SALADIN

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I cry for you my Beloved Baghdad, my Muslim capital, for the precious blood that will saturate the Tigris and for all the destroyed civilizing treasures that enlightened the mind of man and filled the libraries of learning. Another Muslim capital will fall to the conquerors from the West carrying the Cross or the Star of David. Jerusalem, our holy city, we abandoned you; Grozny, Kabul, Srinagar and Jammu, we abandoned you; and now Islam’s third capital, Baghdad, which by now may already be in the Bush’s hands--we not only abandoned you but we Arabs and Muslims shamefully assisted the conquerors, directly or with complicit silence, to bury you with lies, false promises, and bombs.

I scream in my shame, I cry with no tears, for I have none left to give to the fallen, silent, fearful Ummah whose very soul and faith have been crucified by the power of men. Wa Islamah---where can I hide from Allah (SWT) and our Prophet Muhammad (SAW) my eternal shame, dishonor, hypocrisy, and fear of man and loss of worldly possessions rather than my fear, awe, and worship of the One Lord and Sustainer of all the heavens and earth. Am I worthy to call myself a Muslim-----one who submits to Allah (SWT)----when in truth I have submitted myself to fearing man and fearing death?

"It is but Satan who instills into you fear of his allies; so fear them not, but fear ME, if your are truly believers! (3: 175)

I alone on Judgement Day must stand and face my shame, my sins, and my cowardice.

Despite 1400 years of history, Muslims have never fully anchored their faith in the divine Islamic lesson that as long as they are strong in their faith, in their worship, in unity, no man or nation can defeat them. History is replete with defeat of Muslims whenever they abandoned their faith and adopted the greed, selfishness, and pursuit of power and worldly possessions.

Yet, despite such defeats at the hands of the "Cross", Islam always rose again to shine its light of salvation, mercy, peace, and hope. Today the Cross and the Star of David are in their limelight while Muslims are lost, bewildered, defeated and demoralized. BUT ISLAM SHALL RISE AGAIN AND MORE MINARETS WILL ARISE TO CALL THE FAITHFUL TO PRAYERS.

The Franj had taken the Holy City of Jerusalem on Friday, July 15, 1099, in the year of the Hegira 492 after a forty-day siege. Two days later, when the killing stopped, not one single Muslim was left alive within the city walls. The Jews met a similar fate being killed or burned alive. Abu Sa’ed Al-Harawi was among the fortunate few who managed to escape. He and his companions traveled under the hot summer sun to reach Baghdad to plead their case to the Caliph All-Mustazhir Billah.

Bursting into the diwan with a loud cry Al-Harawi spoke with tears and passion not only for the murdered Muslims in Jerusalem but for all the abandoned Muslims throughout history left alone to face an overwhelming enemy carrying Crosses or Stars of David. His words speak to the Muslims of today enduring occupation, oppression, and death.

He cried to the Caliph, his voice carrying through the ages:

"How dare you slumber in the shade of complacent safety’, he began, ‘leading lives as frivolous as garden flowers, while your brothers in Syria have no dwelling place save the saddles of camels and the bellies of vultures? Blood has been spilled! Beautiful young girls have been shamed, and must now hide their sweet faces in their hands! Shall the valorous Arabs resign themselves to insult, and the valiant Persians accept dishonor? Never have the Muslims been so humiliated, Never have their lands been so savagely devastated"

The escaping refugees from Jerusalem settled in Damascus carrying nothing with them from the Holy City, except one precious prize: The Qur’an of ‘Uthman, one of the oldest existing copies of the Holy Book. (Excerpted from: "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" by Amin Maalouf)

True to form and just as applicable to today’s Muslim leaders, the Caliph expressed sympathy and formed a Committee of Inquiry from which nothing emerged. One thousand years later the Arab League met (March 1, 2003 with 9 out of 22 leaders absent) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to "discuss" the pending Bush/Blair/Sharon annihilation of Iraq and their decisive action was---to "reject" all aggression, to "place the responsibility of any Iraqi attack on the Security Council", and consider sending a "delegation" to the U.S., Europe, and the UN to "discuss" a peaceful resolution to the conflict. They met for one day, showed their disunity, packed their bags and went home having done their "Jihad" in protecting innocent Muslim lives. Muslim words against Non-Muslim missiles are tragically our definition of "Jihad". Naturally, the Arab League waited until Bush’s army exceeded 200,000, a point of no return, to meet and proclaim the hollow pathetic words of defiance. On March 5, the Islamic Organization of Conferences would have met in Qatar, the Muslim nation hosting the U.S. Military Headquarters in charge of attacking Iraq, to predictably issue the same worthless proclamations.

