Al-Talib News Magazine

The Hummingbird: A Reflection on Nature

Kutibh Chihabi — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:22:12 +0000

Photo credit: Kutibh Chihabi 2010

Taking a short walk outside this hot, sunny day in Riverside, California exposed to me to one of Allah’s miracles. In my backyard, perched in the tiny space of one of the lamppost’s corners was a tiny nest. Resting on that nest was a mother hummingbird, gracefully feeding her young. As I approached it out of curiosity, the mother fluttered away out of fear.

As I observed her newborn with joy, panic filled the mother’s body. She began chirping loudly with fear and flew all around me. She felt so helpless, so useless, and unable to protect her newborn against this 5 foot 9 inch mammal with peering eyes. I could not help but feel horrible for having intruded her space. I did not mean any harm, but my curious human eyes could not help but feel the need to take a picture of that young. I could feel the love for her young in her heart. Allah says in the Qur’an:

“And there is no creature on [or within] the earth or bird that flies with its wings except [that they are] communities like you. We have not neglected in the Register a thing. Then unto their Lord they will be gathered.” (6:38)

And it was amazing just to observe the mastery of the nest she had made for her young. As humans, we sometimes fail to recognize the miracles of nature all around us. This small, tiny, helpless hummingbird was able to create such a perfect nest in the most unusual of locations. To understand how she could have made such a nest, just by gathering bits and pieces of straw and cotton, and was able to put them together in the corner of a lamppost without having it blown away by the wind is a miracle by itself. That is one of the countless blessings of Allah, Subhan’Allah (praise is to Allah).

“Do you not see that Allah is exalted by whomever is within the heavens and the earth and [by] the birds with wings spread [in flight]? Each [of them] has known his [means of] prayer and exalting [Him], and Allah is Knowing of what they do. And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to Allah is the destination.” (Qur’an, 24:41-42)

Action Alert: CA Senator Introduces Bill Supporting Flotilla Attack

altalib — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:49:52 +0000

Original article can be found here.

ACTION ALERT

(BAY AREA 06/30/2010) – Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Thousand Oaks, introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 117, which declares California’s support of Israel’s deadly May 31 attack on the Freedom Flotilla. The bill also affirms the state’s support of Israel’s siege on Gaza and its “right to protect and defend itself.”

The American Muslims for Palestine asks its supporters in California to call their sate senators and demand this bill be defeated in committee.

The Freedom Flotilla, a fleet of nine vessels bound for Gaza with more than 10,000 pounds of donated humanitarian and medical supplies, was attacked by Israel while in international waters. Nine unarmed humanitarian activists were killed; several others were injured. Israeli commandoes arrested and detained the nearly 800 surviving activists.

Sen. Strickland calls these peace-loving civil resistance volunteers “terrorists.”

“Israel has every right to ensure their country and their people are kept safe from terrorists. …Just like every other country in the world, Israel has the absolute right to defend itself,” Strickland said in a press release.

“That Sen. Strickland would compare these unarmed, humanitarian activists to terrorists is unconscionable,” said Dr. Hatem Bazian, chairman of American Muslims for Palestine and professor of near eastern and ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “What Mr. Strickland is doing is taking the focus off of Israel’s illegal actions in international waters that resulted in the deaths of nine innocent people and the illegal detention of hundreds more. It is unthinkable that in the land of freedom and justice, we would have an elected official that would not only praise such rogue behavior but would sponsor a bill officially sanctioning it.”

TAKE ACTION

SCR 117 has moved to the Senate Rules Committee for assignment. It is imperative that supporters of justice in California call upon the members of the Rules Committee to keep this bill from advancing.

Call your state senators and demand this bill be defeated. Find your senator by clicking here.

Attend the next Rules Committee meeting. The committee meets at 1:30 p.m. every Wednesday in Room 113 in the California State Capitol building.
Contact the Rules Committee members to demand the defeat of this bill. Senators on the committee are: Darrell Steinberg (chair); Samuel Aanestad (vice chair); Gilbert Cedillo; Robert Dutton; Jenny Oropeza. Get their contact info at http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/committee/STANDING/RULES/_home1/PROFILE.HTM.

