By Irum Sarfaraz

It would be an understatement to say that the escalating wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan is an acute threat to peace and a critical concern to the authorities. This aberrant social attitude towards death, destruction and opposition to authority can be very contagious among the mass and mimetic illiterate of a country who will start to believe that the only way of out unrest, anarchy and dissatisfaction with the administration is to create more chaos. The latest weapon in hand is suicide bombings and they are growing at an alarming rate.

So where did the cabal of suicide bombers start and why do these human bombs think like they do? The first answer that would come to mind, and one with a lot of weight, is that suicide bombings have their roots in Palestine. William Safire in his column in the New York Times wrote back in 2001, ‘the pride and joy of Arafat’s arsenal is a weapon of mass terror that has no known defense: the human missile’. But one might wonder why the bombers in Pakistan are destroying their own country? The standard answer to this is often ‘it is outside elements that are doing this’ and ‘it is the helplessness of the masses that propels them to throw away their life like this’ or ‘extremist religious views are behind this’. But when the psychology of the bomber is studied it brings to light a far dangerous mentality. A mentality that can be programmed to go on killing even when there is no helplessness and even if there is peace and even if this destruction is to be unleashed against one’s own country. These bombers are less ‘outside elements’ and more of an army raised at home.

It is easy to put a religious label on these individuals but (more…)

The following piece was submitted by theManOfFewWords (who provides us with many colorful comments). He calls himself an aggressive anti-establishment blogger, a know-it-all and sometimes jerk, and also runs Islamify.com, a Muslim social news site.

So a UN commissioned report comes out and the findings are, surprise surprise, that the Israeli occupation causes terrorism. While it rightly does not condone any terroristic acts it does recognize that they are “a painful but inevitable consequence of colonialism, apartheid or occupation.” It also recognizes that the Palestinian resistance to Israel is legitimate and cannot be compared to al-Qaeda’s “mindless terrorism.” To be honest, while I can give the UN a heads up I think the report is a bit redundant as everybody on Earth, including many Israelis understand this to be pretty obvious. Only in America where propaganda and celebrity gossip pass as news do people have no idea what’s going on. Some even believe crazy things like the drivel published in Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel, (a rip-off of From Time Immemorial) which states that Zionists settled a completely empty Palestine and that there is no such thing as a Palestinian, only Arabs that migrated to take advantage of growing Jewish prosperity and created the myth of Palestine and forged the entire history of a fictitious people, the Palestinians. Here in the US this is considered real scholarship. Needless to say, this article won’t make the front page in any major American paper. But anyway, I digress.

Let’s try and imagine how this study was conducted: (more…)

Source: Dawn.com

LUCKNOW, Feb 25: Muslim scholars on Monday condemned terrorism as un-Islamic. They issued the edict at a leading madressah in northern India which some believe inspired the Taliban movement, a senior cleric said.

A declaration by scholars and clerics representing different sects of Islam also called on the government to ensure Muslims were not harassed in the name of terrorism, Maulana Shaukat told reporters.

Speaking from the 150-year-old Darul-Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur, 435km from the Uttar Pradesh capital, he said about 20,000 scholars and clerics took part.

The declaration said: (more…)

YouTube Direktvideo link

This past weekend I flew back early into Dallas from a 160+ years in-the-making Baptist Convention, intended to heal Race Relations amongst White and Black Baptists, just so that I could attend a Conference of what we Muslims call America’s leading Islamophobes.

With folks like Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post, Roger Hedgecock of Talk Radio and fill-in for Rush Limbaugh, Joe Kaufman of CAIR Watch and Americans Against Hate, Dr. Harvey Kushner of I know everything about Terrorism, Dr. Wafa Sultan of Muslims are uncivilized due to Islam, Dr. Bruce Tefft of I’m a mis-educator of Law Enforcement, Dr. Paul Williams of Muslims will reach critical mass by 2015 and take over America, to the lovely Frank Wuco who’s gotten into the mind of the jihadists but shhh don’t let them know; I could hardly pass up the opportunity for some entertainment.