Enough loss of Muslim blood, Enough loss of Muslim land, Enough loss of Muslim wealth.

If there is any honor left in our Arab and Muslim leaders let it show in the one last honest service they can provide to the Ummah:

PLEASE DISSOLVE THE ARAB LEAGUE AND THE ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCES. PLEASE REMOVE YOURSELVES FROM POWER---YOU ARE THE OBSTACLES TO THE UMMAH’S FREEDOM, IT’S DIGNITY, AND IT’S DEFENSE OF ITS FAITH AND LIVES. PLEASE ALLAH (SWT) LET ME BE THE FIRST TO SACRIFICE MYSELF FOR YOU IN GRATITUDE FOR YOUR QUR’AN AND THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (SAW).

President Bush, the born again Christian, manipulated and strongly supported by two powerful ideological and religious zealots, Jewish Zionists and Christian Fundamentalists, is determined against all truth, all evidence to the contrary, and the opinion of the world to annihilate Iraq, a Muslim nation devastated by two wars and twelve years of sanctions under a secular barbaric dictatorship.

The British paper, The Observer, in the article: "Two Men Driving Bush Into War" (February 23, 2003) by Ed Vulliamy, strongly supports the contention that Bush’s obsession with attacking Iraq is due to the influence of these two groups with Karl Rove, Bush’s political advisor, representative of the Christian Fundamentalists, and Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, as the long time Washington Zionist

Nothing will stop this President from his glorious moment of victory upon Iraq while Muslim nations are paralyzed in fear, greed, and corruption.

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
- President-elect George Bush, CNN News, Aired December 18, 2000 (Hence the United Nations is "Irrelevant", American Unilaterilism, Pulling out of International Treaties, Abrogating the "A.B.M." Nuclear Treaty, and mockery of world opinion)

"There ought to be limits to freedom."
- Governor George Bush Jr., May 21, 1999 (Hence the use of "secret evidence", U.S. Patriot Act I & II, Guantanemo Bay, Mosque Counting, Ethnic Profiling, Immigration Screening)

Even while still Governor of Texas, Bush’s foreign policy priority and his single obsession was to "take out’ Saddam as reported by the New York Times:

"Gov. George W. Bush of Texas talks about contingencies in which he would use American military power to ''take out'' Iraq's illegal weapons" if elected president.

--New York Times, Editorial "Rhetoric and Reality", December 12, 1999

Since the end of Communism and the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war Islam and Iraq became the "evils du jour" for the west. The primary architect behind America’s foreign policy toward Muslim lands has been and always will be Israel until "we--the American Muslims" through our educated, united, concerted, and well funded efforts free America, our nation, from the shackles of Zionism that dominates and manipulates our national foreign policy for its own interests.

Israel has and will further develop strong relations with India, Turkey Russia, and China to further exploit Muslim resources.

"Axis of Hegemony": Christian Fundamentalists AND Zionists

Bush’s ‘war cabinet’ of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Woflowitz, Perle, Abrams, Libby, Feith, Wurmser, Haas, and the newly baptized Powell who seeks an opportunity to correct his ‘mistake’ in not invading Baghdad in 1991, have long sought two goals in the Middle East. One goal is the permanent establishment of US military bases in the Persian Gulf to extract cheap oil, destroy OPEC and ensure submissive quiescent governments and populations. Secondly, was to ensure Israel’s security, hegemony, and expansionistic ambitions upon more Arab/Muslim land. Thus Israel and its supporters in the Christian Fundamentalist movement, its powerful Jewish lobby, its "think tanks", and its supportive media formulated a policy of regional military bases and domination beginning with Iraq and the Persian Gulf. These policies have been lobbied for strongly since 1991 by the same "warmongering Likudniks" who now populate Bush’s national security team and cabinet.

Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war Pro-Israel Zionists, Jewish Americans, and Pro-Israel Christian Fundamentalists have had sole possession of almost all important executive and congressional positions dealing with national security, defense, and foreign policy. Not once was an Arab American, Muslim American, or American "Arabist" been appointed to such positions.

There is no shame or limit to their defamation of Islam. Yet given the naivete and innocence of the American people these are the Zionists who will "Fight Islam to the Last American."

On June 3, 1997, Zionists and Christian Fundamentalists, signed a "Statement of Principle" establishing the "Project for the New American Century". Among the signatories of the statement were: Eliot Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Dan Quayle, Gary Bauer, Lewis Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad (Bush’s appointee to the Iraqi Opposition), Steve Forbes, Donald Rumsfeld, William Bennett, and Frank Gaffney (among other prominent Jewish Americans). Among the three groups funding this enterprise was the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative Pro-Israel think tank where President Bush spoke on his vision for a "democratic post-Iraq Middle East" (February 26, 2003). Among P.N.A.C.’s stated purpose was:

Hefty increases in defense spending. "We need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future". Such massive defense spending would allow America’s military to strategically dominate the world in order "to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values" and "to accept responsibility for America’s unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles."

In September 2000 (a full year before 9/11), the PNAC published the document entitled: "Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century". The document clearly spells out that Bush and his current "war cabinet" were planning to attack a defenseless Iraq to solidify America’s military control of the Persian Gulf whether Saddam was still in power or not.

It states:

How does the PNAC justify to a skeptical Congress and public the massive increase in defense spending in a Post-Cold War period with no imminent foreign threat to America?

SIMPLE, WHAT’S NEEDED FOR THIS NATIONAL "TRANSFORMATION" IN PUBLIC OPINION AND THUS MASSIVE DEFENSE SPENDING WAS: "a catastrophic and catalyzing event---like a new ‘Pearl Harbor’

Why weren’t our 56 Muslim Embassies in Washington DC paying attention to such life-threatening strategies upon Muslims? Why were Muslim governments silent on such a public and bold design upon their lands and resources? Where was our American Muslim leadership to immediately raise its voice, inform us and the Muslim world of such dangers? Where were their calls to American Muslims to massively protest such colonialism given that Iraq was already suffering from murderous sanctions?

Given that this report was issued prior to Bush’s election, it is ironic and tragic that several Muslim organizations called upon Muslims to vote for George Bush for President.

Advertising, Commercials, and Public Relations are the true battlegrounds for a just and peaceful resolution of the imposed "conflict and misunderstanding" between the United States and the Muslim world. Only and until Muslims here and abroad understand that our "Clash of Civilizations" is truly a "Clash of Perceptions" will our two worlds live in peace.

Today the defenders of Islam and the civil rights of American Muslims in the United States and Europe are Non-Muslims. Tragically, the world only sees the activism of Muslim extremists and hijackers of the faith, like Bin Laden, and many misguided Imams who feel that by force and violence alone Islam will achieve victory over its "enemies". They are reaffirming the western misconception that "Islam was spread by the sword" and seek world domination. Islam is most loved and accepted when people are at peace physically and intellectually able to fathom the beauty and genius of the faith. Before we blame the "others" for Muslim defeatism, we as Muslims must reclaim our faith, our lands, our resources, and above all, reclaim the TRUTH of Islam and of history----both of which have been deliberately distorted written and reported by western opportunists out of greed or political motivation. As has been said: "he, who controls the news, controls the views."

That Israel and America’s interests converge in the Middle East is well known and accepted, after all, these two sovereign nations are simply pursuing their national interests, damn the world, especially the Muslim world.

Since the late nineteenth century the Muslim world has lacked the comprehension, cooperation, and unified strategies to oppose or at least limit the British-Zionist-American designs upon Muslim lands and resources.

Who’s to Blame for our Muslim defeatism? ALL OF US ARE TO BLAME.

It’s easy for me to bash "other" Muslims both in and out of the United States for allowing Muslims to die while I bury my head, heart, voice, and wallet in the sand. What have I done to revitalize myself and my faith, to reach out in true "Jihad" with my body and wealth to protect Muslims, to enjoin for the good and prevent evil? I am guilty in front of my Creator and Sustainer for keeping uninformed, quiet, fearful, bashful of my color, faith, and accent; avoiding controversy at all cost while enjoying the comfort of my American home, car, good food, and entertainment.

