Frustrated With West, Turks Revel in Empire Lost

• gBy DAN BILEFSKY

ISTANBUL — More than eight decades ago, Ertugrul Osman, an heir to the Ottoman throne, was unceremoniously thrown out of Turkey with his family. He lived to be 97, spending most of his years in a modest Manhattan apartment above a bakery.

The traditional costumes of a band in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul invoked Janissaries, elite Ottoman-era soldiers.

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Cenan Sarc, 97, the descendant of an Ottoman pasha, was 10 years old at the time of the Empire’s collapse in 1922.

Mustafa Ozer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Thousands mourned Ertugrul Osman, an heir to the Ottoman throne, in Istanbul.

But in September, at his funeral in the garden of the majestic Sultanahmet Mosque here, thousands of mourners paid their respects, including government officials and celebrities. Some even kissed the hands of surviving dynasty members, who appeared shocked at the adulation.

The show of reverence for the man who might have been sultan, historians said, was a seminal moment in the rehabilitation of the Ottoman Empire, long demonized by some in the modern, secular Turkish Republic created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. During Ataturk’s rule, the empire was remembered mainly for its decadence and its humiliating defeat and partition by the Allies in World War I.

Mr. Osman’s send-off was just the latest manifestation of what sociologists call “Ottomania,” a harking back to an era marked by conquest and cultural splendor during which sultans ruled an empire stretching from the Balkans to the Indian Ocean and claimed the spiritual leadership of the Muslim world.

The longing for those glory years — by religious Muslims and secularists alike — partly reflects Turks’ frustration with a European Union that seems ill disposed to accept them as members. And in a country where the tension between religion and secularism is never far from the surface, members of the new governing class of religious Muslims have seized upon nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire as a way to challenge the pro-Western elite that emerged during Ataturk’s rule, and to help forge a national identity of Turkey as an aspiring regional leader.

“Turks are attracted to the heroism and the glory of the Ottoman period because it belongs to them,” said the director of Topkapi Palace, Ilber Ortayli, who, as the keeper of the sumptuous residence where Ottoman sultans lived for 400 years, is also a zealous unofficial gatekeeper of the Ottoman legacy. “The sultans hold a place in the popular consciousness like Douglas MacArthur or General Patton have for Americans.”

The current vogue of all things Ottoman, from the proliferation of historical docudramas to the popularity of porcelain ashtrays adorned with harem women, is sometimes manifesting itself in ways that would surely have made a real sultan blanch.

During Ramadan, Burger King offered a special sultan menu featuring dishes popular in the Ottoman years. In the television commercial promoting the meal, a turbaned Janissary — a member of an elite group of Ottoman soldiers — exhorts viewers not to “leave any burgers standing.”

Ottomania has also infected the nation’s youth; 20-somethings at hip dance clubs here wear T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Terrible Turks” — the latter turning the taunt Europeans once used against their Ottoman invaders into a defiant symbol of self-affirmation.

Kerim Sarc, 42, the owner of Ottoman Empire T-Shirts and the scion of an illustrious Ottoman family, believes that the newfound fondness for a mighty empire that lasted more than 600 years and once reached the gates of Vienna is linked to the long struggle for membership in the European Union. The bloc has imposed tough conditions on Turkey, including asking it to compromise in its longstanding dispute over Cyprus.

“We Turks are tired of being treated in Europe like poor, backward peasants,” he said.

The Ottoman renaissance is equally prevalent in the nation’s highest political circles, where the Muslim-inspired Justice and Development Party government has been aggressively courting former Ottoman colonies, including Iraq and Syria, in at least a partial reorientation of foreign policy toward the east that Turkish analysts have labeled as “Neo-Ottoman.”

That shift has alarmed officials in Europe and Washington, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to reassure President Obama when he meets him at the White House on Monday that Turkey has not abandoned its Western course.

It is a sign of the Ottoman Empire’s new hold on the popular imagination that in January when Mr. Erdogan publicly rebuked the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, over the war in Gaza, at a debate at Davos, Switzerland, he was greeted enthusiastically by his supporters back in Turkey with the chant, “Our fatih is back!” The allusion was to Fatih — or conqueror — Sultan Mehmet II, the towering sultan who at age 21 conquered Constantinople, now Istanbul, in 1453.

Colleagues said Mr. Erdogan proudly displays an original decree in his office by Sultan Mehmet II granting autonomy to religious minorities within the empire.

“The Ottoman Empire conquered two-thirds of the world but did not force anyone to change their language or religion at a time when minorities elsewhere were being oppressed,” said Egeman Bagis, the minister for European Union affairs. “Turks can be proud of that legacy.”

Pelin Batu, co-host of a popular television history program, argued that the glorification of the Ottoman era by a government with roots in political Islam reflected a revolt against the secular cultural revolution undertaken by Ataturk, who outlawed the wearing of Islamic head scarves in state institutions and abolished the Ottoman-era caliphate.

“Ottomania is a form of Islamic empowerment for a new Muslim religious bourgeoisie who are reacting against Ataturk’s attempt to relegate religion and Islam to the sidelines,” she said.

In a society struggling with its identity, not everyone welcomes the phenomenon.

Some critics accuse its proponents of glossing over the empire’s decline and of glorifying an anachronistic system that, at the very least, was mired in corruption and infighting in its later years. The massacre of Ottoman Armenians between 1915 and 1918 stands as a particular dark spot in the history of the empire.

“The religious Muslims now in power are trying to feed the Turkish people an Ottoman poison,” said Sada Kural, 45, a housewife and staunch supporter of Ataturk’s vision. “The Ottoman era wasn’t a good period; we were the sick man of Europe, rights were suppressed and women only got the vote after Ataturk came to power.”

While some bemoan what they consider the crude commercialization of a nation’s history, others, like Cenan Sarc, 97, who was 10 years old at the time of the empire’s collapse in 1922 and is the descendant of an Ottoman pasha, cautioned against idealizing an era of dictatorship.

Mrs. Sarc recalled her idyllic childhood in a mansion on the Bosporus, a poetic time, she said, when fathers ruled, mothers stayed at home and Islam held sway. But, she insisted, “we can never go back to that time.” Ertugrul Osman, the Ottoman heir, had himself accepted obscurity. When he visited Turkey in 1992, for the first time in 53 years, and went to see the 285-room Dolmabahce Palace, which had been his grandfather’s home, he insisted on joining a public tour group.

Asked frequently if he dreamed about restoring the empire, he always emphatically answered no. “Democracy,” he said, “works well in Turkey.”

SOURCE

Masjid Al-Aqsa speaks!

A powerful message, delivered in the form of words spoken by Masjid al-Aqsa. Presented by Sheikh Issam Ameera (member of Hizb ut-Tahrir) during a public gathering for Palestine in Sydney with other local community members.

This would have to be one of the best talks I have ever witnessed. I still get goosebumps everytime I watch it.

The God Debate, Evolution and “Who Designed the Designer?”

In the last seven years or so, I have participated in a number of ‘Does God Exist?’ debates with various intellectuals and academics [1]. Next week I will be participating in the ‘God: Delusion or Truth?’ debate with Rick Lewis, the editor of the Philosophy Now magazine, at the University College London. Last week I participated in a debate with Alan Woods, who has written the History of Philosophy and is a Marxist political theorist [2], on the same topic and I was disappointed that he did not sufficiently address any of the arguments I presented. Additionally he did not even produce a strong case for the atheist worldview.

Mr Woods’ main premise was that the evolution theory provides the best explanation for the origins of life. The problem with this argument is that evolution doesn’t negate the existence of God; rather it just provides an alternative explanation to the question of how life started. At best the evolution theory, if taken to be true, may provide a theological problem as there would be a need to reconcile the theory with mainstream religious discourse on the origins of life. However it doesn’t take God out of the picture.

Mr Woods’ evolution ‘defeater’ was an attempt to deal with one of my arguments for the existence God, known as the Teleological argument or the Argument from Design. The form of the design argument I chose to present used examples relating to the physics and the initial conditions of the universe. Hence I explained to Mr Woods that evolution is billions of years away and it doesn’t even have a foot in the door as the design argument I chose to present used examples understood in physics and not biology, so I politely advised him to be more attentive to my argument.