TALKING POINTS

Israel’s siege on Gaza is illegal and has no basis in international law
90 percent of Gazans rely upon the United Nations for food aid
Israel allows in less than 25 percent of needed and necessary humanitarian items
The passengers of the Freedom Flotilla were unarmed civilians trying to take items such as wheelchairs and prefabricated homes to Gaza
Israeli commandoes killed nine unarmed civilians in international waters, a grave breach of international law
One of the dead was an American citizen.

The American Muslims for Palestine is a national, grassroots organization whose mission is to educate the American public about issues relating to Palestine and its rich cultural heritage. For more information, contact Kristin Szremski, director of media and communications, at 708.598.4267, ext. 22 or media@ampalestine.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . To learn more, go to www.ampalestine.org.

Blowback: UC Irvine’s draconian overreaction to a protest against Israel – latimes.com

AT Reader — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:41:16 +0000

Blowback: UC Irvine’s draconian overreaction to a protest against Israel – latimes.com.

Students across the country are monitoring events at UC Irvine as pro- Israel groups try to reestablish their deterrence capacity on American campuses. After a 4-month-long investigation, UC Irvine’s administration last week announced an unprecedented recommendation to suspend for one year the Muslim Student Union (MSU), a registered campus organization, for its alleged involvement in disrupting a Feb. 8 speech by Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. Eleven students were arrested and may face criminal charges as well as disciplinary action by the university. A June 17 Times editorial called the recommendation “an apt punishment for what was clearly an inappropriate protest”; on the contrary, the administration’s draconian response will unquestionably have a chilling effect on student activism at UC Irvine and across the country.

The decision comes after several months of intense pressure by a number of off-campus Zionist organizations. In February, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) called upon Jewish donors to withhold donations from UC Irvine and urged Jewish students not to enroll there. Their absence would be tragic. No student wants a Judenrein campus, but we also don’t want one in which Muslim student life is suffocated. The ZOA’s threat was intended solely to strong-arm university administrators into harsh action. And it appears to have worked.

Hillel President Wayne Firestone pronounced that “strong disciplinary procedures by the university … [are] in order here.” Shalom Elcott of the Jewish Federation of Orange County publicized his expectation of a “very specific response from the University of California leadership” and that he “is working intensely with multiple channels of leadership on a local, national and international level” so that “justice may be served.” After a visit from leading Jewish leaders, including Gerald Solomon of the Samueli Foundation, a key donor to the UC system, UC President Mark Yudof, a self-proclaimed Zionist, declared his outrage at the students’ protest of Ambassador Oren, that the students should be prosecuted and that the MSU should be disciplined.

Although the decision is being appealed by the MSU, it represents the alarming lengths to which defenders of Israeli policies will go to stifle criticism. Three weeks ago the world watched in horror as Israeli commandos raided a flotilla of aid ships trying to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza. Nine humanitarian workers were killed. In the days that followed Israel mounted a public relations assault aimed at quelling the international outrage. Israel was chided by the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Foreign Press Assn. in Israel for releasing highly edited and reality-distorting footage it had stolen from journalists and flotilla passengers. News outlets were warned to “treat the material with appropriate caution.” Rather than demanding a full and independent investigation, several members of Congress have asked the Obama administration to ban flotilla participants from entering the United States (where presumably they’d be able to speak to Americans about what happened on the ships).

The university’s decision seems similarly designed to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel. Condemning an entire organization of more than 250 members that represents Muslim student life on campus to a yearlong hiatus and banning the leadership from assuming future positions conjures up images reminiscent of a military coup d’état and the subsequent banning of the deposed party’s top brass from politics.

The MSU organizes more than 300 events annually for its members and for the larger campus community. Most events aim to enhance members’ spiritual lives through study circles, interfaith discussions and charity work. Recently the Cross Cultural Center at UC Irvine honored the MSU with the Social Justice Award for its dedication to advocacy for the less fortunate. Banning the organization will not only affect the students associated with the disruption, but all Muslims on campus and the entire student body.

Moreover, the administration’s decision comes in the context of an ongoing effort by pro-Israel groups to effectively thwart growing criticism of Israel on American campuses. All over the country, students, many of whom are Jews, are organizing for Palestinian rights and an end to Israeli aggression. Zionist groups, woefully afraid of this phenomenon, are spending millions of dollars to stem this tide.