Oh and how could I forget the Indian Hindu nuclear engineer Moorthy Muthuswamy and the Egyptian Coptic MD Monier Dawood thrown in for their brilliance and eloquence respectively. The former outlining his brilliant strategy to combat (more…)

Unfortunate turn of events in Pakistan. Although most decent Pakistanis and Muslims have no love lost for Benazir because of her bondage to the West and her anti-religion stand, there is still no justification for murder and carnage. This is pure terrorism that must be condemned by all, religious or otherwise. If anyone had a problem with her politics, then the proper route is to use one’s pen and mind to argue against her ideology, not use the coward’s strategy of shutting up who you can’t argue with. Violence is the nemesis that will sink Pakistan if people don’t wake up and recognize its evil (both in an Islamic and social sense).

I cannot imagine the Army having a hand in this, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Musharraf didn’t provide the full protect that he himself ensures around himself. In my opinion, Musharraf needed Benazir, but you can never put anything past a desperate dictator. With Nawaz Sharif already barred from the election, does it mean the King’s party is back in business?

What I find as an exaggerated headline: Fears Of Civil War After Bhutto’s Assasination. One fortunate and unfortunate aspect of Pakistan’s history is that the army is strong enough to take over when the going gets rough. Ironically, this may have actually been the RIGHT time to impose emergency, had Busharraf not misused it a few weeks ago to protect his dictatorship. Instead Musharraf has declared 3 days of mourning, great good that will do. What a perilous situation for the dictator!Of course, the Islamophobes are out blaming once again Islam for this murder, such as this article where the author urges the “West to gain some insight into the culture of Islam and, in particular, of the Middle East. What can be easily observed is the abject refusal to take any responsibility for anything done in the name of Islam”. I find it amazing that Islam is put on the docket every time some bad thing happens… soon you’ll be hearing that global warming is being caused by Islam, while the more subtle ones will add that is being caused by “Islamic hardliners”. So, where was the same blame-game in the murder of the Gandhis, or the Kennedys?

There is no doubt that a strain of radicalism exists in Pakistan, but it is being fed by Musharraf’s own policies, like his mass-murder of innocent students in the Red Mosque. Just like our nation’s (USA) foreign policies, like the invasion of Iraq are leading to increased terrorist recruiting (based on our own Intelligence reports), the same sort of thing is happening in Pakistan, where Musharraf’s blanket crackdown (not discriminating between orthodox practitioners and radical militants) is feeding the same terrorist propaganda. This is not a justification for terrorism, rather an understanding of root-causes.

Updates @ 12/29 (09:45) courtesy Dawn.com:

• Rioting in Pakistan kills 38, causes tens of millions of dollars in damage
• Rioters also destroyed 176 banks, 72 train cars and 18 rail stations
• Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema added that things were returning to normalcy and there was relative calm on Saturday [doesn’t sound like it, does it?]
• Benazir Bhutto’s husband said in an interview Saturday that she left instructions about the future of the Pakistan People’s Party to be read in the event of her death, which would be made public Sunday
• Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Qazi Muhammad Farooq has called an emergency meeting of the Commission on December 31 to discuss the prevailing political situation as well as damage to polling stations and election material in different cities
• An alleged Al-Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud, blamed by the Pakistan government for killing Benazir Bhutto, denied any involvement in her death, his spokesman told AFP on Saturday. “He had no involvement in this attack,” spokesman Maulana Omar said in a telephone call. “This is a conspiracy of the government, army and intelligence agencies.” The spokesman said he was calling from Pakistan’s Waziristan area. “It is against tribal tradition and custom to attack a woman,”
  • In response, the Interior Ministry reiterated government’s claim that Baitullah Mehsud was behind Benazir Bhutto’s killing, despite Mehsud’s denials. “We have the evidence that he is involved,” Cheema said. “Why should he (Mehsud) accept that he has done it. It does not suit him. I don’t think anybody has the capability to carry out such suicide attacks except for those people.”
  • Cheema also dismissed foreign help in investigating the killing.
  • [Its tough to dismiss Mehsud’s tribal cultural prohibition stance. Though we know Al-Qaida is not too worried about killing women and children based on past history, it is entirely possible that the tribal folks may not go along with that. The fact that there are already suspicions about a coverup, the denial of foreign help adds to the uncertainty about the “official narrative”]
• Sherry Rehman, a close aide to Benazir Bhutto and also her spokeswoman, told AFP Saturday she saw a bullet wound in the Pakistani opposition leader’s head when she bathed her body after her assassination.
  • “There was a bullet wound I saw that went in from the back of her head and came out the other side. “We could not even wash her properly because the wound was still seeping. She lost a huge amount of blood.” Rehman accused the government of mounting a cover-up over Benazir’s death. “The hospital was made to change its statement. They never gave a proper report,” she said. “I believe the interior ministry is saying that she died from some concussion that may have taken place against the sunroof. This is ridiculous, dangerous nonsense because it is a cover-up of what actually happened.
  • In response, the Interior Ministry stood by its contention of concussion injury: “We gave you absolute facts, nothing but the facts,” he said. “It was corroborated by the doctors’ report. It was corroborated by the evidence collected.” “It is immaterial as to how she died. What is more important is who are the people who killed her,” Cheema said
  • [I am kind of puzzled too… why would there be a lie either way. In both cases, the injury was caused, directly or indirectly, by the perpertrators. So, it doesn’t change the ultimate reality. What politics!]

