days before the Beijing Olympics began, killing 17 officers, according to Chinese state media reports.
Almost half of Xinjiang’s 20 million people are Uighur, a largely Muslim group with a culture and language close to other Turkic parts of central Asia.
Many Uighurs resent controls imposed by Beijing and an inflow of Han Chinese migrants, and some Uighur groups are campaigning for an independent homeland for their Turkic-speaking people.
Some scholars of Xinjiang question the size, influence, and even the existence, of the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party, saying Beijing grossly exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls.
Earlier this month, China executed two minority Uighurs in Xinjiang after a court convicted them over the August attack, according to state media.
Critics say the Bush administration’s designation of Haq’s group as a terrorist organization in 2002 was designed to appease China in the run-up to the United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq.
Editor’s Note: Abdi Soltani, 35, is the newly appointed executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, the largest affiliate of the national organization. Before coming to the ACLU, Soltani headed Californians for Justice, a grassroots immigrant and civil rights group; the Campaign for College Opportunity; and PARSA Community Foundation, a Persian philanthropic organization. He spoke with NAM editor Annette Fuentes about his vision for the organization.
What are your priorities as executive director of the ACLU in this region?
One big priority is to bring in the next generation of ACLU members and leaders. One of my big goals will be to reach young people and diverse people, in rural and central valley communities. People who will sustain the work of civil liberties and rights.
Another major goal is to look at some of the big challenges of next few years, whether it is securing marriage equality or reducing the dramatic number of people who are incarcerated, and issues affecting youth and students.
The ACLU is often perceived as a mostly white, liberal group. How do you gain a wider member base?
The great thing about the ACLU is it works on issues that touch the lives of every person. We’re working on immigration and police, education and students’ rights, reproductive health. All these things create great entry points into the organization. I want to get young people deeply engaged in organization. You are Iranian and came to this country as a child.
I was actually born in the United States. My parents were on fellowships, but they moved back to Iran and we came to the U.S. when I was 8.
How does the immigrant experience shape your perspective on civil liberties?
It does so in a few ways. When you come to the United States from another country, you do appreciate the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. They are not taken for granted. So, whenever I see those freedoms under attack I want to make sure they are preserved. For people who grow up in America, that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are taken for granted.
At same time, I feel there are a lot of issues–whether you’re a Middle Easterner profiled after 9/11 or an immigrant facing raids–there are a lot of issues facing newcomers and we need to protect their rights.
Are you the first immigrant to head this office?
That’s a good question. It’s safe to say that I’m the first Middle Easterner to head this agency, and possibly the first in any office. I grew up with a Muslim background. I’m not an actively religious person, but that shapes my identity.
The ACLU was on the defensive for most of the last eight years during the Bush Administration. Is there a visible change now with the Obama Administration?
What’s import about the ACLU is that at any given moment we’re both protecting and advancing freedoms in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. In the last eight years, we’ve been able to fight Bush on the Patriot Act and Guantanamo. We made strides in free speech rights for students and in protecting gay and lesbian students in schools.
What we’re protecting and what we’re advancing change. So, right now we’re doing the most to press Congress and the Obama administration to advance civil liberties. At the federal level, there is big work to undo the damages done under the Bush Administration, whether changing the Patriot Act or ending the use of torture. But that just takes us to where we were before.
Here in California, we want to really insure the civil rights of all in our communities. When it comes to immigrants, there is a lot of work to be done, with homes raided, children separated from families without due process. When it comes to children in schools, there is a lot to be done in protecting freedoms.
You worked at an organization that focused on increasing opportunities for youth to attend college. What do you bring from that to your new post?
There is a lot I’ve learned about the importance of education and opportunity. I’ve also learned that there is a limit to how much of social problems can be solved by education alone. We are not going to solve the criminal justice problem by simply educating the population. We have too many laws that criminalize behaviors that should not be criminal. We incarcerate far too many people. We want to expand educational opportunities, but there is only so much that education can do. In terms of education, school push-outs is something that the ACLU has identified as a big problem. The combination of discrimination and push-out is helping drive students out of high schools and that diminishes opportunities for their lifetimes.