The students were fully within their rights to protest the presence of the spin doctor for Israel’s January 2009 rampage in Gaza, what Amnesty International called “22 days of death and destruction,” and what former South African judge Richard Goldstone concluded in a report for the United Nations was a war crime and possibly a crime against humanity. Even President Obama was briefly disrupted by anti-abortion activists during his May 2009 commencement address at Notre Dame University, yet no one was arrested or punished for associating with the offenders.

History will surely absolve the 11 UC Irvine students and condemn those who legitimize war criminals. Today as I write, hundreds of activists across the country and world are preparing for another flotilla to break the illegal siege on Gaza. Similarly, Muslim and non-Muslim students at UC Irvine and nationwide will not be intimidated by McCarthy-era tactics. They will continue to fight for justice and speak truth to power no matter the price they may have to pay.

Omar Kurdi is an alumnus of UC Irvine, where he earned degrees in history and international studies and was an active member of the Muslim Student Union. He hosts the Morning Show on One Legacy Radio.

UCI MSU Appeals Recommendation to Suspend MSU

Hana Khan — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:55:25 +0000

UC Irvine’s Senior Executive Director of Student Housing recently gave a recommendation to suspend the UCI’s Muslim Student Union group for one year. The allegations arose as a result to a UCI-hosted event at which Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was disrupted several times by students, some of whom were members of UCI’s MSU. The MSU, who were surprised by this recommendation, filed an appeal and released a statement on their website.

The Jewish Federation Orange County was quick to publicize the recommendation to suspend MSU in a video they released. Contrary to what the Jewish Federation President Shalom Elcott has stated in the video, the MSU has not been “officially sanctioned and suspended” by UCI’s administration. Furthermore, it seems that the advocates for MSU’s suspension intend to emphasize the organization’s apparent support of disrupting Oren’s speech to justify the idea of dismantling the student group. What they fail to highlight are the MSU’s positive contributions on its campus and beyond.

Like many other student organizations, the MSU has a history of involvement in humanitarian efforts such as hosting blood drives, making and packing PB&J sandwiches for the homeless, and promoting “Humanitarian Day”. In this year alone, the active MSU hosted a variety of events including Islam Awareness Quarter, Hijab Day Challenge, and a fundraiser for Haiti. By selling shawerma and applying henna designs, the MSU was able to raise approximately $5,000 for Haiti within two weeks.

Supporters of the recommendation to suspend the MSU have failed to recognize and acknowledge the positive impact this MSU has had on the local and global level. In fact, the MSU was recently awarded the Social Justice Award by the UCI Cross Cultural Center. By pushing for the suspension, the advocates harshly and unfairly attempt to prevent this MSU from not only organizing future events that the advocates do not find to their liking, but also ones that may benefit the greater community. It’s ironic that in their letter, the Jewish Federation suggests that the administrators require the MSU members to participate in 50 hours of community service collectively. Yet, I ask why they overlook and refuse to recognize the services the MSU has already done and has the potential of doing.

CAIR Calls for FBI Probe of Attack on Calif. Muslim

AT Reader — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:42:34 +0000

CAIR Calls for FBI Probe of Attack on Calif. Muslim
Sunnyvale Muslim reportedly beaten after being call ‘terrorist’

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 06/12/2010) – The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) today called on the FBI to initiate a hate crime investigation into an attack on a local Muslim allegedly beaten after being called a “terrorist.”

CAIR-SFBA said the Sunnyvale, Calif., resident was walking down the street Friday afternoon when he was approached by three young men who asked him if he was Jewish. When he said he is Muslim, one of the alleged assailants reportedly responded, “That’s worse, you’re a terrorist.” After the alleged victim tried to explain that Islam does not permit terrorism, he was reportedly punched multiple times in the face, resulting in lacerations. Police are searching for a young male suspect.

“Whenever racial, ethnic or religious slurs are used by alleged perpetrators, additional state and federal hate crime charges should be considered,” CAIR-SFBA Programs and Outreach Director Zahra Billoo. “This disturbing incident shows that Jewish and Muslim Americans must continue to work together to challenge bigotry and intolerance.”