Mr Woods then decided to use another argument which is always used by the atheists who clutch at intellectual straws: “who designed the designer?” Even the prophet of neo-Atheism Richard Dawkins writes in his best seller The God Delusion,
“The Temptation is a false one, because the designer hypothesis immediately raises the larger problem of who designed the designer.” [3]

Having prepared for this I addressed his question promptly. However in order for the reader to understand my response I will summarise the form of the design argument that was presented at the debate. I argued that God makes sense of the fine-tuning of the universe to permit life and I started off by presenting the premises of this argument,
1. The fine-tuning of the universe to permit life is due to physical necessity, chance, or design.
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance.
3. Therefore, it is due to design.

Explaining Premise 1
The existence of a life permitting universe is due conditions that must have been fined tuned to a degree that is literally incalculable! The fine tuning is of two types,
When the laws of nature are expressed as mathematical equations, you find appearing in them certain constants, like the gravitational constant.

There are certain arbitrary quantities which are just put in as initial conditions on which the laws of nature operate, for example, the amount of entropy or the balance between matter and anti-matter in the universe.

I used the following are examples of fine tuning to explain premise 1,
Strength of Gravity & the Atomic Weak Force: Physicist P. C. W. Davies has calculated that a change in the strength of gravity or of the atomic weak force by only one part in 10100 would have prevented a life permitting universe.

Big Bang’s Low Entropy Condition: Roger Penrose of Oxford University has calculated that the odds of the Big Bang's low entropy condition existing by chance are on the order of one out of 1010 (123). Penrose comments, "I cannot even recall seeing anything else in physics whose accuracy is known to approach, even remotely, a figure like one part in 1010 (123)."[4]
There are only three possible explanations for the presence of the above fine tuning of the universe,
Physical necessity
Chance
Design
Why it can’t be Physical Necessity

The first alternative seems extraordinarily implausible. There is just no physical reason why these constants and quantities should have the values they do. As P. C. W. Davies states,
“Even if the laws of physics were unique, it doesn't follow that the physical universe itself is unique…the laws of physics must be augmented by cosmic initial conditions…there is nothing in present ideas about 'laws of initial conditions' remotely to suggest that their consistency with the laws of physics would imply uniqueness. Far from it…it seems, then, that the physical universe does not have to be the way it is: it could have been otherwise.” [5]

Why it can’t be Chance

Some people who do not understand the impossibility of the universe coming into being by chance exclaim, "It could have happened by chance!" However would they say such a thing in order to explain how an Elephant was sleeping in their garage overnight? Or if a 747 was parked in your garden on your return from work ?!

Additionally people have tried to get out of this problem by saying “we shouldn’t be surprised at the finely tuned universe, for if it wasn’t the case we would not be here to be surprised about it!” In response to this Philosopher W. Craig aptly puts it,
“But such reasoning is logically fallacious. We can show this by means of a parallel illustration. Imagine you're traveling abroad and are arrested on trumped-up drug charges and dragged in front of a firing squad of 100 trained marksmen, all with rifles aimed at your heart, to be executed. You hear the command given: "Ready! Aim! Fire!" and you hear the deafening roar of the guns. And then you observe that you are still alive, that all of the 100 trained marksmen missed! Now what would you conclude? "Well, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that they all missed. After all, if they hadn't all missed, then I wouldn't be here to be surprised about it! Given that I am here, I should expect them all to miss." Of course not! You would immediately suspect that they all missed on purpose, that the whole thing was a set-up, engineered for some reason by someone. While you wouldn't be surprised that you don't observe that you are dead, you'd be very surprised, indeed, that you do observe that you are alive. In the same way, given the incredible improbability of the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life, it is reasonable to conclude that this is not due to chance, but to design.”[6]

It Must be Design

Since premises 1 and 2 are true, it follows that supernatural design is the most reasonable explanation for the fine tuning of the universe to permit life.
Responding to “Who Designed the Designer?”

The above contention to the design argument is flawed for two main reasons. Firstly, anyone with a basic understanding of the philosophy of science will conclude that in the inference to the best explanation, the best explanation doesn’t require an explanation! The following example illustrates this point.

Imagine 500 years from now a group of archaeologists where to start digging in London’s Hyde Park only to find parts of a car and a bus. They would be completely justified in inferring that these finds were not a result of sedimentation and metamorphosis but products of an unknown civilization. However if some skeptics were to argue that we can’t make such inferences because we do not know anything about this civilization, how they lived and who created them, would that make the archaeologists conclusions untrue? Of course not!

Secondly if we take this contention seriously it could undermine the very foundations of science and philosophy themselves. Because if we require an explanation for the basic assumptions of science, for example that the external world exists, where do you think our level of scientific progress would be?

Additionally if we were to apply this type of question to every attempt at explaining the explanation, we would end up with an infinite regress of explanations. And an infinite regress of explanations would defeat the whole purpose of science in the first place, which is to provide an explanation!

References
[1] For example see my debate with Dr Bashour from the American University Beirut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJtM40TzJAA
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Woods_(politician)
[3] Richard Dawkins. The God Delusion. Houghton Mifflin. 2006, page 158
[4] Roger Penrose, "Time-Asymmetry and Quantum Gravity," in Quantum Gravity 2, ed. C. J. Isham, R. Penrose, and D. W. Sciama (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), p. 249.
[5] Paul Davies, The Mind of God (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 169.
[6] William Lane Craig. http://www.professorblume.com/uploads/1/0/6/9/1069884/does_god_exist-_w._l._craig.doc

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American troops in Afghanistan losing heart, say army chaplains

American soldiers serving in Afghanistan are depressed and deeply disillusioned, according to the chaplains of two US battalions that have spent nine months on the front line in the war against the Taleban.

Many feel that they are risking their lives — and that colleagues have died — for a futile mission and an Afghan population that does nothing to help them, the chaplains told The Times in their makeshift chapel on this fortress-like base in a dusty, brown valley southwest of Kabul.

“The many soldiers who come to see us have a sense of futility and anger about being here. They are really in a state of depression and despair and just want to get back to their families,” said Captain Jeff Masengale, of the 10th Mountain Division’s 2-87 Infantry Battalion.

“They feel they are risking their lives for progress that’s hard to discern,” said Captain Sam Rico, of the Division’s 4-25 Field Artillery Battalion. “They are tired, strained, confused and just want to get through.” The chaplains said that they were speaking out because the men could not.

The base is not, it has to be said, obviously downcast, and many troops do not share the chaplains’ assessment. The soldiers are, by nature and training, upbeat, driven by a strong sense of duty, and they do their jobs as best they can. Re-enlistment rates are surprisingly good for the 2-87, though poor for the 4-25. Several men approached by The Times, however, readily admitted that their morale had slumped.

“We’re lost — that’s how I feel. I’m not exactly sure why we’re here,” said Specialist Raquime Mercer, 20, whose closest friend was shot dead by a renegade Afghan policeman last Friday. “I need a clear-cut purpose if I’m going to get hurt out here or if I’m going to die.”

Sergeant Christopher Hughes, 37, from Detroit, has lost six colleagues and survived two roadside bombs. Asked if the mission was worthwhile, he replied: “If I knew exactly what the mission was, probably so, but I don’t.”

The only soldiers who thought it was going well “work in an office, not on the ground”. In his opinion “the whole country is going to s***”.

The battalion’s 1,500 soldiers are nine months in to a year-long deployment that has proved extraordinarily tough. Their goal was to secure the mountainous Wardak province and then to win the people’s allegiance through development and good governance. They have, instead, found themselves locked in an increasingly vicious battle with the Taleban.

They have been targeted by at least 300 roadside bombs, about 180 of which have exploded. Nineteen men have been killed in action, with another committing suicide. About a hundred have been flown home with amputations, severe burns and other injuries likely to cause permanent disability, and many of those have not been replaced. More than two dozen mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs) have been knocked out of action.

Living conditions are good — abundant food, air-conditioned tents, hot water, free internet — but most of the men are on their second, third or fourth tours of Afghanistan and Iraq, with barely a year between each. Staff Sergeant Erika Cheney, Airborne’s mental health specialist, expressed concern about their mental state — especially those in scattered outposts — and believes that many have mild post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “They’re tired, frustrated, scared. A lot of them are afraid to go out but will still go,” she said.

Lieutenant Peter Hjelmstad, 2-87’s Medical Platoon Leader, said sleeplessness and anger attacks were common.