What do you consider the biggest civil liberties challenges facing the state? The country?
The number of issues is substantial. I can’t say one is more important than another. Flashpoints will be gay marriage, immigration, education and incarceration. Another that doesn’t get attention is technology. We have range of protections that prevent the government from surveilling us. Currently what is not protected as private is file-sharing.
At the core, the fundamental goal I’m trying to work towards is to grow the constituency of people dedicated to civil liberties.
You should have a receptive audience here in northern California.
I think it’s a very receptive audience. I know the board is committed to the task. The challenge we face is there are a lot of needs. We need to make choices and priorities. The thing is everyone can disagree with a part of our agenda, but we all agree that it’s there to protect everyone.
For example, we’re working on the death penalty. Some of the people on death row have committed heinous crimes, but the core idea of protecting freedoms and protections is something we can all support.
Last week, we pointed out that one of the newly released Bush-era memos inadvertently confirmed that the CIA held an al-Qaeda suspect named Hassan Ghul in a secret prison and subjected him to what Bush administration lawyers called “enhanced interrogation techniques.†The CIA has never acknowledged holding Ghul, and his whereabouts today are secret.
But Ghul is not the only such prisoner who remains missing. At least three dozen others who were held in the CIA’s secret prisons overseas appear to be missing as well. Efforts by human rights organizations to track their whereabouts have been unsuccessful, and no foreign governments have acknowledged holding them.
In September 2007, Michael V. Hayden, then director of the CIA, said “fewer than 100 people had been detained at CIA’s facilities.†One memo (PDF) released last week confirmed that the CIA had custody of at least 94 people as of May 2005 and “employed enhanced techniques to varying degrees in the interrogations of 28 of these.â€
Former President George W. Bush publicly acknowledged the CIA program in September 2006, and transferred 14 prisoners from the secret jails to Guantanamo. Many other prisoners, who had “little or no additional intelligence value,†Bush said, “have been returned to their home countries for prosecution or detention by their governments.â€
Bush did not reveal their identities or whereabouts – information that would have allowed the International Committee for the Red Cross to find them – or the terms under which the prisoners were handed over to foreign jailers. The U.S. government has never released information describing the threat that any of them posed.
Some of those prisoners have since been released by third countries holding them. But it is still unclear what has happened to dozens of others.
“Making the Justice Department memos on the CIA’s secret prison program public was an important first step, but the Obama administration needs to reveal the fate and whereabouts of every person who was held in CIA custody,†said Joanne Mariner, director of the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program at Human Rights Watch. “If these men are now rotting in some Egyptian dungeon, the administration can’t pretend that it’s closed the door on the CIA program.â€
The Red Cross has had access to and documented (PDF) the experiences of only the 14 people who were publicly moved out of the CIA program and into the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Former officials in the Bush administration, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information, said that the CIA spent weeks during the summer of 2006 – shortly before Bush acknowledged the CIA prisons and suspended the program – transferring prisoners to Pakistani, Egyptian and Jordanian custody. The population inside the program had been shrinking since the existence of the prisons was detailed in a Washington Post article in November 2005. Renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and Libya in May 2006 made it possible for the CIA to turn over Libyan prisoners to Moammar Gadhafi’s control.
One example may be the case of Saud Memon, a Pakistani national suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda and wanted in connection with the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Memon, who allegedly owned the shed where Pearl was killed, disappeared in March 2003. Four years later, he was dropped off, emaciated and near death, at the doorstep of his family home in Lahore, Pakistan, and died two weeks later of tuberculosis. Investigators at Human Rights Watch believe he was held in CIA custody before being turned over to Pakistani intelligence agents.
Marwan Jabour may be an example of the type of prisoner Bush described as no longer having any intelligence value. Jabour, a Palestinian who spent two years in the CIA’s prison system, was turned over to Jordanian intelligence agents, then to Israeli and Palestinian intelligence agencies, when the CIA began to empty out its prisons in 2006.
