What did Israel gain by appearing to "go crazy" in Gaza?

A MUST read by Noam Chomsky

The checkpoints have no relation to security of Israel, and if some are intended to safeguard settlers, they are flatly illegal, as the World Court ruled. In reality, their major goal is harass the Palestinian population and to fortify what Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper calls the "matrix of control," designed to make life unbearable for the "two-legged beasts" who will be like "drugged roaches scurrying around in a bottle" if they seek to remain in their homes and land. All of that is fair enough, because they are "like grasshoppers compared to us" so that their heads can be "smashed against the boulders and walls." The terminology is from the highest Israeli political and military leaders, in this case the revered "princes." And the attitudes shape policies.

The ravings of the political and military leaders are mild as compared to the preaching of rabbinical authorities. They are not marginal figures. On the contrary, they are highly influential in the army and in the settler movement, who Zertal and Eldar reveal to be "lords of the land," with enormous impact on policy. Soldiers fighting in northern Gaza were afforded an "inspirational" visit from two leading rabbis, who explained to them that there are no "innocents" in Gaza, so everyone there is a legitimate target, quoting a famous passage from Psalms calling on the Lord to seize the infants of Israel's oppressors and dash them against the rocks. The rabbis were breaking no new ground. A year earlier, the former chief Sephardic rabbi wrote to Prime Minister Olmert, informing him that all civilians in Gaza are collectively guilty for rocket attacks, so that there is "absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings," as the Jerusalem Post reported his ruling. His son, chief rabbi of Safed, elaborated: "If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand, and if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."

Who are the Rohingyas?

(Reuters)
The Rohingyas are Muslims from Myanmar. Many have fled the Buddhist-dominated, army-ruled country to escape repression and economic hardship,
\\
Rights groups say hundreds of Rohingyas were recently detained on a remote Thai island before being forced back to sea by the security forces with little food or water.

About 28,000 Rohingyas recognised as refugees are living in UNHCR camps in Bangladesh, many have been there since 1992 after fleeing persecution in their home country. A further 200,000 are unregistered, giving them uncertain legal status.
Frustration and desperation has prompted many Rohingyas to risk their lives in small boats sailing for Thailand and Malaysia , according to the UNHCR.

Imam Husen, one of the boat people who landed in Indonesia, told Reuters from his hospital bed in Aceh earlier on that he and about 580 other people had set off from Mundu, in Myanmar, in four boats on Dec. 9 since they wanted to flee the country.
He said that some members of the group had been beaten after landing in Thailand and then towed out to sea two days later and set adrift.
A non-government organisation dedicated to the plight of the Rohingya said Thai security forces detained around 1,000 Rohingyas on a remote tropical island in the Andaman Sea, after intercepting them in Thai waters.
They were kept under armed guard, given very little food and reported being kicked and beaten with sticks, the Arakan project said.
Then, in two separate incidents around Dec. 18 and Dec. 30, the military forced 992 Rohingyas onto boats without engines before towing them far out to sea and abandoning them, it said. Of the 992, 550 are missing and feared drowned, it added.

also read a recent article in TIME

What kind of sick people find war a spectator sport?

Israelis Watch the Fighting in Gaza From a Hilly Vantage Point
GAZA BORDER -- Moti Danino sat Monday in a canvas lawn chair on a sandy hilltop on Gaza's border, peering through a pair of binoculars at distant plumes of smoke rising from the besieged territory.
An unemployed factory worker, he comes here each morning to watch Israel's assault on Hamas from what has become the war's peanut gallery -- a string of dusty hilltops close to the border that offer panoramic views across northern Gaza.
He is one of dozens of Israelis who have arrived from all over Israel, some with sack lunches and portable radios tuned to the latest reports of the battle raging in front of them. Some, like Mr. Danino, are here to egg on friends and family members in the fight.
Moti Denino and other residents of Sderot in Israel call themselves the "hill people", watching attacks unfold between Israel and Gaza from a hillside. Others have made the trek, they say, to witness firsthand a military operation -- so far, widely popular inside Israel -- against Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Over the weekend, four teenagers sat on a hill near Mr. Danino's, oohing and aahing at the airstrikes. Nadav Zebari, who studies Torah in Jerusalem, was eating a cheese sandwich and sipping a Diet Coke.
"I've never watched a war before," he said. A group of police officers nearby took turns snapping pictures of one another with smoking Gaza as a backdrop. "I want to feel a part of the war," one said, before correcting himself with the official government designation for the assault. "I mean operation. It's not a war."
The spectators share hilltop space with an army of camera-toting Israeli and foreign journalists, who have so far been banned by the Israeli military from entering Gaza to report on the conflict.
Mr. Danino has a personal link to the fighting. His 20-year-old son, Moshe, is a soldier in an infantry unit fighting somewhere below his hilly perch. From the sidelines, he is here to root for his son the soldier, he says, just as he once sat on the sidelines of soccer fields cheering for his son the high-school athlete.
"The army took all the soldiers' cellphones away before the attack, so this is my way of staying in contact," he says.