A dozen men have been confined to desk jobs because they can no longer handle missions outside the base. One long-serving officer who has lost three friends this tour said he sometimes returned to his room at night and cried, or played war games on his laptop. “It’s a release. It’s a method of coping.” He has nightmares and sleeps little, and it does not help that the base is frequently shaken by outgoing artillery fire. He was briefly overcome as he recalled how, when a lorry backfired during his most recent home leave, he grabbed his young son and dived between two parked cars.

The chaplains said soldiers were seeking their help in unprecedented numbers. “Everyone you meet is just down, and you meet them everywhere — in the weight room, dining facility, getting mail,” said Captain Rico. Even “hard men” were coming to their tent chapel and breaking down.
The men are frustrated by the lack of obvious purpose or progress. “The soldiers’ biggest question is: what can we do to make this war stop. Catch one person? Assault one objective? Soldiers want definite answers, other than to stop the Taleban, because that almost seems impossible. It’s hard to catch someone you can’t see,” said Specialist Mercer.

“It’s a very frustrating mission,” said Lieutenant Hjelmstad. “The average soldier sees a friend blown up and his instinct is to retaliate or believe it’s for something [worthwhile], but it’s not like other wars where your buddy died but they took the hill. There’s no tangible reward for the sacrifice. It’s hard to say Wardak is better than when we got here.”

Captain Masengale, a soldier for 12 years before he became a chaplain, said: “We want to believe in a cause but we don’t know what that cause is.”

The soldiers are angry that colleagues are losing their lives while trying to help a population that will not help them. “You give them all the humanitarian assistance that they want and they’re still going to lie to you. They’ll tell you there’s no Taleban anywhere in the area and as soon as you roll away, ten feet from their house, you get shot at again,” said Specialist Eric Petty, from Georgia.

Captain Rico told of the disgust of a medic who was asked to treat an insurgent shortly after pulling a colleague’s charred corpse from a bombed vehicle.

The soldiers complain that rules of engagement designed to minimise civilian casualties mean that they fight with one arm tied behind their backs. “They’re a joke,” said one. “You get shot at but can do nothing about it. You have to see the person with the weapon. It’s not enough to know which house the shooting’s coming from.”

The soldiers joke that their Isaf arm badges stand not for International Security Assistance Force but “I Suck At Fighting” or “I Support Afghan Farmers”.

To compound matters, soldiers are mainly being killed not in combat but on routine journeys, by roadside bombs planted by an invisible enemy. “That’s very demoralising,” said Captain Masengale.

The constant deployments are, meanwhile, playing havoc with the soldiers’ private lives. “They’re killing families,” he said. “Divorces are skyrocketing. PTSD is off the scale. There have been hundreds of injuries that send soldiers home and affect families for the rest of their lives.”
The chaplains said that many soldiers had lost their desire to help Afghanistan. “All they want to do is make it home alive and go back to their wives and children and visit the families who have lost husbands and fathers over here. It comes down to just surviving,” said Captain Masengale.
“If we make it back with ten toes and ten fingers the mission is successful,” Sergeant Hughes said.

“You carry on for the guys to your left or right,” added Specialist Mercer.
The chaplains have themselves struggled to cope with so much distress. “We have to encourage them, strengthen them and send them out again. No one comes in and says, ‘I’ve had a great day on a mission’. It’s all pain,” said Captain Masengale. “The only way we’ve been able to make it is having each other.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Kimo Gallahue, 2-87’s commanding officer, denied that his men were demoralised, and insisted they had achieved a great deal over the past nine months. A triathlete and former rugby player, he admitted pushing his men hard, but argued that taking the fight to the enemy was the best form of defence.

He said the security situation had worsened because the insurgents had chosen to fight in Wardak province, not abandon it. He said, however, that the situation would have been catastrophic without his men. They had managed to keep open the key Kabul-to-Kandahar highway which dissects Wardak, and prevent the province becoming a launch pad for attacks on the capital, which is barely 20 miles from its border. Above all, Colonel Gallahue argued that counter-insurgency — winning the allegiance of the indigenous population through security, development and good governance — was a long and laborious process that could not be completed in a year. “These 12 months have been, for me, laying the groundwork for future success,” he said.

At morning service on Sunday, the two chaplains sought to boost the spirits of their flock with uplifting hymns, accompanied by video footage of beautiful lakes, oceans and rivers.

Captain Rico offered a particularly apposite reading from Corinthians: “We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Source

'I questioned things at Guantánamo from day one'

'I questioned things at Guantánamo from day one'

Six months into his stint as a guard at Guantánamo, Terry Holdbrooks converted to Islam. What made him do it, asks Sarfraz Manzoor

Sarfraz Manzoor
The Guardian, Wednesday 7 October 2009

Terry Holdbrooks arrived at Guantánamo detention camp in the summer of 2003 as a godless 19-year-old with a love of drinking, hard rock music and tattoos. By the time he left Cuba the following year, he had alienated his army colleagues, won the respect of the detainees and, most astonishingly, converted to Islam in a midnight ceremony in the presence of one of the detainees, who had become his mentor.

When I meet Holdbrooks, now 26 and named Mustafa Abdullah, he is wearing a black Muslim cap, a thick beard and long-sleeved traditional robes that almost obscure the tattoo on his right arm that reads "by demons be driven".

Holdbrooks grew up in Arizona, the only son of junkie parents who split up when he was seven years old. He was raised by his ex-hippie grandparents. Tired of being poor, determined not to follow in his parents' footsteps and keen to see the world, Holdbrooks signed up for the military. He was stationed with the 253rd Military Police Company, mostly doing administrative support work, when he was told he was to be deployed to Guantánamo.

During a two-week training course, the new guards took it in turns to act as detainees, and were also taken to Ground Zero. "We were not taught anything about Islam," he says. "We were shown videos of 11 September and all we kept being told was that the detainees were the worst of the worst – they were Bin Laden's drivers, Bin Laden's cooks, and these people will kill you the first chance they get."

Holdbrooks skims over the words, as if he is quoting from his forthcoming memoir, Traitor? "I was questioning things from day one," he says. "The first thing I saw was a kid who is all of 16 who had never seen the ocean, didn't know the world was round. I am sitting there thinking, what can he possibly know about the war on terror, what could he possibly know?"

Holdbrooks' duties at Guantánamo including cleaning, collecting rubbish, walking up and down the block to ensure detainees weren't passing anything between cells and ferrying them to and from interrogations. There were plenty of opportunities for communication. Holdbrooks's friendliness towards the detainees – they called him "the nice guard" – earned him unwelcome attention from his fellow guards.

"I didn't have a very high impression of my colleagues," he says. Many of them were "ridiculous Budweiser-drinking, cornbread-fed, tobacco-chewing drunks, racists and bigots" who blindly followed orders, and within months he had stopped talking to them altogether. There were frequent physical altercations: "One time one of them said to me, 'Hey, Holdbrooks, you know what we are going to do today? We are going to skull-fuck the Taliban out of you – you're a sympathiser and we don't like that." That led to another fist fight."

While the guards indulged in alcohol, porn and sports, Holdbrooks says he needed to learn how the detainees could endure abuse and still smile, while he was utterly miserable.

"I knew nothing about Islam prior to Guantánamo," he says, "so this was a complete culture shock to me. I wanted to learn as much I could, so I started talking to the detainees about politics, ethics and morals, and about their lives and cultural differences – we would talk all the time." What began as curiosity turned to disciplined study, with Holdbrooks spending at least an hour a day learning about Islam and talking in chatrooms online. Among those he talked to were the Tipton trio of British Muslims who featured in Michael Winterbottom's docudrama, The Road to Guantánamo; another was a man the other detainees referred to as the General – Moroccan-born Ahmed Errachidi, who had lived in Britain for 18 years, working as a chef, and spent five and a half years in Guantánamo accused of attending al-Qaida training camps. (He was later released and cleared of any wrongdoing.)

"We'd talk for hours and hours," Holdbrooks says. "We'd talk about books, about music, about philosophy: we would stay up all night and talk about religion."

Finally, six months into his time at Guantánamo, Holdbrooks was ready. On 29 December 2003, in the presence of Errachidi, he repeated the shahada, the statement of faith that is the sole requirement for converting to Islam: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet". The Guantánamo guard was now a Muslim.

He stopped drinking and even gave up music, because his interpretation of Islam suggested that this, too, was unacceptable. "It was not easy praying five times a day without my colleagues finding out," he says. "I told them I had to go the bathroom a lot."