Until he was visited by the Red Cross in Jordan, and then provided with legal counsel in Israel, Jabour was a ghost detainee in the hands of the CIA. The agency has never publicly acknowledged holding him, but intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Jabour was jailed for allegedly helping al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters evade capture.
In June 2007, six human rights groups released the names of three dozen people (PDF) whose fates remained unknown. We’ve updated that list based on the most current information available to Human Rights Watch.
We asked the CIA whether any of the people on the list were in CIA custody, whether any of them were among those detainees whom the CIA transferred to other countries for prosecution or detention, as former President Bush said had been done when he publicly acknowledged the program in September 2006, and whether the CIA is aware of and can disclose the current locations of any of these people.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano sent the following response: “The agency has not, as a rule, commented on these kinds of lists, which are typically flawed.†We invited him to clarify those flaws but have not yet heard back.
“Until the U.S. government clarifies the fate and whereabouts of these individuals, these people are still disappeared, and disappearance is one of the most grave international human rights violations,†said Margaret Satterthwaite, a law professor at New York University. “We clearly don’t know the story of everyone who has been through the program. We need to find out where they are and what happened.â€
Lips are a visible body part at the mouth of humans and many animals. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake, as a tactile sensory organ, and in the articulation of speech.
One differentiates between the Upper (Labia superfluos entafada) and lower lip (Labium inferius). The lower lip is usually somewhat larger. The border between the lips and the surrounding skin is referred to as the vermillion border, or simply the vermilion. The vertical groove on the upper lip, is known as thephiltrum. The skin of the lip, with three to five cellular layers, is very thin compared to typical face skin, which has up to 16 layers. With light skin color, the lip skin contains fewer melanocytes (cells which produce melanin pigment , which give skin its color). Because of this, the blood vessels appear through the skin of the lips, which leads to their notable red coloring. With darker skin color this effect is less prominent, as in this case the skin of the lips contains more melanin and thus is visually thicker. The skin of the lip forms the border between the exterior skin of the face, and the interior mucous membrane of the inside of the mouth. The lip skin is not hairy, and does not have sweat glands or sebaceous glands. Therefore it does not have the usual protection layer of sweat and body oils which keep the skin smooth, inhibit pathogens, and regulate warmth. For these reasons, the lips dry out faster and become chapped more easily.
The facial artery is one of the six non-terminal branches of the external carotid artery. It supplies the lips by its superior and inferior labial branches, each of which bifurcate and anastomose with their companion artery from the other side.
Farmington–April 18–The Tawheed Center’s hifz program has already borne fruit in the form of six new young huffaz graduates, the youngest of whom is only nine years old.
The showcase for the accomplishments of the Tawheed Center is in fact the hifz program, which has been in existence for only a short time–less than two years. There are three huffaz who serve as the teachers for the program, Imam Sohel, Imam Abdul Hafiz from South Africa, and Mufti Akram.
The goal of the fundraiser was to raise approximately $311,000 in order to complete the first and second floors of the new addition to the mosque, and approximately 600 people were present, packing the men’s area and presumably the women’s–standing room only.
A brief tour of the new construction revealed a large space, well planned space for classrooms, a cavernous women’s prayer area, waiting rooms, a playroom for small children–most of this as yet uncovered with drywall.
The Tawheed Center is a blessed mosque among Southeast Michigan mosques, and its educational programs reflect that. So far the Tawheed Center has devoted $1,283,194 to this new construction.
To support the construction, or to show interest in any of the Tawheed Center programs, please contact Mr. Asim Khan, 313-506-3215.
NEW DELHI: Defeating stereotyped notions held about women in Muslim countries being the neglected lot, Iran Embassy hosted a women oriented function in Delhi, earlier this month. Called the “Food Festival,†women invitees were received only by women, including the chief host- wife of Iranian envoy Seyed Mehdi Nabizadeh. Only women were visible, attending to guests and serving food as well as soft drinks. The stage was also held for a brief while by only women. The chief guest on the occasion was Ms Menon, wife of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon. It was the first diplomatic gathering held in the capital city, with only women taking the stage as hosts, guests as well as caterers. In addition to highlighting similarities in Iranian and Indian cuisine, the Food Festival strongly suggested that, diplomatically, when and need be, women of Muslim nations certainly know how to make their presence felt. The guests included women from various fields, including diplomatic representatives, social activists and media.