On another hilltop overlooking Gaza, Sandra Koubi, a 43-year-old philosophy student, says seeing the violence up close "is a kind of catharsis for me, to get rid of all the anxiety we have inside us after years of rocket fire" from Hamas.
Jocelyn Znaty, a stout 60-year-old nurse for Magen David Adom, the Israeli counterpart of the Red Cross, can hardly contain her glee at the site of exploding mortars below in Gaza.
"Look at that," she shouts, clapping her hands as four artillery rounds pound the territory in quick succession. "Bravo! Bravo!"

Why do they hate the West, will we (still) ask?

By Robert Fisk

So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night's work in Gaza by the army that believes in "purity of arms". But why should we be surprised?
Have we forgotten the 17,500 dead – almost all civilians, most of them children and women – in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon; the 1,700 Palestinian civilian dead in the Sabra-Chatila massacre; the 1996 Qana massacre of 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, at a UN base; the massacre of the Marwahin refugees who were ordered from their homes by the Israelis in 2006 then slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew; the 1,000 dead of that same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion, almost all of them civilians?
What is amazing is that so many Western leaders, so many presidents and prime ministers and, I fear, so many editors and journalists, bought the old lie; that Israelis take such great care to avoid civilian casualties. "Israel makes every possible effort to avoid civilian casualties," yet another Israeli ambassador said only hours before the Gaza massacre. And every president and prime minister who repeated this mendacity as an excuse to avoid a ceasefire has the blood of last night's butchery on their hands. Had George Bush had the courage to demand an immediate ceasefire 48 hours earlier, those 40 civilians, the old and the women and children, would be alive.
What happened was not just shameful. It was a disgrace. Would war crime be too strong a description? For that is what we would call this atrocity if it had been committed by Hamas. So a war crime, I'm afraid, it was. After covering so many mass murders by the armies of the Middle East – by Syrian troops, by Iraqi troops, by Iranian troops, by Israeli troops – I suppose cynicism should be my reaction. But Israel claims it is fighting our war against "international terror". The Israelis claim they are fighting in Gaza for us, for our Western ideals, for our security, for our safety, by our standards. And so we are also complicit in the savagery now being visited upon Gaza.
...And I write the following without the slightest doubt: we'll hear all these scandalous fabrications again. We'll have the Hamas-to-blame lie – heaven knows, there is enough to blame them for without adding this crime – and we may well have the bodies-from-the-cemetery lie and we'll almost certainly have the Hamas-was-in-the-UN-school lie and we will very definitely have the anti-Semitism lie. And our leaders will huff and puff and remind the world that Hamas originally broke the ceasefire. It didn't. Israel broke it, first on 4 November when its bombardment killed six Palestinians in Gaza and again on 17 November when another bombardment killed four more Palestinians.
Yes, Israelis deserve security. Twenty Israelis dead in 10 years around Gaza is a grim figure indeed. But 600 Palestinians dead in just over a week, thousands over the years since 1948 – when the Israeli massacre at Deir Yassin helped to kick-start the flight of Palestinians from that part of Palestine that was to become Israel – is on a quite different scale. This recalls not a normal Middle East bloodletting but an atrocity on the level of the Balkan wars of the 1990s. And of course, when an Arab bestirs himself with unrestrained fury and takes out his incendiary, blind anger on the West, we will say it has nothing to do with us. Why do they hate us, we will ask? But let us not say we do not know the answer.

Gaza.

Click here to view Palestine Aid Distribution Slideshow

Click here to read about Islamic Relief's efforts in its continued aid to GazaCurrent Crisis

• "The situation is absolutely disastrous." - United Nations official (CNN)

• First day of the Gaza crisis was the bloodiest in over 40 years (BBC)

• Over 310 killed and 1,400 injured in first two days alone

• Hospitals not able to cope with the injuries; desperate for supplies

• Severe shortage of food, fuel and other staple needs; majority of families rely on candles for lighting due to power blackout

• Aid groups say current humanitarian situation in Gaza the worst in 30 years (CNN)

• "The children are terrified. Adults are unable to provide them with security or warmth. Hospitals are stretched out of the limits. We need blood and medicine and surgical equipment." -Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj, Head of Gaza's Mental Health Program

Donate now to help the victims!

Updates and links: MuslimMatters

What kind of people would deny Muslim meatpackers food break at sunset in Ramadan?