Converting to Islam made Holdbrooks even more unhappy about his work – he felt he was worse off than the detainees. "They were having a lot more fun than I was. The Tipton trio were always playing tricks on the guards and the interrogators. The detainees had a lot of freedom in their confinement: I had all the freedoms they didn't have, but I was a slave to what the army wanted me to do."

This claim sounds implausible, but Holdbrooks says he is referring to their freedom of thought: he was impressed by the independence he saw in the detainees, compared to his fellow guards. This still seems a rather self-pitying analysis, particularly when he goes on to describe how he had seen detainees being tortured. "It was my job to take prisoners to interrogations, so sometimes I would sit and watch," he says. "I would see detainees who would be locked up for hours in horrible positions – for hours upon hours upon hours, in a room that might be 50 degrees or 60 degrees.

"There was one man who had defecated on himself and this ogre of an interrogator would douse water on him and then ask him if he was going to talk, and he would say he had nothing to talk about, and I remember thinking, what good is this going to accomplish? You cannot abuse and torture people and expect to get results that are accurate and credible."

In the summer of 2004, Holdbrooks left Guantánamo and was later discharged from the army on the grounds of a "general personality disorder". The alcohol problem that had plagued him before enlisting returned, and when his marriage dissolved, he sought solace in the old comforts of drinking, casual sex and music. "I was having nightmares about my time in Guantánamo," he says, "and I spent the best part of three years just trying to drink Guantánamo out of my mind."
Today, Holdbrooks is a practising Muslim again, but he does not seem to be at peace. There is a blankness in his gaze that hints at the scars his childhood and Guantánamo have left on him.
Why had this hard-living Arizona boy embraced Islam? The question needles me throughout our conversation. It is only when, towards the end, Holdbrooks reveals that his favourite words are "structure", "order" and "discipline" that the pieces fall into place. Holdbrooks's life had been a search for order: the regimentation of army life had appeared to offer structure, and when it let him down, he turned to religion.

Holdbrooks has more in common with his former colleagues than he realises: their allegiance to the army is matched by his adherence to faith. "Islam is a very disciplined, regimented faith and it requires a great deal of effort and conviction," he says. "I've had an unbelievable fascination with structure and order for as long as I can remember: structure, order and discipline – I just love them."

Source

Adventures in Democracy - ABC Q&A

Panellists
Christopher Hitchens - author and atheist
Waleed Aly - Muslim lawyer and academic
Father Frank Brennan - Catholic priest
Sally Warhaft - former editor of The Monthly
Anne Henderson - biographer and commentator

To watch, please click here

'Last Ottoman' dies in Istanbul - Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji3oon

'Last Ottoman' dies in Istanbul
By Roger Hardy Middle East analyst

Osman spent most of his years living modestly in New York
Ertugrul Osman - the would-be sultan known in Turkey as the "last Ottoman" - has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.

Osman would have been sultan of the Ottoman Empire had Turkey's modern republic not been created in the 1920s.
As the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, he would have been known as his Imperial Highness Prince Shehzade Ertugrul Osman Effendi.

Born in Istanbul in 1912, Osman spent most of his years living modestly in New York.
No political ambition

He was a 12-year-old at school in Vienna when he heard the news that his family was being expelled by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the soldier who founded the modern Turkish republic out of the ashes of the old empire.

Osman would have been sultan had Ataturk, pictured, not founded Turkey
Osman eventually settled in New York, where for more than 60 years he lived in a flat above a restaurant.

Always insisting he had no political ambition, he only returned to Turkey in the early 1990s at the invitation of the government.

During the visit, he went to Dolmabahce - the palace by the Bosphorus where he had played as a child.

Characteristically, he joined a tour group in order to avoid any red-carpet treatment.
Ertugrul Osman is survived by his wife, Zeynep, a relative of the last king of Afghanistan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8273396.stm

Aust. public broadcaster SBS directed to no longer use the term “Palestinian land”

Do You Ever Feel Like The Walls Are Closing In? By Jake Lynch

In a further restriction on political debate, journalists at SBS have been directed not to use the term “Palestinian land” when describing the occupied territories, writes Jake Lynch

So narrow has political debate become here in Australia over the Israel/Palestine conflict that attempts to remind Australians of basic facts, well accepted in the global community, are falling foul of censorship — silenced by the swish of a bureaucrat’s pen.

Journalists at public broadcaster SBS have been told, in a missive from their head of news, that the station’s Ombudsman has ruled out the use of the phrase “Palestinian land” to describe the occupied territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The status of these territories “remains the subject of negotiation”, the memo says, and should be described solely with reference to their geographical location, for instance: “Israeli settlements on the West Bank”.

This shows the chilling effect of the selective deafness practised by frontbench politicians in Canberra, which has, as I have pointed out before, put Australia further into Israel’s camp than any other country, including the United States. Labor’s Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard found some rare common ground with former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello when both were part of a senior bipartisan delegation to Israel. When a delegation of that kind fails to mention, even once, the attack on Gaza at the turn of the year or questions over its legality, it has the effect of placing huge pieces of reality outside the bounds of the legitimately controversial. They fall into the “don’t-mention-the-war” category, or what media scholar Daniel Hallin called the “zone of deviancy”.

In fact, it is the Australian Parliament that is somewhat deviant on this issue, compared to parliaments elsewhere. And things are not improving. Julia Irwin, who earlier this year was almost alone among Australian MPs to join with the rest of the world in criticising Israel’s attack on Gaza, last night announced her intention not to run in the next federal election. The disappearance from the Parliament of a voice prepared to say what many people know on this issue is bad news for the state of this debate in Australia.

At the University of Sydney, where I work, the Students for Palestine group have been told by their Student Union that they are not entitled to form a club, and benefit from the facilities, for reasons no one is allowed to disclose. All those present at the meeting that imposed this ban have been sworn to secrecy. So the Students for Palestine called a protest rally later this month, which is also being advertised by students from other universities: universities like Macquarie, also in Sydney, whose head of security reportedly frog-marched several of them off the campus for leafleting outside the library, occasioning complaints of “offensive behaviour”.

Talking of which, the steady trickle of emails I receive from supporters of Israel has grown lately, their writers now apparently feeling emboldened to make more abusive and, in some cases, openly racist comments. Then there’s the latest stoush between the pro-Israel lobby and the Sydney Peace Foundation, over the decision to award this year’s Sydney Peace Prize to the journalist and filmmaker, John Pilger.

Pilger is famous for many things, including his reports raising the alarm over Pol Pot’s killing fields in Cambodia during the 1970s, and his courage in smuggling himself into East Timor under Suharto, and Burma, where he brought out unforgettable pictures of slave labour being used to build roads by the Burmese military junta.

His film, Palestine Is Still The Issue, is valuable precisely because it opens by situating the conflict in the context of international law and the well established view of the international community. The reason why the Occupied Palestinian Territories are so called is because there is an important difference between their claims over them and those of Israel: the Palestinians are their lawful owners. As Pilger points out, the reason why there have been countless UN resolutions condemning Israel’s occupation is because the inadmissibility of territory acquired by force is a cornerstone of international law.

As the SBS absurdity shows, these basic facts are now regarded as “controversial” in the context of Australian public discourse. It represents a triumph for Israel and its apologists here, who are thinking aloud about how best to take on the peace prize and its new laureate. “Strategist” Ernie Schwartz told the Australian Jewish News that, if professionally consulted — as some suspect he has been — he would advise critics of the award to face down allegations that they, in attacking a journalist for his journalism, are enemies of open debate. “Be realistic about the fact that we’ll always come across as myopic,” he said. “That’s just the way we’re going to be cast.”

Pilger-bashing over his reporting from the Middle East has already spread to academia. First into the breach, after the announcement of the honour, was a blog, The Sensible Jew, which declared him “odious” and “a joke among the serious-minded”. It featured a post from Philip Mendes, a social work lecturer at Melbourne’s Monash University, drawing attention to his scholarly article on Pilger in the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies. It’s unusual for an academic journal — especially one enjoying the highest “A*” rating, as this one does — to publish a contribution by a researcher outside his or her own field.