SEE: Calif. Muslim, Jewish Leaders Discuss Shared Values (CAIR)

She said FBI involvement in this case would re-confirm Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent commitment to prosecute hate crimes targeting American Muslims.”

SEE: Holder Vows to Arab Americans to Prosecute Hate Crimes (CNN)

Last month, CAIR issued a similar call for civil rights charges after an apparent bias-motivated attack on a Muslim in San Diego. According to CAIR’s San Diego chapter, a white man in his 50’s reportedly shouted, “You idiot, you mother f**ker, go back to where you came from,” before punching the Muslim victim.

CAIR has questioned the silence of public officials and national media about other recent attacks on Muslims nationwide, including a bombing of a Florida mosque and suspicious powder send to a Muslim in that state.

SEE: Terrorism Against Jacksonville, Florida Islamic Community Goes Under-Reported (Huffington Post)

The Washington-based civil rights and advocacy said these incidents can be attributed in part to growing anti-Islam sentiment in American society.

SEE: Keith Olbermann Slams Racist NY Anti-Mosque Protesters (Video)
SEE: Anti-Mosque Paranoia Spreads in New York (Salon)

Billoo urged American Muslim individuals and institutions to review advice on security procedures contained in its “Muslim Community Safety Kit,” and to report any similar incidents to the nearest CAIR office.

SEE: CAIR Muslim Community Safety Kit

CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

URGENT: Vote Today on Even More Military Aid to Israel!

AT Reader — Wed, 19 May 2010 21:19:54 +0000

Original article here

Last week, the Obama Administration notified Israel that it would support the authorization and appropriation of$205 million of U.S. tax-payer money to Israel to purchase ten batteries of the “Iron Dome” missile defense system.

If authorized and appropriated by Congress, this money would be above and beyond the Obama Administration’s record-breaking FY2011 budget request for $3 billion in military aid to Israel. To see how much military aid to Israel your community provides, and what else that money could fund in your community, please click here.

Yesterday, Rep. Glenn Nye (VA-2) introduced H.R.5327, the United States-Israel Missile Defense Cooperation and Support Act. This morning we learned that the House of Representatives will be voting today on this resolution, which if approved would constitute the first step in the process of getting this additional military aid to Israel.

Please call your Representative right now and express your opposition to additional military aid to Israel. Call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask to be transferred to your Representative, and tell him/her to vote NO today on H.R.5327.

Here are a few talking points that you can use when making your call:

* Israeli missile “defense” will increase its offensive capabilities. Israel is portraying “Iron Dome” as a means to shoot down rockets fired at its civilian population. Israel, like every other country in the world, is entitled to self-defense.However, there are scenarios when a nominally “defensive” weapon such as an anti-missile battery dramatically changes the strategic balance and enhances offensive capabilities.

With an effective missile defense shield in place, Israel will feel emboldened to launch additional wars of aggression, similar to or even larger in scale than those launched against Lebanon (July-August 2006) and the Gaza Strip (December 2008-January 2009). In a future war, the cover of missile defense will allow Israel to kill thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians as it has done in past wars without risking any casualties on its side from cross-border rockets. In other words, war will become risk-free for an already aggressive Israel. It’s Palestinian and Lebanese civilians who need a missile defense system from U.S. missiles Israel repeatedly fires at them.

* If Israel wants missile defense, then it should pay for it. President Obama has proposed a record-breaking $3 billion in military aid to Israel in the FY2011 budget. Israel and Egypt have special exemptions written into the budget that allow them to spend a certain amount of their military aid on their own domestic arms industries rather than in the United States. In the FY2010 budget, this amounted to almost $584 million for the Israeli weapons industry-enough money for Israel to buy nearly 30 “Iron Dome” batteries with our money.

The reason why Israel doesn’t want to spend its own money-or the money the United States already gives it-on missile defense is to maximize its offensive capabilities. According to Ha’aretz, “Iron Dome” funding “was not allotted an adequate budget. The Israel Defense Forces ducked away from funding the project with its budget, explaining that offensive readiness was a higher priority, and the Defense Ministry has been looking for other budgetary avenues.”