DENVER (Reuters) - Meat processor JBS Swift & Co. has fired 130 Muslim workers after they refused to return to work in a dispute with the company over Ramadan fasting and meal breaks, company and union officials said on Thursday.

Manny Gonzales, spokesman for the United Food Workers Commercial Workers Local 7, said the employees were "unjustly terminated" from the meatpacker's plant in Greeley, Colorado, about 60 miles northeast of Denver.

"They (the workers) were not given adequate notice that they would be let go," Gonzales said. "We will file grievances for those who want their jobs back.

Swift, owned by Brazilian meat company JBS, the world's largest beef producer, had another dispute with Muslim workers last year at the company's Grand Island, Nebraska, plant. Several workers were fired after leaving their jobs to pray at sunset.

In announcing the firings, Swift spokeswoman Tamara Smid said the company adjusted its meal breaks to help workers concerned about observing the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Those dismissed, she said, lost their jobs for violating a collective bargaining agreement, not because of their faith.

"JBS is grateful to employ a multicultural work force and works closely with all employees and their union representation to accommodate religious practices in a reasonable, safe and fair manner to all involved," she said.

The dispute began when 220 Muslim workers -- mostly immigrants of Somalia and other East African nations -- walked off the job this week after supervisors denied them a food break at sunset.

During Ramadan, devout Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.

The workers were suspended for an "unauthorized work stoppage" and were told to return to the job or be fired, Smid said.

Despite the failure of negotiations between management and the union to resolve the dispute, some of the employees returned to work, but the 130 who did not were terminated.

Many of the African immigrants were hired at the plant after a 2006 raid by U.S. immigration authorities resulted in the detention of 1,300 Swift workers in six states. Most of those workers were Hispanics whom the government said were in the United States illegally.

Doesn't this lady deserve the benefit of doubt?

Traumatized, shot-at, illegally detained and worst of all, in danger of being declared guilty without ever being brought to trial, doesn't Aafia Siddiqui deserve to be heard out?

background information and what you can do to help, from Cageprisoners.com:

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, the American educated Pakistani scientist and mother of three was detained for years by the US in Bagram. She has been the victim of the US programme of secret detention for five years since having been kidnapped in Karachi by Pakistan security services in 2003 along with her three children.

On Monday 4th August 2008, federal prosecutors in the US confirmed that Aafia Siddiqui was extradited to the US from Afghanistan where they allege she had been detained since mid-July 2008. The US administration claims that she was arrested by Afghani forces outside Ghazni governor’s compound with manuals on explosives and ‘dangerous substances in sealed jars’ on her person. They further allege that whilst in custody she shot at US officers and was injured in the process.

According to her lawyer, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, “We do know she was at Bagram for a long time. It was a long time. According to my client she was there for years and she was held in American custody; her treatment was horrendous.” Aafia’s claim is contrary to the heavily contested position of the US administration that she was detained in July by Afghan forces while attempting to bomb the compound of the governor of Ghazni. The US has previously denied the presence of female detainees in Bagram and that Aafia was ever held there, bar for medical treatment in July 2008.

Aafia Siddiqui now faces trial in the US in circumstances that can only be described as strange at best. Questions remain as to her own whereabouts over the last five years and still that of her children; the US government have recently acknowledged that her eldest son Ahmed, an 11 year old US national, is in Afghan custody. The whereabouts of her youngest two children remain unknown. Aafia's health has deteriorated since her transfer to the US on August 4th. She suffered multiple bullet wounds whilst in custody, loss of part of her intestine, and extensive surgical incisions resulting in multiple layers of external and internal stitching prior to her extradition. There are a number of other healths concerns and subsequently her medical condition condition needs to be fully investigated by several different specialists.

Physical injuries aside, Aafia’s psychological injuries obviously leave deeper scars. Her ordeal is heightened by the degrading and humilating strip and cavity searches she is forced to endure before every legal visit.

BACKGROUND Aafia Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan on 2nd March 1972. She was one of three children of Mohammed Siddiqui, a doctor trained in England, and Ismet. She is a mother of three. Having been based in Boston for a part of her life, Aafia and her family became the victims of harassment at the hands of the US authorities in a post 11th September 2001 environment when all foreign Muslims were considered suspected terrorists. During this period in the US, Aafia was the victim of domestic violence at the hands of an abusive husband. Not being able to take the profiling tactics being employed by the US authorities, Aafia’s husband moved the family back to Pakistan in 2002. Soon after their return to Pakistan, the couple became estranged and separated from one another.

In December 2002, Aafia decided to take the step of leaving her children with her family in order to work in the US. She moved to the Baltimore area where her sister was working. In March 2003 while on a short trip back to Pakistan, Aafia Siddiqui was on her way to Karachi airport with her three children in order to catch a flight to Rawalpindi. While at the airport the family were abducted by the Pakistani authorities and taken into custody.