"O, YOU, who have attained to faith! Shall I point out to you a bargain that will save you from grievous suffering in this world and in the life to come? You are to believe in God and His Apostle, and to strive hard in God’s cause with your possessions and your lives: this is for your own good—if you but knew it…And, withal, He will grant you yet another thing that you dearly love: succor from God in this world, and a victory soon to come: and, thereof, O Prophet, give thou a glad tiding to all who believe." (61 10-11, 13)

I have truly become among the uninformed civilized westerners that live by the dictum:

"I don’t think, therefore, I am civilized."

For ease of living, I have become a conformist; a digester of spoon-fed media "truths", a practicing Muslim on occasional Fridays and Eids. Intellectual laziness and a herd mentality now identify me as an "American" Muslim.

Erased from my conscience are the first words in Islam: "READ" and "BY THE PEN", the true instruments of civilization and learning.

Forgotten is the Qur’anic Verse 30.8: "Have they never learned to think for themselves?"

I see the Muslim world degenerating once again into "Al-Jahiliyah" and "Tribalism". I see such ignorance of Islamic teachings, history, geography, science, and arts in my own community and mosque. I also observe how we separate into our "ethnic" Muslim groups after prayer, very much like tribes----the South Asians join to speak in Urdu, the Arabs do the same, the African Americans as well. It’s the same in the Muslim world both within and between countries. Tribalism defines Muslims and their issues worldwide, not Islam.

The Prophet’s (SAW) famous hadith says:

"He is not of us who proclaims the cause of tribal partisanship (assabiyyeh); and he is not of us who fights in the cause of tribal partisanship; and he is not of us who dies in the cause of tribal partisanship." (Abu Da’ud, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Mut’im)

When asked what is the meaning of "assabiyyeh", the Prophet (SAW) said:

"It means helping thine own people in an unjust cause." (ibid, on the authority of Wathilah ibn Al-Aqsa)

Even in America, our Muslim organizations are disunited along such lines of ethnicity, political views, Islamic schools, level of activism, and funding from abroad.

While American organizations were calling for massive protests against the Iraqi war, our Muslim organizations did NOT even hold an emergency meeting together, in unity, to develop concrete educational and activist strategies for Muslims to protest the war. I repeatedly called upon our organizations to issue a call for a "Million Muslim March" on Washington to defend our brethren overseas. Hundreds of Muslim have been detained, several of our charities were closed (shamefully many lied about their intent to Muslim donors, hurting innocent needy Muslims abroad), many American political, religious and media pundits have attacked our faith, our Prophet, and our Qur’an, and yet the only palpable activism from Muslim organizations has been EMAILS asking me to write ‘"POLITELY" to protest such actions.

Thus was born the uniquely American Muslim mode of Political Activism: JIHAD BY EMAIL

Thus both our national organizations and I feel good about our "EMAIL JIHAD" of the day. We've earned our blessings and rewards

Perhaps by now Iraq has been attacked and occupied. Perhaps other Arab/Muslim nations will shortly meet the same fate. Bush is spending $29 million to democratize the Middle East while spending hundreds of billions of dollars destroying it. Part of that money is our "Muslim" tax dollars. We in effect are subsidizing the death of our brothers and sisters.

Is it hopeless for us, American Muslims, to change this conspiracy upon Muslim lives and lands? Are we truly so helpless despite our alleged numbers in the millions? NOT as long as we are Muslims believing in Allah (SWT) and our Holy Prophet (SAW). NOT as long as we possess the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Ahadith. NOT as long as there is one breath in my body will I surrender to the injustices of man toward any man or woman on earth, Muslim or Non-Muslim.

HOPE is the Message from Allah (SWT):

"Be not, then, faint of heart, and grieve not: for you are bound to rise high IF YOU ARE TRULY BELIEVERS." (3:139)

REGIME CHANGE begins with YOU and ME. Take hearts my Muslim brother and sister. We’ve faced defeat before but with our strong belief, unity, and true caring for each other as members of our Prophet’s UMMAH, we shall overcome this too, InshaAllah.

ALLAH AKHBAR. LABIK ALLAHUM LABIK, LABIK ALLA SHARIKA LAK LABIK.