In it, Mendes criticises Pilger for declaring that it is his “duty to rectify” an imbalance in Western news coverage. But unfortunately for Mendes that is actually what Pilger is supposed to be doing: Pilger makes documentaries for Independent Television in the UK, which is obliged to follow the requirement that TV licensees “ensure that justice is done to a full range of significant views and perspectives”, as stipulated by the UK’s industry regulator, the Office of Communication. In short, they need Pilger to make up for shortcomings elsewhere.

Mendes treats the question of bias in reporting of the Palestine/Israel conflict as if scholarly opinion on the subject is equally divided, when in fact the vast majority of research finds that frames, definitions and versions of events favoured by Israel predominate in the news. Among the evidence he adduces to back up this claim, representative of the overall weakness of his argument, is the unpublished study by BBC News management of their own output, which he uses without setting it in the appropriate context, which was a dispute with the BBC’s governors at the time of the study.

Attempts like these to restrict debate or to delegitimise certain voices are of deep concern not just in relation to the Palestine/Israel issue, but to all of the issues that we rely on the media to cover. When Pilger receives the award in November, from New South Wales Governor, Professor Marie Bashir, and gives the City of Sydney Peace Prize lecture in the Opera House the following evening, it will be an overdue signal that we are entitled to know what we know, and to say what we need to say about it

Source

War Costs in Perspective

With $872.6 billion, the cost of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, the United States could fund…

…a year’s worth of health care for 117 million Americans ($7,439/person)

…one year of public elementary school for 116 million children ($7,500/child)…four years of public university

tuition for 35 million students ($6,185/student) …145 billion mosquito nets to help stop malaria in the developing world ($6/net)

…4.6 billion laptops to promote literacy in the developing world ($188/laptop)

If you had an expense account that let you spend $1 million dollars per day… …it would take 2,391 years to spend $872.6 billion, the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan so far.

The cost of Iraq and Afghanistan laid out end-to-end in $100 bills… …would extend 846,157.6 miles – or just short of 34 times around the Earth’s circumference.

The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost each American family of four $11,458.

Source Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation - Total Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental War Funding To Date Actual U.S State Dept. figures used as source. Current combined direct American spending on Iraq + Afghanistan is $11.33 billion per month. And they give Pakistan $1.5 billion annually to fight it’s war on the cheap !

In Search of the Burqa

Nicolas Sarkozy and Muslims would agree on one thing when it comes to his comments to Parliament about the burqa, and that is he didn't make the remarks that he did in order to start a debate or discussion, he did it with the clearest of intentions, to insult, hinder and ultimately frighten those who are so obviously regaining, without compromise, their Islamic identity.

It is a sign of subjection and is a symbol of "women's enslavement". If one had heard that in isolation one may be forgiven for thinking of the endless enslavement of women whose bodies are used and abused in order to sell the health and beauty products. You may even think of the women who suffer from abduction from their home countries only to be brought over into countries such as France to be prostitutes; women who suffer violence, 400 a year die at the very hands of their spouse, women such as Sarkozy wife, who is an acclaimed former nude model. But he was speaking of a piece of cloth.

The banning of pieces of cloth is not something that Mr. Sarkozy is strange to. Indeed he was the very man as Interior minister who spearheaded the ban of the hijab in 2004 in schools. Has that meant their liberation, have women forsaken their scarf's and thanked Mr. Sarkozy for his championing of Muslim women's rights.

My recent trip to Paris tells a very different story. France does see the subjection of Muslim women and their enslavement, but not for the reasons that the French President has us believe. They are subjected as a consequence of the very laws that seek to "liberate them". I heard of women denied medical help for refusing to take off her hijab at her doctor's surgery, a women refused vaccination for her child for her refusal to remove her "symbol of enslavement"; scores of women bullied and demoted at work for daring to adhere to the Islamic dress and one woman was actually denied entry to a police station to complain of an assault. In essence the French secular state should not preach what it most certainly does not practise.

Mr. Sarkozy would do well to learn from Muslim women about rights. Women had the right to vote, to trade, to education, to be employers and employees well before the so called enlightenment. Was it not Roseau who said that women will always remain intellectually inferior to men?

The reality is Mr Sarkozy - that 20% of your French born citizens are reverting to Islam. Muslims living in France are proud of their pieces of cloth and are increasing by significant numbers every day. My return to Paris having lived there for some years prior was truly eye opening. Despite the attack on the Islamic dress, women donning it were apparent everywhere.

Whilst Mr. Sarkozy is trying to spread fear, perhaps it is he who is fearful of the resurgence of Islam in the hearts and minds of Muslims. His attempt to create a "French Islam" has failed miserably, and his attempt to step up the attack is weak and transparent. What does it say about the strength of your secular values if you feel threatened by a mere piece of cloth?

Source

Lessons from Al-Isra' and Al-Mi'raj

سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلاً مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ
"Blessed is the One who took His Servant during part of the night on a journey from Masjid Al-Haram to Masjid Al-Aqsa, whose precincts we did bless" [TMQ 17:1]

We are in the later days of the month of Rajab, the anniversary of the Isra and Mi'raj will be in the coming days. Muslims around the world will think about the amazing incident that took place in the life of our beloved Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم.

Usually when people in the subcontinent talk about Shab-e-mi'raj, they see it as a day to make extra prayers or fast, even though there is no text from the Quran and sunnah to support this.

We as Muslims must realise that we must never allow this incident of al-Isra to remain as a mere fantastical story separated from our lives, like the Christians and Jews who took their scriptures as stories and detached them from life. We cannot leave Islam on the shelf and on the pages of books. Rather we must as with the rest of Islam connect this incident to our lives.

Isr'a literally means a journey by night and Mi'raj literally means an elevator or a ladder, i.e., an instrument which lifts something up. But, In Islam, Isra' refers to a miraculous night-journey made by the last Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from makkah to Jerusalem, and Mi'raj refers to the vehicle which took the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from Jerusalem, up to and out of the universe, through the seven heavens.As for its exact date, there is difference of opinion amongst the scholars regarding it. However, the majority of jurists are in favor of a date between 16-12 months prior to migration to Madinah.

There are many details regarding Isra & Mi'raj, however will only focus on some important lessons that we can draw from this great event.

Lesson 1: After hardship there is ease

Shortly before the Hijrah, (the migration to Madinah) the Prophet's uncle Abu Talib died. Though the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم tried his best to get him to accept Islam, he chose to remain in the religion of his forefathers. This hurt the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم a lot because Abu Talib had raised him from his early childhood and had protected him from a lot of harm which the tribe of Quraysh had tried to do to him. So Abu Talib's death affected the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in two ways:

(1) He did not join Islam and

(2) He could no longer shield the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from the anger of Quraysh.

Three days after Abu Talib's death, the Prophet's wife, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid died. It was she who comforted him during his first difficult experiences with revelation and during the early attacks and rejection of his people.

Following that the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم went to Taif with the aim of winning the leaders of it to Islam so they could support him and establish Islam, but his invitation was totally rejected. He was chased out of the city and stoned so badly that his sandal became clogged with blood. Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:

فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا (5) إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
"After hardship there is ease. Verily with the hardship there is relief" [TMQ 94: 4-5]

From these events which occurred around the same time, we can see that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم had suffered a series of disappointing set-backs and trials. Thus, Allah took him up into His presence in order to strengthen him and prepare him for the next, forthcoming difficult stage of Prophethood which would be the Hijra, the establishment of the Islamic state the carrying of Islam to the world by Da'wah and Jihad.

Lesson 2: Significance of Al-Aqsa

Imam Ahmad reported from Anas bin Malik that the Messenger of Allah said: "Al-Buraq was brought to me, and it was a white animal bigger than a donkey and smaller than a mule. One stride of this creature covered a distance as far as it could see. I rode on it and it took me to Bayt Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), where I tethered it at the hitching post of the Prophets." In the narration of Muslim, "I entered Masjid Al-Aqsa Sanctuary and prayed 2 rak'ah there..."

The narration is very lengthy and many of us will be aware of it, it explains how Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم ascended through the heavens meeting the different Prophet's of Allah, then to Bayt al-Ma'mur and then to Allah.

Ibn Kathir says in his Tafseer: "Then he came back down to Bayt Al-Maqdis, and the Prophets came down with him and he led them in prayer there when the time for prayer came. It may have been the dawn prayer of that day."