Updates @ 12/28 (17:45):
Apparently, Benazir died of a skull fracture after her head hit the sunroof caused by the bomb shockwave. Not via bomb shrapnel or gunshots. SubhanAllah, when someone’s time is up, no direct hit is required… in fact no hit at all is required.

Here’s a video where you can hear the shots and the blast via CNN.

Updates @ 12/28 (09:45) about funeral and Benazir’s Last Moments Video (below the sleeve):

(more…)

And while the torture is routine and murders are well-documented, the Western world continues to turn a blind eye towards this nation. Where are those who want to shove democracy down everyone’s throat? What about Uzbekistan? Why aren’t Bull Reilly, Hannity and all the right-wing haters talking about this story? Because of double-standards. Because it is okay when those being killed or tortured are Muslims, even the better if the killer is a Muslim, even in name. And why blame them when Muslims themselves, such as Haqqani and Kabbani have made official visits in support of this dictatorship?

At least the BBC is talking about it, referring to an Uzbek journalist who USED to cover the horror: (more…)

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Please also see the related video by Shaykh Yasir - Muslims in the West, Where Are We Going?

When I first heard of Mukasey’s name being waved around for attorney general, I did the obvious: I googled him… and lo and behold, came across his op-ed piece in the WS Journal, which I found quite disconcerting, wherein he states:

Instead, when it is examined closely, this case [Jose Padilla’s case] shows why current institutions and statutes are not well suited to even the limited task of supplementing what became, after Sept. 11, 2001, principally a military effort to combat Islamic terrorism.

Furthermore, Mukasey bemoans how providing a trial to people in American courts helps the terrorists!

In fact, terrorism prosecutions in this country have unintentionally provided terrorists with a rich source of intelligence.

Isn’t this statement remarkably similar to Bush’s position on “enemy combatants” and the Guantanamo nightmare? I would venture to say that Mukasey would rather have these prisoners thrown into jail forever without recourse to lawyer or trial because the latter both will provide “terrorists with a rich source of intelligence”. In other words, keep everything secret, esp. all the evidence garnered from those people who have reason to be biased (such as the “secret” evidence from Israeli security agency on Holy Land Foundation that supported Palestinian people)

Reading this article in the NY Times makes me even more queasy. (more…)

This letter has already made the rounds on a few Muslim blogs, but the importance of this message and its underlying beauty of style and content deserve its reading in every Muslim and non-Muslim household. So, I have appended below the entire letter of Shaykh Salman al-Oadah to Osama Bin Laden. As Muslims, we know that a letter like this can affect the militant and terrorist tendencies of some extreme elements among Muslims a million times more than what a military response or any other Western campaign to “win hearts and minds” could accomplish.

In essence, when Al-Oadah says something, people listen, especially the youth. I think it is easy to understand why something like this would have a greater affect on extremists than other avenues. Let’s consider the example of an ignorant Muslim who makes sajdah to the graves (i.e. engages in grave-worshipping). There would be a much better chance that he would stop doing so if some some scholar or “peer” that he follows tells him that this is polytheism, compared to a “wahhabi sheikh”. You get the point.

(more…)

I still grieve for the victims of this tragedy. How can one not grieve when a fellow human being loses a loved one, a family member, a son, a daughter, a wife, or a mother. It is a grief that saddens the heart, especially when we feel it so close to home.

I thought I would take this opportunity to share a video response to the new OBL video, as well as some other reflections on what occurred on this day.

Dr. Ali Shehata has posted this video response to Bin Laden’s new video, please view and continue reading the post, (more…)