* Israel is violating U.S. law by misusing U.S. weapons and shouldn’t be eligible for additional aid. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent Palestinians, often with U.S. weapons, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, which limits the use of U.S. weapons to “internal security” and “legitimate self-defense.” Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip is not “internal” and intentionally killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure is never “legitimate.”

In addition, Israel’s systematic human rights abuses of Palestinians and its apartheid policies toward them place Israel in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits U.S. aid “to the government of any country which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.”

Congress needs to follow the letter of the laws that it passed and hold Israel accountable for its violations of U.S. law, not reward it for doing so with even more military aid.

* Taking care of unmet needs of U.S. citizens is more important than funding military aid to Israel. Even before tacking on a possible additional $205 million in weapons for Israel, military aid to Israel comes at a financial price that the United States can’t afford.

$3 billion in military aid to Israel could fund instead 364,000 low-income households with affordable housing vouchers, or retrain 498,000 unemployed workers for green jobs, or provide early reading programs to 887,000 at-risk students, or provide access to primary health care services for more than 24 million uninsured Americans. Find out how much your Congressional district pays in military aid to Israel and what it could fund instead by clicking here.

Don’t forget-please call the Capitol switchboard right now at (202) 224-3121, ask to be transferred to your Representative, and tell him/her to vote NO today on H.R.5327.

Michigan man leads immigration protest in Arizona

Yahya Fahimuddin — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:44:44 +0000

Original Story here

Iranian-born student risking deportation to push DREAM Act passage

By TODD A. HEYWOOD 5/17/10 3:22 PM

Mohammad Abdollahi in a Youtube video explaining his situation

Mohammad Abdollahi of Ann Arbor came to America from Iran as a three-year-old when his father was accepted for a Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan. But due to an error in processing an immigration form — the family paid $20 less than required — their application to stay in the U.S. was rejected.
Instead of returning to Iran, Abdollahi’s family chose to remain in the U.S. — illegally.

Abdollahi, 24, went through the public school system, graduating high school and then from Washtenaw Community College. But when he attempted to enroll at Eastern Michigan University, after being told he was the kind of student the school wanted, the decision was summarily revoked, and his acceptance letter unceremoniously ripped from his hands.

Today Abdollahi is staging a sit-in with three other undocumented youth in an attempt to focus attention on federal legislation called the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act), which supporters say will reward hard work and civic responsibility while providing a path to citizenship for the thousands of undocumented youth who are in this country but have known no other home but the United States. The protest is taking place at the Tuscon, AZ offices of Republican Sen. John McCain, a former GOP presidential candidate.

That sit-in, which began a short time ago, is taking full advantage of the internet to spread the word. The protesters have put up a website documenting the event and you can track what happens minute to minute on Twitter. Joining him in the protest are Lizbeth Mateo of Los Angeles, California; Tania Unzueta of Chicago, Illinois; and Yahaira Carrillo of Kansas City, Missouri.

His action, however, is far from just an act of civil disobedience. As a young gay man, he faces deportation to a country where he knows neither the language nor the culture — and worse, where homosexuality is punished with torture and executions. His supporters say he is literally putting his life on the line by “coming out” as an undocumented, gay youth.

Priscila Martinez, campaign manager for One Michigan a political group formed to push for passage of the DREAM Act, said she has known Abdollahi, who goes by Mo, for a year.

“I am nervous over what could happen,” she said of her friend’s sit in protest. “I’m not going to let that be a hindrance to pushing for this law.”

She said she and others while concerned about the action, “trust” Abdollahi’s decision. “He believes this could mobilize people to take action,” she said.

The proposed legislation, introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), has 38 Senate sponsors from both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI). If the legislation passes, undocumented residents ages 12-35 could qualify for a path to citizenship, but would have to meet very specific criteria.

To qualify, a person must have entered the United States before they turned 16, and they must have resided in the U.S. no less than five years. In addition, they must complete high school or get a G.E.D. On top of this, they must be accepted to an institution of higher education. This would allow them to qualify for conditional permanent residency. Once they have obtained the conditional permanent residency, they will have six years to complete at least two years of university or college education, or two years of military service. Once the two year requirement is settled they can apply for permanent residency, which puts them on the path to applying for full citizenship.