· The first Qiblah of the Muslims
· The station of Al-Isra and Al-Miraj (the miraculous journey of Mohammed saw)
· The second house of Allah built on earth - it has been destroyed and rebuilt many times
· The place where hundreds of Messengers of Allah are buried
· The place where many companions are buried
· A place where miracles were shown by Allah's will
· A place which Allah Himself calls a 'blessed place'
· Referred to directly and indirectly, 70 times in the Holy Quran
· The place where Angels have descended with Allah's message
· The only place on earth where all the Messengers of Allah prayed at the same time led by the Mohammed صلى الله عليه وسلم
· The only Masjid mentioned by name in the Holy Quran a part from the Ka'bah

Al-Aqsa was the first Qibla of the Muslims, it is the third most sacred mosque. The mosque itself forms part of the al-Haram ash-Sharif or "Sacred Noble Sanctuary" (along with the Dome of the Rock), The mosque is known to be the second house of prayer constructed after the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

Imam Muslim quotes Abu Dharr as saying: "I asked the beloved Prophet Muhammad which was the first "mosque" [i.e. house of prayer] on Earth?" "The Sacred House of Prayer (Masjid al-Haram), i.e. Kaaba)," he said. "'And then which', I asked?" "The Furthest House of Prayer (Masjid al Aqsa)", he said. "I further asked, 'what was the time span between the two'?" "Forty years," Prophet Muhammad replied.

Maymunah Bint Sa'd (ra) relates that she asked the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, "O Messenger of Allah, inform us about Bayt Al-Maqdis (Jerusalem)". He said, "Visit it for prayer ". She further asked, "If one of us cannot visit it, what should we do"? He said, "If you cannot go for prayer then send some oil to be used for its lamps, will be as if he has prayed in it". (Ahmad, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawud, Tabarani)

Zaid Ibn Thabit (ra) reports that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "How blessed is Al-Sham"! The Companions (ra) asked, "Why is that"? The Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم replied, "I see the Angels of Allah spreading their wings over Al-Sham". Ibn Abbas (ra) added, "And the Prophets lived therein. There is not a single inch in Al-Quds (Jerusalem) where a Prophet has not prayed or an Angel not stood". (Tirmidhi, Ahmad)

Lesson 3: Leadership of all other prophets and for all humanity

The Prophet Muhammad is the leader of all the Prophet's who brought the final revelation and complete Deen

Jabir narrated that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "I have been given five things which none before me was given: each Prophet was sent specifically to his people while I have been sent to every red and black." (Muslim)

Abu Hurairah narrated that Allah's Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "I have been preferred over other Prophets with six things," one of which was that: "I am sent to all of creation." (Muslim)

We follow the law that the Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم brought:

Jabir ibn Abdullah narrated that Umar Ibn al-Khattab brought a copy of the Torah to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and said: "O Messenger of Allah, this is a copy of the Torah." But [the Prophet] kept silent. Then Umar started reading and the face of the Prophet kept changing. So, Abu Bakr interrupted him violently: "Don't you see the face of the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم?" Umar looked at the Prophet's face and said, "May Allah preserve me from His anger and from the anger of his Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم, we accepted Allah as Lord and Islam as religion and Muhammad as Prophet." Then the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "By the One Who owns Muhammad's soul, if Musa (as) appeared to you and you followed him and left me, you would go astray from the right path and if he were alive and reached [the time of] my prophethood he would have followed me." [Tirmizi 194; Darimi 1/435 and Mishkat, 1/20]

Lesson 4: Salah - the ascension for a believer

We know the obligatory Salah was revealed during this journey. It is one of the pillars of Islam. Many of us are aware of the hadith where initially 50 salah a day was prescribed by Allah, then Musa (as) advised the Prophet to ask for a reduction. Allah سبحانه وتعالى in his mercy reduced the number to 10 times a day and then finally to 5 times a day.

"When I came back to Moses, he said, 'What have you been ordered?' I replied, 'I have been ordered to observe five prayers a day.' He said, 'Your followers cannot bear five prayers a day, and no doubt, I have got an experience of the people before you, and I have tried my level best with Bani Israel, so go back to your Lord and ask for reduction to lessen your follower's burden.' I said, 'I have requested so much of my Lord that I feel ashamed, but I am satisfied now and surrender to Allah's Order.' When I left, I heard a voice saying, 'I have passed My Order and have lessened the burden of My Worshipers." [Sahih Al-Bukhari 5.227]

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "The Salah is the mi'raj of the believer".

The Salah is a time when we are in direct communication with Allah and we are in front of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.

Also the Hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم as narrated authentically in the Musnad of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal:

"The covenant between myself and yourself is the Salah whoever abandons prayer commits an action of disbelief" "

This hadith highlights the importance of Salah and how the one who leaves it is on the border line of disbelief. So it is a great sin hence the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has used the word ‘kufr' to describe the gravity of the situation where one leaves salah.

Lesson 5: Punishments for disobedience to Allah

The ahadith mention that the Prophet was shown people being punished for various types of sins. We should remember these narrations and be careful to stay away from such sins. He saw those who committed adultery and their punishment, those who slandered, those who engaged in Riba and various other sins. For examples:

Then the Prophet went on for a little while. He saw groups of people who had bellies as large as houses, and there were snakes in them which could be seen through their skins. Every time one of those people stood up he would fall again and he would say: "O Allah, don't make the Hour of Judgment rise yet!" Then they meet the people of Fir`awn on the road and the latter trample them underfoot. (The Prophet said) "I heard them clamoring to Allah." He asked: "O Jibril, who are these?" He replied: "They are those of your Community who eat up usury. They cannot stand up except in the manner of those whom the Shaytan touches with possession."

Then the Prophet went on for a little while. He saw groups of people whose lips resembled the lips of camels. Their mouths were being pried open and they would be stoned. One version says: A rock from Gehenna was placed in their mouths and then it would come out again from their posteriors. (The Prophet said:) "I heard them clamoring to Allah." He asked: "O Jibril, who are these?" He replied: "They are those of your Community who eat up the property of orphans and commit injustice. They are eating nothing but a fire for their bellies, and they shall be roasted in it."

Lesson 6: Iman - the example of Abu Bakr

The following morning, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم went to the Quraysh's Tribal meeting place, and when Abu Jahl came up to him, he informed him of his journey. Abu Jahl then called all the people to hear the Prophet's story, and when he related it to them, they stared at him in amazement and disbelief. Some Muslim converts whose Iman was weak left Islam and returned to Kufr, because of the incredible tale which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told.

Some of the people ran to Abu Bakr and told him and his companions that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم claimed that he went to Jerusalem, made Salah there, and returned to Makkah in one night. They told him that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was at the Ka'bah telling people. When they told him that they were sure that he would also leave Islam, because it was obvious to them that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم must be lying. But Abu bakr told them, "By Allah, if he actually said that, he has told the truth. There really is nothing to be amazed about, for he has told me that information comes to him from Allah, from the sky to the earth, in an instant during the night or day and I believe him. And that is even more strange." Because of that statement of Abu Bakr, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم gave him the title of "as-Siddiq (the truthful)."

The people then demanded from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم proof of what he said. They knew that he had never travelled to Jerusalem, so some of them demanded that he describe it. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم worried, as he had forgotten most of it's details. He had only been there at night and had not paid much attention to it's details. But, Allah blessed him with a vision in which he saw Jerusalem as if he were there. So he was able to describe even it's smallest details for them. For the others, he told them that on his way to Jerusalem he passed by a stray camel belonging to one of the clans which had camped in a valley. It had escaped from a group of them and he led them to it. He also told them that on his return he passed by the same clan's caravan and found them all sleeping. They had a drinking vessel with some water in it which they had covered, so he uncovered it, drank its contents and put the cover back on the same way it was. He then informed them that the caravan was on its way to Makkah and he further described its lead camel. So the people rushed out to meet the caravan and found it as he had described. They then asked the clan about the stray camel and the drinking vessel, and they replied, "By Allah! He told the truth, we had camped in a valley which he mentioned and one of our camels had run off. We heard a man's voice calling us to it until we caught it." They also mentioned that they had left water in their jug and were surprised to find that it was all gone the next morning.

And Allah revealed the verse:

وَمَا جَعَلْنَا الرُّؤْيَا الَّتِي أَرَيْنَاكَ إِلَّا فِتْنَةً لِلنَّاسِ
"We appointed not the vision which we showed you but as a test for mankind." [TMQ 17:60]

Liberation of Al-Aqsa and Palestine

There are many narrations about the blessings of the people of Palestine, especially in the time of Fitna.