Leaked reports to the media claimed that she was in FBI custody soon after that. Very soon after the Pakistani government denied any knowledge or involvement in her disappearance. After a year the FBI placed Aafia Siddiqui’s name on the list of seven Al Qaeda suspects. The FBI claimed that Aafia was in Liberia in 2001 buying conflict diamonds in order to help facilitate Al Qaeda operations. This was immediately picked up by her lawyer Elaine Whitfield Sharp who claimed that Aafia was in Boston the entire week that the FBI claimed she was in Liberia. Also – it was during this period that she suffered much of her domestic violence placing her nowhere near the African continent.

Aafia became one of the War on Terror’s disappeared for five years as she was held in secret detention away from any legal access or access to family. On 7th July 2008, a press conference led by Cageprisoners patron, Yvonne Ridley, and Director, Saghir Hussain, in Pakistan resulted in mass international coverage of Aafia’s case as her disappearance was questioned by the media and political figures in Pakistan. It was on 3rd August 2008 that an agent from the FBI visited the home of her brother and told him that she was being detained in Afghanistan.

Cageprisoners believes that Aafia Siddiqui was not arrested in Afghanistan as suggested by the US, but rather was already being detained there after her abduction in 2003. This has been confirmed Aafia herself who states she was held in Afghanistan for years and abused during her period of detention.

For more information about Aafia Siddiqui, please visit: http://www.aafiasiddiqui.org

TAKE ACTION FOR AAFIA SIDDIQUI

1. Write to Aafia:
AAFIA SIDDIQUI 90279-054 36 MDC BROOKLYN METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER P.O. BOX 329BROOKLYN, NY 11232
Aafia's lawyers advise that when writing you do not discuss or solicit information regarding her case or the charges against her, her whereabouts or those of her children for the past five years. You can send photographs along with your letters but no packages. You can send books, newspapers and magazines directly from the publishers (such as www.barnesandnoble.com or www.amazon.com). Aafia has requested a daily newspaper and books on nature. If you want to ensure that she has not already received a copy of the item you wish to send then please email Sarah Kunstler at sarah@fkolaw.com If you would prefer for Cageprisoners to forward messages to Aafia, please email us at contact@cageprisoners.com

2. Send a message of support to Aafia's family. Please email your letters to contact@cageprisoners.com

3. Sign the Online Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/aafia/petition.html 4. Download and print copies of the petition here. Please return all signed petitions to: Cageprisoners, 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, United Kingdom, WC1N 3XX 5. Attend protest actions and events for Aafia Siddiqui and her children. Organise an event in your community. Click here for details of the NYC Protest - 3rd September Click here for details of the London Protest - 12th September

6. Donate
Aafia can receive money for the purchase of snacks, toiletries, phone calls, etc whilst in prison. Please send funds to Aafia to the following address and in accordance with the directions provided below:
Federal Bureau of Prisons AAFIA SIDDIQUI 90279-054 36 Post Office Box 474701 Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001
The deposit must be in the form of a money order made out to the inmate's full committed name and complete eight digit register number. Effective December 1, 2007, all non-postal money orders and non-government checks processed through the National Lockbox will be placed on a 15 day hold. The Bureau of Prisons will return funds that do not have valid inmate information to the sender provided the envelope has an adequate return address. Personal cheques and cash cannot be accepted for deposit.
The sender's name and return address must appear on the upper left hand corner of the envelope to ensure that the funds can be returned to the sender in the event that they cannot be posted to the inmate's account. The deposit envelope must not contain any items intended for delivery to the inmate. The Bureau of Prisons shall dispose of all items included with the funds.
In the event funds have been mailed but have not been received in the inmate's account and adequate time has passed for mail service to Des Moines, Iowa, the sender must initiate a tracer with the entity who sold them the money order to resolve any issues.
Western Union Quick Collect Program
You may also send funds through Western Union's Quick Collect Program. All funds sent via Western Union's Quick Collect will be posted to her account within two to four hours, when those funds are sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST (seven days per week, including holidays). Funds received after 9:00 pm EST will be posted by 7:00 am EST the following morning. Funds sent to an inmate through the Quick Collect Program may be sent via one of the following ways:
1) At an agent location with cash: The inmate's family or friends must complete a Quick Collect Form. Click here to view a sample Quick Collect Form. To find the nearest agent, they may call 1-800-325-6000 or go to www.westernunion.com.
2) By phone using a credit/debit card: The inmate's family or friends may simply call 1-800-634-3422 and press option 2.
3) ONLINE using a credit/debit card: The inmate's family and friends may go to www.westernunion.com and select "Quick Collect".
For each Western Union Quick Collect transaction, the following information must be provided:
1) Valid Inmate Eight Digit Register Number (9027905436SIDDIQUI entered with no spaces or dashes and immediately followed by Inmate's Last Name) 2) Committed Inmate Full Name entered on optional line (Aafia Siddiqui) 3) Code City: FBOP 4) State code: DC
Please note that the inmate's committed name and eight digit register number must be entered correctly. If the sender does not provide the correct information, the transaction cannot be completed. The Code City is always FBOP and the State Code is always DC.
Each transaction is accepted or rejected at the point of sale. The sender has the sole responsibility of sending the funds to the correct inmate. If an incorrect register number and/or name are used and accepted and posted to that inmate, funds may not be returned.
Any questions or concerns regarding Western Union transfers should be directed to Western Union by the sender (general public). Questions or concerns should not be directed to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
For additional information concerning inmate Commissary account deposit procedures, please see the Bureau of Prisons Trust Fund/Warehouse/Laundry Manual (PS 4500.04) or 28 CFR Parts 506 and 540. For information concerning a specific deposit, please contact Federal Bureau of Prisons' staff at 202-307-2712 between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET. Further information about a fund to enable Aafia's family in Pakistan to visit her and to assist her legal defence will be provided shortly.