Though Muslim women constitute only a small percentage in the diplomatic staff of their respective countries, this has not deterred them from making their diplomatic presence felt assertively. Women hold senior positions in several embassies of Muslim countries, based in Delhi, including Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt. Riffat Masood is the first woman from Pakistan to hold the office of Deputy High Commissioner. This is a major development considering that India and Pakistan have yet to appoint a woman as their respective envoy to the other country. Besides, only around 10 percent of Pakistani diplomats are women. When questioned on her opinion about the importance gradually but definitely being gained by women of Muslim countries in the diplomatic field, Masood told TMO: “This is like a slap on face of those who paint only a negative image of Muslim women in Islamic countries.â€
President Asif Ali Zardari approved a controversial Shari’ah regulation for the Malakand division of the North West Frontier Province on Monday after the National Assembly asked to implement a peace deal between them and the provincial government.
‘Sharia Nizam-i-Adl Regulation 2009’ was signed by the President on Monday April 14, 2009. The parliament did not need to be on board or approve of it for it to become the law. The President has the right to sign such bills into law with the Federal assembly’s approval so he did.
This bill states that all courts in the province will abide by the Shari’ah law and the hearings and judgments will be given according to the Islamic Law of Shari’ah. The President’s representative says he did so in order to get some stability in the area and strike some peace with the Taliban.
“Yes, the president signed the regulation after the National Assembly adopted the resolution,†presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters. Later the president left for Dubai on a short visit.
ANP feared that PPP and its other allies might not be comfortable with this regulation and make some problems in the implementation of this law. However, PM Gillani said, “I am with them, I am not against them,†about ANP’s need to get the regulation signed and the President actually following through and signing the regulation.
MQM parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar was the only one to oppose the deal with arguments that largely remained unanswered from the supporters of the move before he led his group silently march out of the house after the prime minister and some of his ministers failed to persuade them from reversing what he said would only be abstention from voting on a move that he said would amount to allowing a Kalashinkov-bearing ultra-radical group to enforce its school of thought by force, endorsing the establishment of a parallel judicial system in the country, and encouraging those who would flog women and might not allow a women like Fehmida Mirza to be the National Assembly speaker.
PML-N’s Ayaz Amir called the regulation as the product of a ‘doctrine of necessity’ that Pakistani superior courts in the past used to uphold military coups, but added it should be given the benefit of doubt as it could be a ‘harbinger of better things’ despite ‘many doubts’.
The reaction from our neighbors has been pretty outstanding as well. Afghanistan is directly affected by whatever takes place in the northern areas. Afghan Presidential Spokesperson, Humayun Hamidzada, told a news briefing, “Since any deal with terrorist groups can have effects on the security of our own country and people, we ask the country of Pakistan to take into consideration the issue of security and its side-effects on relations between the two countries.â€
Afghanistan has in the past accused Pakistani security forces of tacitly supporting militants who infiltrate across the border into Afghanistan, an accusation that has soured ties between the two key allies of Washington.
However, the world needs to realize the kind of situation Pakistan and the Pakistani government is in as far as the northern areas and Taliban are concerned. The Taliban have an undeniable hold on that area. They are getting stronger in spite of all the tries to weaken them over the years. The country is running out of options. We could continue to fight them and let them destroy one big part of the country while they get stronger. The other option is to make some kind of peace with the Taliban and see how we can come up with a better relationship and understanding with them.
Option one has been tried tested and has failed to bring about any peace. There is no harm in giving the other option a chance if it will stop the killing of innocent people. This agreement has already been put into effect and is being enforced in Malakand District, the area that it was meant for.