Imams Ahmad and At-Tabarani reported on the authority of Abu Imama Al-Bahilai (may Allâh be pleased with him) that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "A group of my nation will keep being in the side of right and victorious over its enemy; no party of their enemy can cause them harm; the only harm that may afflict them is (physical) exhaustion. They would be like so until the Day of Judgment." The Prophet's Companions (may Allâh be pleased with them) asked, "Where would they be, Allâh's Messenger?" He صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "In Jerusalem and the surrounding vicinity."

Alhamdullilah the pioneers of the work for Khilafah in the world today are from that land of Palestine, they recently held a huge gathering after the Friday prayers outside Masjid al-Aqsa remembering the anniversary of the destruction of KhilafahIsrael will be destroyed and Al-Quds will become the capital of the Khilafah

Allah سبحانه وتعالى States in the same Surah, Al Isra:

وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَى بَنِي إسْرائِيلَ فِي الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا (4) فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ أُولَاهُمَا بَعَثْنَا عَلَيْكُمْ عِبَادًا لَنَا أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ فَجَاسُوا خِلَالَ الدِّيَارِ وَكَانَ وَعْدًا مَفْعُولًا (5) ثُمَّ رَدَدْنَا لَكُمُ الْكَرَّةَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَمْدَدْنَاكُمْ بِأَمْوَالٍ وَبَنِينَ وَجَعَلْنَاكُمْ أَكْثَرَ نَفِيرًا (6) إِنْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ أَحْسَنْتُمْ لِأَنْفُسِكُمْ وَإِنْ أَسَأْتُمْ فَلَهَا فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ الْآَخِرَةِ لِيَسُوءُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ وَلِيَدْخُلُوا الْمَسْجِدَ كَمَا دَخَلُوهُ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَلِيُتَبِّرُوا مَا عَلَوْا تَتْبِيرًا (7) عَسَى رَبُّكُمْ أَنْ يَرْحَمَكُمْ وَإِنْ عُدْتُمْ عُدْنَا وَجَعَلْنَا جَهَنَّمَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ حَصِيرًا
"And we decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture, that indeed you would do mischief on the earth twice and you will become tyrants and extremely arrogant! So, when the promise came for the first of the two, We sent against you slaves of Ours given to terrible warfare. They entered the very innermost parts of your homes. And it was a promise (completely) fulfilled. Then We gave you once again, a return of victory over them. And We helped you with wealth and children and made you more numerous in manpower. (And We said): 'If you do well, you do good for your ownselves, and if you do evil (you do it) against yourselves'. Then, when the second promise came to pass, (We permitted your enemies) to make your faces sorrowful and to enter the mosque (of Jerusalem) as they had entered it before, and to destroy with utter destruction all that fell in their hands. [And We Said in the Taurat (Torah)]: 'It may be that your Lord may show mercy unto you, but if you return (to sins), We shall return (to Our Punishment). And We have made Hell a prison for the disbelievers" [TMQ Al-Isra, 17:4-8]

The indication in this verse that the second promise of Allah سبحانه وتعالى which will come to pass refers to the destruction of Israel is where it says, "to make your faces sorrowful and to enter the mosque (of Jerusalem) as they had entered it before". The Muslims opened Jerusalem to Islam under the rule of the second Khalifah Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra), the Islamic state ruled it with justice for hundreds of years. Even though it was captured by the Crusader Christians for a number of years it was never captured by the Jews previous to the formation of the state of Israel. So Allah سبحانه وتعالى promises that we will enter the mosque of Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem as we entered it before when we conquered it.

Narrated by Ibn ‘Asaakir, from Maseerah b. Jaleese, where he heard the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم: "This matter (the Khilafah) will continue after me in Al-Madina, then (move to) Al-Shaam, then to the peninsula, then to Iraq, then to the city, then to Bait-ul-Maqdis. So if it reaches Bait-ul-Maqdis, then it would have reached its (natural resting place); and no people who remove it (i.e. the capital of the Khilafah) from their land will ever get it back again (for them to be the capital again)." The scholars said they believe that what he صلى الله عليه وسلم meant by ‘the city' is the city of Heraclius (Constantinople). This hadith is talking about which cities would become the capital of the Khilafah, all the cities mentioned have been the capitals of the Khilafah in the past except Bait ul-Maqdis (Jerusalem). This will be our capital sometime in the future inshAllah.

The indication in this verse that the second promise of Allah سبحانه وتعالى which will come to pass refers to the destruction of Israel is where it says, "to make your faces sorrowful and to enter the mosque (of Jerusalem) as they had entered it before". The Muslims opened Jerusalem to Islam under the rule of the second Khalifah Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra), the Islamic state ruled it with justice for hundreds of years. Even though it was captured by the Crusader Christians for a number of years it was never captured by the Jews previous to the formation of the state of Israel. So Allah سبحانه وتعالى promises that we will enter the mosque of Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem as we entered it before when we conquered it.

It was not only al-Quds (Jerusalem) that was the source of great Islamic scholars like Ibn Qudama alMaqdisi. From Nablus another city was also the origin of great Muslim Scholars like Abdul Ghani alNabulsi, and Asqalan with her son the great scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalany, and there many others from other cities in this blessed land.

Today the sons and children of these cities are facing the guns of the Jews with stones, whilst the armies in the Muslim lands remain idle under orders from their treacherous rulers. Even though the soldiers within the Islamic armies wish to fight, there blood boils but the rulers under orders from their Kuffar masters quell their feeling and suppress them, attempting to cage them.

It is not the first time that Muslims have faced the problem of Palestine or similar problems. The Christian Crusaders occupied Jerusalem in the year 1099 and they created a Christian Kingdom with Godfrey of Bologne as Prince. However the Muslims did not just give up, they did not have a peace deal with the Crusaders, rather the Muslims had a mechanism which decided how to solve their problems, they had the rules of Allah سبحانه وتعالى implemented by the Khilafah state. They did not become defeated and think that they would never be able to do it, rather they trusted in Allah and acted according to his command. In the year 1187 in the famous battle of Hitten, Salahuddin Ayyubi defeated the Crusaders and retook the land of Palestine and al-quds.

Salahudeen choose the night believed to be the night of Isra wa Miraj, the 27th of Rajab 583 After Hijra to take possession of al-Quds and to conclude a crushing defeat upon the Christians. He remembered the significance of Isra and Miraj, he did not detach it from life, he did not see it as an irrelevant story.

The Kuffar to this day remember Salahuddin Ayyubi, they have made films about him like the hollywood hit 'The Kingdom of Heaven', they call him ‘Saladin', the French even named one type of their challenger tank after him.

In addition there are other texts indicating the future capital of the Khilafah state from Ibn ‘Asaakir, from Abdul Rahman b. Abi ‘Umayrah Al-Muzni, who said that he heard the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم: "There will be, in Bait-ul-Maqdis, a (rightly guided) Bay'a."

These include narrations by Al-Haakim, which have been classified as Sahih. Of these is the narration from Abi Shareeh: "...I have heard those who say that they will be twelve banners, and under each banner twelve thousand (men), and the Muslims will gather to their comrade (or Imam) in Bait-ul-Maqdis (Al-Quds)."

It was narrated by Ibn Habban in his book of Sahih Ahadith, that Al-Shaam (the region which covers Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and part of Iraq) will be the base of the land of the believers at the end of time. On the authority of Al-Nawas b. Sam'aan, who said that he heard the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم say, "...and the ‘Uqr (natural origin) of the land of the believers is Al-Shaam." It was also narrated by Ahmad from the hadith by Salamah b. Nufayl, "...verily, the ‘Uqr of the land of the believers is Al-Shaam..."

Furthermore, it was narrated by Al-Tabarani, in ‘Al-Kabeer,' on the authority of Salamah b. Nufayl: "The ‘Uqr of Dar Al-Islam is in Al-Shaam." According to Al-Haythami, this was narrated by Al-Tabarani, and his men (chain of narration) are trustworthy.

This hadith was narrated by 5 Tabi' Tabi'een, from two Tabi'een, from 2 of the Sahaba. Due to the nature of the definite truthfulness of the speaker (the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم), this hadith is with regards to the second ‘Uqr of Dar Al-Islam, and not the ‘Uqr of the first, for the meaning of the ‘Uqr of the land is its centre and origin, and the ‘Uqr of the first Islamic State was in Al-Madina Al-Munawwarah; therefore, this means that what is meant here is the ‘Uqr of the second Islamic State.