7. Write to the US authorities:
Demand that the state department fulfils their consular duties and provide assistance to Ahmed, the son of Aafia Siddiqui, and also locate her other children; all of whom are US citizens.
Demand that Aafia Siddiqui’s children, including her eldest son Ahmad who is Afghan custody, must be immediately placed in the custody of her relatives.
Demand that Aafia Siddiqui be given full and complete access to her lawyer without any impediments.
That she be given medical treatment and aid during her detention to not put any further pressure on her injuries and to help her recovery.
That she be transferred from prison to Bellevue Hospital.
That the unnecessary cavity and strip searches should be stopped by her US jailers due to her current medical condition.
Call for human rights laws and standards to be strictly adhered to in cooperation between US security forces and those of other countries, ensuring that torture and ill-treatment, incommunicado detentions and "disappearance" play no part in such cooperation. The Honorable Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, N.W. Washington DC 20520 Tel: + 1 202 647 4000 Fax: + 1 202 261 8577 Email: http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html A sample letter is provided below. Download our Justice for Aafia Siddiqui Postcard to send to the US authorities. 8. Write to the Pakistani authorities:
Demand the immediate repatriation of Aafia Siddiqui back to Pakistani from where she was kidnapped.
Demand that her children be immediately placed in the custody of her relatives.
Demand that the best medical treatment be afforded her.
Demand a full investigation into her disappearance. His Excellency Ambassador Husain Haqqani Pakistani Ambassador to the US 3517 International Court NW Washington DC 20008 Tel: + 1 202 243 6500 Email: info@embassyofpakistanusa.org Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs Islamabad Pakistan Tel: + 92 51 921 0335 Fax: + 92 51 920 7600 Email: spokesman@yahoo.com A sample letter is below. Download our Justice for Aafia Siddiqui Postcard to send to the Pakistan authorities. 9. Download and distribute the following campaign materials to raise awareness for the plight of Aafia Siddiqui and her children. Justice for Aafia Siddiqui Postcard Aafia Siddiqui Campaign Leaflet Justice for Aafia Siddiqui Banner Justice for Aafia Siddiqui Petition Sheet Poster 1 Poster 2 Postcard 1 front Postcard 1 back Postcard 2 front Postcard 2 back To get involved in the campaign for justice for Aafia Siddiqui please email freeaafia@cageprisoners.com
Template letter to Condoleezza Rice: Dear Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, I write to you in urgency regarding the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national extradited from Afghanistan to the USA in August 2008 and currently in US custody. Dr Siddiqui was educated in the US and is mother to three young American citizens. Two of her children's whereabouts remain unknown; the eldest (11 years old) is in custody in Afghanistan despite being a US national. At the very least, their status as citizens of your country, and your position of authority, necessitates that you do whatever is within your power to locate her children, and return them to the custody of their family members residing in the US. Dr Siddiqui is currently in a poor physical state- as a victim of years of domestic abuse, she is certainly no stranger to violence and fear. She has suffered multiple bullet wounds, which may be infected, lost part of her intestine and endured extensive surgical incisions resulting in multiple layers of external and internal stitching. Dr Siddiqui's medical condition needs to be fully investigated by several different specialists. Physical injuries aside, her psychological injuries obviously leave deeper scars. Dr. Siddiqui's ill health is exacerbated considerably by the humiliating and degrading strip and cavity searches that she is forced to endure before every visit in prison and trip to court. So degrading is such treatment that she has subsequently refused visits. I ask you, as a human being who considers herself to work for the cause of justice; can the repercussions of such inhuman conduct towards an uncharged, weak-bodied woman be anything other than negative? It is hoped that human decency would secure for Dr Siddiqui the basic medical care and humane treatment that should be afforded to all detainees, much less those who have not been convicted of any crime. Dr Siddiqui’s legal team, who should theoretically be guaranteed complete access to their client (as is necessary to mount a credible defence), still face a number of obstacles in this regard. The aim of any trial is to reach the most objective outcome, and if current restrictions remain the case, then this investigation will neither ensure that integrity is maintained or that any battle of ‘hearts and minds’ will be won. Furthermore, any involvement and collaboration of US security forces in such illegal activities as torture, incommunicado detentions and “extraordinary rendition” fulfil the interests of no party in the long run. There is a great weight of responsibility on your shoulders, so consider deeply what has been mentioned, and ponder over what subsequent actions need to be taken for even-handedness to prevail. I look forward to hearing from you in due course. Regards, (Your name)
Template letter to Pakistani embassy in US/Pakistani governmental departments: To whom it may concern, I write to you in urgency regarding the case of Dr Aafia Siddiqui. Dr Siddiqui was born in Pakistan and educated in the US. She is mother to three young children. Yet despite this, she was kidnapped by authorities from your government and held incommunicado for five years- away from family, friends and legal access. Subsequently, she ‘conveniently’ re-appeared in Afghanistan, accused (without charge) of committing acts of terrorism, which expediently left the involved governments with no need to explain her whereabouts previous to that point. Furthermore, two of her childrens whereabouts remain unknown, whilst her eleven year-old son, a US national, remains in custody in Afghanistan. Dr Siddiqui is currently in a poor physical state- as a victim of years of domestic abuse, she is certainly no stranger to violence and fear. She has suffered multiple bullet wounds, which may be infected, lost part of her intestine and endured extensive surgical incisions resulting in multiple layers of external and internal stitching. Dr Siddiqui's medical condition needs to be fully investigated by several different specialists. Physical injuries aside, her psychological injuries obviously leave deeper scars. Dr. Siddiqui's ill health is exacerbated considerably by the humiliating and degrading strip and cavity searches that she is forced to endure before every visit in prison and trip to court. So degrading is such treatment that she has subsequently refused visits. Complicity of Pakistani or other national security forces in such illegal activities as torture, incommunicado detentions and “extraordinary rendition”, as have been evidenced by Dr Siddiqui’s case, not only violates International Law, but common human decency. As a daughter of the nationa, Aafia Siddiqui should be repatriated to Pakistan urgently, in light of her kidnapping from Pakistan in March 2003. Her children should also be placed in the custody of her family immediately until a time that they can be reunited with their mother. I look forward to hearing from you in due course. Regards, (Your name)