According to the Provincial Government in the Northern Areas the law and order situation has already started to improve since the law has been put in motion. The Militant Taliban are now making their way into the province of Punjab, this means that the governments’ concern could not have been only the NWFP area but also the rest of the country which had started to feel the burden of the war waging between the government and the Taliban.
There is no way of knowing how this will end or if this is the end of all the trouble however, something should be said about different things and thinking out of the box to solve and avoid problems.
There are two piracies in Somalia, the well publicized attacks on shipping by pirates from Somalia, and the much more expensive, damaging, and long lived piracy in Somali waters, the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing fleets there from Europe, Arabia and the Far East, and the dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters. Both of these are violations of international law, but because Somalia has had no real government for close to two decades, no one has listened when Somalis ask for help with these two piracies.
Mohamed Abshir Waldo has written what may be the best overview of the problem of the two piracies: THE TWO PIRACIES IN SOMALIA: WHY THE WORLD IGNORES THE OTHER?
The origin of the two piracies goes back to 1992 after the fall of the Gen. Siyad Barre regime and the disintegration of the Somali Navy and Police Coastguard services. Following severe draughts in 1974 and 1986, tens of thousands of nomads, whose livestock were wiped out by the draughts, were re-settled all along the villages on the long, 3300kms Somali coast. They developed into large fishing communities whose livelihood depended inshore fishing. From the beginnings of the civil war in Somalia (as early as 1991/1992) illegal fishing trawlers started to trespass and fish in Somali waters, including the 12-mile inshore artisanal fishing waters. The poaching vessels encroached on the local fishermens grounds, competing for the abundant rock-lobster and high value pelagic fish in the warm, up-swelling 60kms deep shelf along the tip of the Horn of Africa.
The piracy war between local fishermen and IUUs started here. Local fishermen documented cases of trawlers pouring boiling water on the fishermen in canoes, their nets cut or destroyed, smaller boats crushed, killing all the occupants, and other abuses suffered as they tried to protect their national fishing turf. Later, the fishermen armed themselves. In response, many of the foreign fishing vessels armed themselves with more sophisticated weapons and began to overpower the fishermen. It was only a matter of time before the local fishermen reviewed their tactics and modernized their hardware. This cycle of warfare has been going on from 1991 to the present. It is now developing into fully fledged, two-pronged illegal fishing and shipping piracy conflicts.
According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), there were over 800 IUUs fishing vessels in Somali waters at one time in 2005 taking advantage of Somalias inability to police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. The IUUs, which are estimated take out more than $450 million in fish value out of Somalia annually, neither compensate the local fishermen, pay tax, royalties nor do they respect any conservation and environmental regulations norms associated with regulated fishing. It is believed that IUUs from the EU alone take out of the country more than five times the value of its aid to Somalia every year.
Illegal foreign fishing trawlers which have being fishing in Somalia since 1991 are mostly owned by EU and Asian fishing companies Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Russia, Britain, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Yemen, Egypt and many others.
The dumping of toxic waste is an additional nightmare for Somalis. In 2005:
A spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Nick Nuttall, told VOA that for the past 15 years or so, European companies and others have used Somalia as a dumping ground for a wide array of nuclear and hazardous wastes.
Theres uranium radioactive waste, theres leads, theres heavy metals like cadmium and mercury, theres industrial wastes, and theres hospital wastes, chemical wastes, you name it, he said. Its not rocket science to know why theyre doing it because of the instability there.
Mr. Nuttall said, on average, it cost European companies $2.50 per ton to dump the wastes on Somalias beaches rather than $250 a ton to dispose of the wastes in Europe.
He said the Asian tsunami dislodged and smashed open the drums, barrels, and other containers, spreading the contaminants as far away as 10 or more kilometers inland.
The results of the contamination on coastal populations, Mr. Nuttall says, have been disastrous.
These problems range from acute respiratory infections to dry, heavy coughing, mouth bleedings, abdominal hemorrhages, what they described as unusual skin chemical reactions, he noted. So theres a whole variety of ailments that people are reporting from these villages where we had a chance to look. We need to go much further and farther in finding out the real scale of this problem.