It was narrated by Abu Dawud in ‘Al-Sunan', on the authority of Abdullah b. ‘Amr (ra): "There will be a Hijrah after a Hijrah, so the best people on earth are those who keep to the (land of the) Hijrah of Ibrahim (i.e. Al-Shaam)."

Therefore we need to work to establish the Dar al-Islam, the Khilafah - then Muslims from all over the globe will make Hijra to it as the Prophet has mentioned.

Source

Soldiers detail 'shoot to kill' war in Gaza

By Correspondent Anne Barker for The World Today

A shell bursts during Israel's attack on Gaza, January 16, 2009. (Reuters)

A group of Israeli soldiers has contradicted the official army version of its actions and policies during the recent war in Gaza.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has long maintained it did everything during the conflict to prevent civilian deaths or injury.

But 26 regular and reserve soldiers have given testimonies which tell a different story.

The organisation that has published their testimonies, Breaking the Silence, says they show deep concern at the actions of fellow soldiers in Gaza, and challenge Israel's claim to have the world's most moral army.

One first sergeant says that, unlike previous military campaigns, the approach in Gaza was far more brutal.

He says this time the idea was not just a campaign but actual war, in which gloves were taken off.

"Considerations we were used to hearing," he says, "like rules of engagement, attempts not to hurt innocents and the like, were not said this time. On the contrary, soldiers spoke of a lack of any real rules of engagement."

Some spoke of an almost indiscriminate policy of "shoot to kill", even when there was not the slightest threat from the Palestinians.

"At any obstacle, any problem, we open fire and don't ask questions."

Testimonies show Palestinian civilians were killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or doing something seen as suspicious.

Even holding binoculars or talking on a mobile phone was justification for being shot.

One man tells of a fellow soldier who shot dead an unarmed man simply because he wanted to kill someone.

The assumption, said one, was that everyone was a terrorist, so it was legitimate to do as they pleased.

"Usually the commanders mention the lives of civilians and showing consideration to civilians," one man says.

"Here, he didn't even mention this. Just the brutality; go in there brutally."

There was one eyewitness account of soldiers shooting an old man, holding only a torch, who was spotted walking towards a house where soldiers were based.

The usual procedure was to fire a warning shot if someone came too close.

But when soldiers asked permission to fire, they were told to hold off.

"Instead", said one man, "the commander ordered all snipers onto the roof and they shot the man dead."

Humanitarian groups estimate about 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day conflict and that hundreds of them were civilians.

The soldiers went from house to house to occupy an area and they say they would enter homes firing their weapons, even if they had no idea who was inside.

If there was resistance or fear of attack, soldiers would use Palestinians as a human shield.

"A civilian would be forced to walk in front of a soldier" says this man, "while the soldier places his gun barrel on the civilian's shoulder."

The IDF has condemned the report as lacking in fact or credibility.

Spokeswoman Avital Leibovich says none of the accounts can be proven or investigated because of their anonymous nature.

And she has questioned whether the men are soldiers at all.

"I don't know who they are. I have no idea in which way they were questioned. When you have a report with no fact whatsoever, we cannot do anything with it," she said.

Source

15 July 2009 The Mighty Wurlitzer: how the CIA played America

Hugh Wilford unravels the tapestry of CIA involvement in a huge range of American civilian organisations: the trade union movement, student groups, Hollywood, and intellectuals, and tells a fascinating story of American culture and political life during the Cold War.

To listen to the audio interview, please go to the ABC website

Letter to the German Consulate - Sydney

This is a letter that was sent from Ahlul-Qalam to the Deputy German Consular General in response to the brutal murder of Marwa el-Sherbini.

Michael Bartholmei
Deputy Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany
13 Trelawney Street,
Woollahra, NSW 2025
Australia
Phone: 02 9327 9623
Fax: 02 9327 9649,

Dear Mr. Bartholmei

I am deeply saddened. She was pregnant for God's sake. But of course in s God-less secular society such statements of pity are likely to fall on ears as deafened as the hardened hearts people possess. Whether that be in Germany's communist past or their capitalist present! Is it a wonder then that the depths of lowness that barbarity has sunken to in secular western societies is reminiscent of the much reviled pits of hell for a Muslim.

When an event like this happens it is your system that is to be questioned. In typical capitalist fashion your finger-pointing, blame gaming attitude will only reveal your own mockery of your unorderly house. That is simply because the questions stand and they must be asked;

- how was it possible for an armed man to enter into your court room?

- how was it possible for a killer to walk across the room to the victim and stab her without any challenge from your security officers?

- how was it possible for a killer to continue stabbing a woman 18 times, without being challenged?

- why was it the husband to be the first to run to his wife's defence when armed security officers were present?

- how was it possible for the killer to then stab the man 3 times?

- how could it be that the security forces would mistake the husband as the killer after such a dramatic scene and shoot him?

This case is a landmark one not only in the sense that Germany paid not attention to what was occurring in its court room, for if people were attentive they would have not only stopped the repeated stabbing activity but prevented it by detecting the weapon on the killer in the first place. Or what was it perhaps acquiescence on Germany's part to rid the world of yet another Muslim?

This case is a landmark one to alert us Muslims that we are not safe in our lands nor in yours. For if this could happen in Germany, following Sarkozy's attack on us in France, then by all means it could happen to us in your Britain or America or here in Australia.

The proof of my rhetorical accusations will now be seen in Germany's pursuance of punishing the criminal, when the entire system is a dismal failure. Where would be the fairness in that when the system itself was left open to him to commit the crime? Even if some comfort were to be offered to your own selves, it begs yet the further question of whether you will apply capital punishment to the ultimate criminal? And then again of course no amount of punishment nor inquiry into your systems nor a commission to overhaul your security would return a child's lost mother to him!

How could you and the rest of Germany have a decent night's sleep knowing that? Perhaps your God-less-ness would afford you that comfort too.

Death in a court creates a martyr

IT WAS while Marwa el-Sherbini was in the dock that the accused strode across a Dresden courtroom and plunged a knife into her 18 times. She had been recalling how the man had insulted her for wearing a hijab after she asked him to let her son sit on a swing last year.

Her three-year-old son, Mustafa, was forced to watch as his mother slumped to the courtroom floor.

Even her husband, Elvi Ali Okaz, could do nothing as his pregnant wife was killed by the 28-year-old Russian stock controller who was being sued for insult and abuse. As Mr Okaz ran to save her he, too, was brought down, shot by a police officer who mistook him for the attacker. He is now in intensive care in a Dresden hospital.


The horrific incident that took place a week ago has attracted little publicity in Europe, and in Germany has focused more on issues of court security than the racist motivation behind the attack. But 3000 kilometres away in her native Egypt, the 32-year-old pharmacist has been named the “headscarf martyr”.

Ms Sherbini’s funeral took place in her native Alexandria on Monday in the presence of thousands of mourners and leading government figures. There are plans to name a street after her.

Ms Sherbini, a former national handball champion, and Mr Okaz, a genetic engineer who was just about to submit his PhD, had reportedly lived in Germany since 2003. They were believed to be planning to return to Egypt at the end of the year.

Unemployed Alex W. from Perm in Russia was found guilty last November of insulting and abusing Ms Sherbini, screaming “terrorist” and “Islamist whore” at her, during the Dresden park encounter. He was fined 780 euros ($1370) but had appealed, which is why he and Ms Sherbini appeared face to face in court again.

Even though he had made his anti-Muslim sentiments clear, there was no heightened security and questions remain as to why he was allowed to bring a knife into the courtroom.

The government of Angela Merkel has been criticised for its sluggish response to the attack. The general secretaries of both the Central Council of Jews and the Central Council of Muslims, Stephan Kramer and Aiman Mazyek, spoke of the “inexplicably sparse” reactions from both media and politicians.

Because it occurred days after the French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech denouncing the burqa, many Egyptians believe Sherbini’s death is part of a broader trend of European intolerance towards Muslims.

Media pundits such as Abdel Azeem Hamad, the editor of the newspaper al-Shorouk, have argued that if Ms Sherbini had been Jewish the incident would have received greater attention.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/death-in-a-court-creates-a-martyr-20090708-ddge.html