Are you on The List?

Informative, interesting article by Ali Shehata on what to do if you're a Muslim on the DHS list in the USA, and how to get off it.

Makes for a slightly spooky, very sad read.

"The scenario is always chillingly the same with little variation. You – typically a Pakistani or Arab American (although generally any Muslim will do) - have just finished a grueling transatlantic flight where you may have been doing anything from taking a European vacation, to visiting family, to doing business, etc. You are excited to be “back home” in the United States of America, which in many cases is the only country where you have citizenship. You expect a warm welcome from fellow Americans at the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) who seemed like really nice, warm people with big smiles on the airline’s on-board video describing customs procedures.
You get in line where it says “US citizens” and await your turn to have your passport stamped by the Customs agent. As you come up to his cubicle you are relieved to see that the smiles really are there. The agent greets you with a “Welcome home!” as he takes your passport. As he scans it, he asks you the typical questions: “Where were you? How long did you stay? What was the purpose of your visit?” The problem is that all of a sudden the smile disappears and they don’t really seem to be paying attention to your rambling on about the crazy drivers in Rome. They seem taken aback by some ominous message which appears to have come up on their computer. The poor agent in fact looks very distraught at whatever it is he sees. He reads it again to be sure. Then he tells you in a very serious voice, the smile long having faded, that you need to step to the wall or to the side and wait for another “agent”.
“Is there a problem?” you ask in a concerned voice. “No, just a random check,” comes the traditional reply. You are then led to a room by a not-so-smiley “agent” who clearly appears to have no interest in small talk. About all he does is reiterate the “random check” line you were given before. He leads you over to the luggage claim area and stands back while you reclaim all the luggage they will soon pore over with a fine tooth comb. After a tense 15 minutes awaiting your bags, you are then led to a room off to the side – in some cases behind an ominous one-way mirror – where you discover several other Muslims who have also been selected for this “random” humiliation and degradation. Concerned eyes of other passengers you accompanied on the plane follow you all the way until you are behind the one-way mirror.
You are gruffly told to take a seat by your latest handler for what looks like a long wait. As you scan the room, you are saddened by the terrified looks of hijabis in their 50s and 60s who look like they could be your mother. What could they have possibly done to be treated like this? For that matter, what could any of us have done? The “war on terror” takes more collateral damage it appears.
After a wait of anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour, the “agent” who brought you here asks you to come over to a steel table where they proceed to take every item out of your bags to do a thorough search. Any paper with any addresses, phone numbers, names or other information of a personal nature is taken for photocopying. God forbid you should have anything in Arabic other than a Qur’an because that too will need to be taken for photocopying and can increase your detention and interrogation time to hours. While they scour through your personal belongings, they do their version of “casual” interrogation. Every question is usually asked twice during the questioning to ensure that you aren’t lying or making anything up. They at last come to the contents of your pockets. Be ready to surrender your driver’s license and credit cards for “photocopying” as well. Don’t worry though – it’s all just “random”.
After that ordeal, which seems very adept at making most everyone who goes through it feel like a criminal even if they never even had a parking ticket, you are commanded to once again sit among the other randomly selected (read Muslim) passengers. It is not uncommon to have another agent come and request your connecting flight information, “because it looks like we will need to book you on a later flight”. You may be emboldened by this point, if not before, to ask why this keeps happening to you if you are a frequent international traveler, but you will only get the same “it’s random” response. You will not be offered any information to help make any sense out of this whole experience, nor a method for resolving whatever seems to be the issue.