“It’s tough but fair. It has the values we value as Americans,” says Martinez. “It’s good legislation.”

And a host of groups and businesses support the legislation as well, while only one group, Federation for American Immigration Reform, opposes the legislation. Among the supportive groups are Latino Policy Forum, Asian American Institute, American Immigration Lawyer’s Association, The College Board, AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, the Center for Community Colleges and Microsoft.

Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group and many conservative organizations have challenged that label.

Calls to Levin’s office seeking comment on why he has co-sponsored the legislation were not returned by press time. Calls to Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s office about where she stands on the legislation were also not returned by press time.

Michigan activists say they want to push Stabenow to co-sponsor the legislation, hoping that by adding her voice to the chorus, they will be able to force the legislation to move in the Senate. And they hope that Abdollahi’s dramatic and risky protest raises the level of attention to the importance of the bill.

Steve Ralls, communications director for Immigration Equality, a national group focused on immigration reform and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, says Abdollahi’s actions put him in “quite a bit of jeopardy.”

“There is no doubt Iran remains one of the most homophobic countries anywhere,” he said. “LGBT people are often met with torture and executions.”

If arrested, Abdollahi faces deportation. Ralls said that his group has worked with many LGBT Iranian asylum seekers, but Abdollahi is in a circumstance many undocumented gay youth find themselves in. In order to seek asylum from the risk of death or oppression, they must apply with one year of entering the U.S. border. “That’s a tough hill for young people to climb,” Ralls notes.

“[Abdollahi's case] is certainly a strong argument for why the DREAM Act should be passed as part of comprehensive immigration reform,” Ralls said.

He said the recently passed legislation in Arizona, which directs law enforcement to inquire about citizenship status of any person based on “reasonable suspicion,” is dangerous. The law has triggered boycotts of the state, and complaints from law enforcement. Citizens groups have also complained, noting that it will encourage racial profiling.

“This is a prime example of why number one the Arizona law is so heinous and number two why Congress needs to address humane immigration reform,” Ralls said.

Michigan, along with 28 other states, is facing the prospect of a similar law. State Rep. Kim Meltzer (R-Macomb Twp.) says she will introduce legislation in the state house which will mirror the Arizona law.

“Illegal is illegal, but state law enforcement officers must be given the proper training and authority to provide this basic level of protection that already exists at the federal level for our state,” Meltzer said in a press statement on her website.

Rep. David Agema (R-Grandville) has introduced six other pieces of legislation which will limit undocumented residents’ access to welfare, food stamps and other assistance. He plans a rally Tuesday on the steps of the state capitol to protest illegal immigration. One bill would require employers with state contracts and all employment agencies to verify the citizenship of employees.

“Fair, strict immigration policies will secure our state’s physical and economic security,” said Agema, in a press release on his website. “I invite concerned citizens from around the state to come support fair employment practices and let our government officials know we do not support amnesty and that we expect them to do a better job securing our state.”

Agema says his bills will save the state millions of dollars currently spent on undocumented workers in the state.

Agema’s rally on Tuesday will feature Meltzer, Oakland County Commissioner Jim Runestad and Frankenmuth Tea Party leader Tamyra Murray.

Republican candidate for governor Mike Bouchard has announced he will also attend and speak at the rally. Bouchard is the Oakland County Sheriff and faces Attorney General Mike Cox, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, businessman Rick Snyder and state Sen. Tom George in the August primary for the GOP nomination for governor.

Though LGBT issues and immigration issues are rarely addressed together, Ralls tells the Michigan Messenger that there is a clear connection.

“As LGBT people, our community certainly understands what it’s like to be singled out because of who we are, or what we look like,” Ralls said. “There’s a real danger as this fervor begins to spread.”

UCSD Muslim Student Responds to David Horowitz Event

AT Reader — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:50:40 +0000

Original Post can be found here

To the General and Campus Communities:

As you are all well aware, I am the one who spoke at the David Horowitz event this past Monday May 10, 2010.