The Somalis have appealed repeatedly to the UN, the EU, the Arab League, and others. Mohamed Abshir Waldo describes:
In September 1995, leaders of all the Somali political factions of the day (12 of them) and two major Somali NGO Networks jointly wrote to the UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, with copies to the EU, Arab League, OIC, OAU and to other involved parties, detailing the illegal fishing and hazardous material dumping crises in the Somali sea waters and requesting the UN to set up a body to manage and protect these waterways.
Somali fishermen in various regions of the country also complained to the international community about the illegal foreign fishing, stealing the livelihoods of poor fishermen, waste dumping and other ecological disasters, including the indiscriminate use of all prohibited methods of fishing: drift nets, under water explosives, killing all endangered species like sea-turtles, orca, sharks, baby whales, etc. as well as destroying reef, biomass and vital fish habitats in the sea.
Meanwhile, the UN, and all the regions and nations that have been fishing in Somali waters and dumping toxic waste in those same waters are screaming about the Somali pirates attacking shipping passing near the Somali coastline. Part of this is that they want to protect their IUU fishing fleets and the ability to dump their toxic waste. Fleets from a multitude of nations are converging in the Somali seas. Reasons for the convergence of navies include force projection, control of vital shipping lanes, raw materials, energy resources, keeping up pretexts for the war on terror, and general global positioning, in addition to protecting the IUU fishing and the toxic waste dumping.
There is no question that piracy is a serious problem off the coast of Somalia. Only one side of this problem is being hyped by western medialia. Nevertheless, it should be stopped.
Just who can stop the Somali pirates? We may not know who can stop them, but we know who did stop them. In mid 2006 the Islamic Courts Union took control of Somalia, providing the only relatively peaceful and properous period in recent Somali history. Somalis from overseas began to return to Somalia. . . .
The event celebrated as Easter by Christians is in fact important to Muslims as well, if for a different reason.
Memorable Events of Human History.
Muslims and Christians both believe in the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, All Powerful and Eternal GOD.
The Christian belief is that Jesus (as) was saved, although they believe he was saved in a different way. But notwithstanding that, the importance of his being saved is the focus of this article.
Muslims believe that Jesus (as) was saved on the day of Ashura, as were so many prophets in the past, including Musa (as) who was delivered from Pharoah on Ashura, and as Ibrahim (as) was saved from the fire of Nimrod on Ashura. So the date is important, although of course as Muslims our understanding of the significance of that date is different from Christians and their observance of Easter.
Reminding a quotation from Holy Qur’an Suratun Nisa, verse:
“The Natives and the aliens miserably failed in their plan against Jesus
“Their boastful claim: ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary who claims to be Messenger of Allah.’
They could not kill Jesus, nor they could hanged him, No, certainly not, they were put in confusion…… Surely they could not slay him.
But Allah exalted Jesus, raised him high unto Himself
And Allah is indeed Almighty, Most Wise.â€
YES, Certainly, The blasphemers, The deniers of Jesus Failed miserably in their wicked planning.
They could not crucify, nor could kill Jesus.
Almighty GOD raised him up high unto Himself.â€
Salaams on him and his mother Blessed Mary and all who respect Jesus.
May this FRIDAY and all Fridays be Good for all the humanity, and peace from us to on one of the great Messengers, JESUS, Who enlightened the path of tolerance, mercy, affection, love and services to the down-trodden, deprived ones, the have-nots of humanity.
The other difference is that for us as Muslims, every Friday is good Friday, every Friday is a kind of ‘eid for us as Muslims.
CHICAGO, IL- Well known community organizer and activist Moin Moon Khan has been re-elected as the Trustee of York Township in Illinois. He received more than 10,000 on the Republican ticket. His supporters reportedly include many independents and democrats as well.
York Township consists of several Chicago area suburbs including Elmhurst, Lombard, Oak Brook Terrace, Villa Park, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, Hinsdale, and Westmont.
A dynamic and multifaceted personality Khan is a software professional. He is frequently quoted by mainstream newspapers and is a well known face in community activities.