Once everything seems to have cleared to CBP’s satisfaction, you are then “free to go.” Sorry if there are no more connecting flights and you have to spend the night in whatever city you are, or if your family is worried sick because you are several hours late because you can’t use your phone until after you pass the screening area. In fact, you should be grateful for this new addition to national security.
Those of you who have never experienced this may wonder if there is a wee bit of exaggeration in this article, but unfortunately the above-mentioned phrases are based on personal experiences of several Muslims in the past six months. This article is designed to make those of you not on the infamous “terror watch list” or “no-fly list” aware of what does happen to the rest of us and to help guide those who are wrongly on this list to a pathway to legally get off and feel human again."

Read the complete article at MuslimMatters

Is the Muslim reaction to the Danish cartoons understandable?

Editorial aside: I thought posting this article was a better choice today, than going through the perennial to- celebrate-or- not-to-celebrate Mawlid wars.

I hope this gives readers an insight into why Muslims react at all to people vilifying their Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, when people from other faiths tamely accept their religious figures being transformed into figures of fun.

Those Danish Cartoons: Don't Be Fooled This Isn't an Issue of Islam versus Secularism
By ROBERT FISK
...let's start off with the Department of Home Truths.
This is not an issue of secularism versus Islam. For Muslims, the Prophet is the man who received divine words directly from God. We see our prophets as faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights, almost cariacatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live their religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith ever since Matthew Arnold wrote about the sea's "long, withdrawing roar". That's why we talk about "the West versus Islam" rather than "Christians versus Islam"--because there aren't an awful lot of Christians left in Europe.
There is no way we can get round this by setting up all the other world religions and asking why we are not allowed to make fun of Mohamed.Besides, we can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings. I happen to remember how, more than a decade ago, a film called The Last Temptation of Christ showed Jesus making love to a woman. In Paris, someone set fire to the cinema showing the movie, killing a young man.
I also happen to remember a US university which invited me to give a lecture three years ago. I did. It was entitled "September 11, 2001: ask who did it but, for God's sake, don't ask why". When I arrived, I found that the university had deleted the phrase "for God's sake" because "we didn't want to offend certain sensibilities". Ah-ha, so we have "sensibilities" too.In other words, while we claim that Muslims must be good secularists when it comes to free speech--or cheap cartoons--we can worry about adherents to our own precious religion just as much.
I also enjoyed the pompous claims of European statesmen that they cannot control free speech or newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had that cartoon of the Prophet shown instead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped hat, we would have had "anti-Semitism" screamed into our ears--and rightly so--just as we often hear the Israelis complain about anti-Semitic cartoons in Egyptian newspapers.
Furthermore, in some European nations--France is one, Germany and Austria are among the others--it is forbidden by law to deny acts of genocide. In France, for example, it is illegal to say that the Jewish Holocaust or the Armenian Holocaust did not happen. So it is, in fact, impermissable to make certain statements in European nations. I'm still uncertain whether these laws attain their objectives; however much you may prescribe Holocaust denial, anti-Semites will always try to find a way round. We can hardly exercise our political restraints to prevent Holocaust deniers and then start screaming about secularism when we find that Muslims object to our provocative and insulting image of the Prophet.

[...]
In any event, it's not about whether the Prophet should be pictured. The Koran does not forbid images of the Prophet even though millions of Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed Mohamed as a bin Laden-type image of violence. They portrayed Islam as a violent religion. It is not. Or do we want to make it so?