Allow me to begin by stating that I do NOT condone murder, I do NOT condone genocide, and I do NOT condone racism under any circumstance whatsoever against Jews or anyone else. These accusations are lies that I refuse to allow David Horowitz and his allies to perpetuate in their irresponsible and hateful smear campaign against those who disagree with or differ from them.

On April 19, 2010 I volunteered to speak at the Racism/Genocide Holocaust Event last April only because of my strong convictions against genocide like the Holocaust. I was there every step of the way during the protests denouncing racism on campus last quarter—from the very beginning to the very end. Never have I uttered a negative syllable towards or about any person because of their ethnicity or religion on campus or otherwise, Jewish or otherwise. Regardless of my participation in these events, for Mr. Horowitz to insinuate that I am anti-Semitic is ridiculous; I am a Semite.

I attended the event as an individual, not as a representative of any organization, least of all the MSA. My presence was solidly founded in my academic and personal quests to hear diverse viewpoints. Unfortunately, Mr. Horowitz is a seasoned polemicist whose intent is not to encourage academic discussion by expounding his arguments or even supporting his positions with hard facts, but to excite the passions of an audience. Mr. Horowitz spent an hour indiscriminately attacking liberals, students, Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians, utilizing verbiage that completely departed from an academic tone and delved into hate speech—especially labeling groups and individuals that support Palestinian rights “terrorists.”

Insofar as my references to Hitler and the Nazi Youth programs: it was Mr. Horowitz who spent a substantial amount of time referring to the MSA as the “Hitler Youth” and its Justice in Palestine Week as “Hitler Youth Week”— pejorative titles that as a human being, a student of history, and a person of faith, I find disgusting. I uttered them in a sarcastic manner only to point out the ridiculous and slanderous nature of Mr. Horowitz’s labels—Nazis sought the extermination of anyone who was not “white,” and this racial category excludes the vast majority of the Muslim population.

I asked Mr. Horowitz to explain the purported connection between UCSD’s MSA and “Jihadist Terrorist Networks.” His pamphlet did not mention the organization; rather it focused on other groups like UCI’s MSU and Berkley and LA’s MSA chapters, and offered supporting grounds that can be characterized as shaky at best, with sources that had little credibility. He chose not to engage my question (his opening arguments were the verbatim generalizations made in the pamphlet, though my question asked for specifics) but instead decided to subject me to an interrogation because of my headscarf and Palestinian kuffiyeh. The fact that Mr. Horowitz claimed on a respected national cable news network that the MSA receives forty thousand dollars to put on Justice in Palestine Week, speaks volumes to his status as a gross exaggerator who should not be trusted to deliver opinions on anything. The information can be found here on UCSD’s official website http://as.ucsd.edu/finance/sofr_view_program.php?id=710.

Towards the end of the exchange, I became emotional. I could no longer hear Mr. Horowitz speaking and so did not even hear his injection of Hezbollah’s credo of “rounding up” Jews in his last tangent. I could no longer contain my anger at being implicitly and improperly labeled a terrorist, an anti-Semite, and a proponent of genocide. The answer I was coerced into giving grossly misrepresented my beliefs and ideologies.

My answer, “for it,” in the context in which it was said does NOT mean “for” genocide. I was referring to his initial question that asked me for my position on Hamas, a topic that for his own political reasons he was relentless in pursuing. “For it” was not a legitimization of Hezbollah’s or anyone else’s credo for that matter that Jews should be exterminated. In fact, Mr. Horowitz’s intent was to entrap me with his barrage of questions so that he could avoid answering my question, and construe any answer that I would provide as anti-Semitic, genocidal hate speech in order to further his political agenda.

I am not a member of Hamas, nor have I ever given support to Hamas, nor do I agree their actions or stances wholesale, but I refused to offer Mr. Horowitz a blanket condemnation of Hamas that night. I felt that doing so would be a blanket condemnation of the Palestinian cause. I refused to throw the baby (the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people) out with the bathwater (Hamas.) In addition, Mr. Horowitz asked me to condemn Hamas as a genocidal organization; which to my limited knowledge on the subject, is another unsupported claim made by Mr. Horowitz.