How prejudiced can people get?

from: Yahoo News

WASHINGTON - A high school track star has been disqualified from a meet because officials said the custom-made outfit she wears to conform to her Muslim faith violated competition rules.

Juashaunna Kelly, a senior at the District of Columbia's Theodore Roosevelt High School, has the fastest mile and 2-mile times of any girl runner in the city this winter. She was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet.

Kelly was wearing the same uniform she has worn for three seasons while running for Theodore Roosevelt's cross-country and track teams. The custom-made, one-piece blue and orange unitard covers her head, arms, torso and legs. Over the unitard, she wears the same orange and blue T-shirt and shorts as her teammates.
The outfit allows her to compete while adhering to her Muslim faith, which forbids displaying any skin other than her face and hands.
"It's not special," Kelly said. "It doesn't make me perform better."
But meet director Tom Rogers said Kelly's uniform violated rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sanctioned the event. Uniforms are required to be "a single-solid color and unadorned, except for a single school name or insignia no more than 2 1/4 inches," he said.
Rogers said that he knew Kelly was wearing the uniform for religious reasons and that he offered her several options to conform to the rules while still respecting her faith, including placing a plain T-shirt over her unitard and then wearing her team uniform over it.
Kelly's mother, Sarah, and Roosevelt Coach Tony Bowden disputed that account. They said officials made several demands of her daughter before Rogers made his decision.
"First, they said she had to take her hood off," Sarah Kelly said. "Then, they said she can't have anything with logos displayed. Then, they said she had to turn it inside out. When I told them that there weren't any logos on it, they said she had to put a plain white T-shirt on over it."
Juashaunna Kelly has worn the same uniform for three years without any problems, including at last year's Montgomery Invitational. Rogers said officials must have missed the uniform last year.
"It wasn't a problem last year, and it's a problem this year? Make me understand why," Bowden said.
Kelly, whose 1,600-meter time of 5 minutes 17.49 seconds and 3,200-meter time of 12:00.81 are the fastest of any D.C. girl, was hoping to run fast enough at the Montgomery Invitational to qualify for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on Feb. 8-9.
Bowden said the team has no other meets scheduled that would allow her to qualify for the event, which attracts dozens of college recruiters.

Why is Debbie AlMontaser being defamed?

The New York Times sets the record straight regarding Debbie AlMontaser, the principal of the Kahlil Gibran International Academy, who has been the victim of a particularly malevolent media smear campaign.

CAIR and various Muslim blogs are requesting 'people of conscience' to help spread the facts.

May we all see the truth for what it is, and follow it; and recognise falsehood for what it is, and avoid it.

Why the world needs Muslim media

I recently discovered UmmahPulse a UK-centric news and views website that "aims to provide a window onto the state and condition of the Muslim community - a regular "pulse-check" to gauge the health of the ummah. We are committed to highlighting those issues that are of relevance to British Muslims and that impact our brothers and sisters worldwide. We aim to represent the views of the mainstream - not the mythical "silent majority" that the neocons tout but the vocal that cannot be heard because they have no platform or outlet."

This is also where I read the distressing story of the brutal, unprovoked attack on an Imaam, Dr. Muhammad Sulaimani that (surprise, surprise) didn't make it to any of the mainstream media.

It just re-inforced the need to have more media sources manned by Muslims...may we all recognise the truth for what it is, and follow it; and recognise falsehood for what it is, and avoid it.

Why are Muslims in India finding security in a ghetto called Juhapura?

from an article on the riot victims of Gujarat in OutlookIndia

"Our menfolk were lucky. They died. We die bit by bit everyday in the struggle to live, but we cannot afford the luxury of death. There are children to bring up." Soberly, Sahaliya Khatun sums up her life, and her sister-in-law Firoza Banu’s. Five years ago, police killed their husbands, and they joined the ranks of over 20,000 victims of the 2002 communal riots[...]

From retired judges and bureaucrats to the lowly handcart-wallah, Muslims find security here—but not much else. Five lakh people live here, twice the population of Gandhinagar, but squeezed into an area less than one-fourth the size of the state capital. Civic amenities are virtually non-existent, and even nationalised banks fight shy of giving loans here. Water comes largely through borewells, there is no drainage, and internal roads are virtually non-existent. Juhapura is a blot on the face of 60-year-old India.

Australian Muslims: Mice, not Men?

Austrolabe has (as usual) an excellent post on why "the treatment of Dr Haneef has been deeply troubling for many Australians, of all political stripes..." and the perplexing "near universal silence of the plethora of Muslim organisations and their self-appointed leaders" on the issue.

Good stuff.

UPDATES: Haneef charge dropped...Lessons from the Haneef Case