My opinion of Hamas is not as simple as condemn or condone, “for it” or “against it.” I firmly believe that the killing of civilians, even as “collateral damage” regardless of creed, politics, sexuality, nationality, or ethnicity is one of the highest crimes in the eyes of God and is morally reprehensible and abhorrent. But I condone Hamas in its ambition to liberate the Palestinian people. I condone Hamas as the duly elected representative government of the Palestinian people granted governance in an election overseen by our ex-President Jimmy Carter; and characterized as fair, open, and fully democratic. I condone Hamas in its desire to end the inhumane siege of the Gazan people. I condone Hamas in its struggle to free the 10,000 Palestinian men, women, and children unjustly locked away in Israeli prisons. It seems that in Mr. Horowitz’s logic, my support of freedom, peace, and justice makes me a “terrorist.”

David Horowitz can try to erase my history, the history of my grandparents, the history of the Palestinian people, he can call me a terrorist, he can mischaracterize my faith as bloody, and my God as false, but I will NOT allow him to vilify me as a racist or a proponent of genocide and remain silent.

For Peace, For Love, For Justice,

Jumanah Imad Albahri

Below you can find a video of the original event -Editor

Akhira not the Dunya

Kutibh Chihabi — Sat, 01 May 2010 07:07:05 +0000

What is the purpose of life on earth according to the Qur’an? Why did God create us?

“And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” [Qur'an, 51:56]

What is the significance of this verse? In this verse, our Creator is telling us the purpose behind our creation. We were created only so that we may worship God. Our worship can be in many ways. It can be through prayer, supplication, sleep, the act of eating, work, studies, marriage, and so on. Anything done for the sake of God alone can be considered worship. If our intention behind eating is to sustain our bodies in order to worship our Creator, then it is worship. If our intention behind studying is to gain knowledge to understand the creation of our Creator, then it is worship.

Despite all of this, however, Muslims today fail to realize the underlying purpose of life. Our life on earth is only a test. We are here to be tested between good and evil. Will we pick the right path? Will we enjoin the good and forbid the evil? Will we worship our Creator or deny Him? This is the test that we have been placed on earth to take. Our life here is simply a journey to the afterlife (the akhira). Unfortunately, many Muslims today have been caught up with this worldly life (the dunya). We seek wealth, fame, power; all of these things which are absolutely meaningless for the afterlife. Our money, power, and fame will not follow us into the grave. When we are standing before our Creator, we will be questioned about our deeds, our intentions. We will not be questioned about our wealth or our fame.

Therefore, I urge the ummah to please come back to reality. Keep the afterlife as the goal. I am not saying wealth is bad. If you truly earned it then it is rightfully yours, but think about those around the world who die every day without food. It is our duty to help feed and clothe those in need if God has blessed us with this wealth. If we do that and we remind ourselves that this worldly life is of no true meaning, then we will have succeeded that test, insha’Allah (God-Willing).

Hidden brutality in Iraq

Adina Farrukh — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:46:52 +0000

It has been seven long years since the United States first invaded Iraq as part of the so-called Global War on Terror and it is the occupation’s continued duration that has caused it to recede somewhere into the fringes of American consciousness. Indeed, it is not at all uncommon for people to forget – if only for a moment – the fact that America is still involved in Iraq. For those who do remember, the scale of the macabre violence that is still being perpetrated in the war-torn nation has become entirely too commonplace to elicit any genuine concern.

The fact is, however, that America is still occupying Iraq. Americans were forced to confront the reality of brutal nature of this occupation once again when a U.S. military video depicting the slaughter of two Reuters employees and ten civilians in Baghdad was released on the internet by the non-profit news organization, WikiLeaks, last week.

The video was shot from an Apache helicopter on July 12, 2007. Reuters has since been agitating for the release of the video, which “consists of 38 minutes of black-and-white aerial video and conversations between pilots in two Apache helicopters as they open fire on civilians on a street in Baghdad.” Reuters employees themselves had been allowed an off-the-record viewing two weeks after the killings, but they were barred from acquiring a copy of it and their Freedom of Information Act requests were not approved.

WikiLeaks obtained a copy of the video through whistle-blowers in the military, and was able to view it after breaking the encryption code.

The video begins with the two journalists amongst a group of people milling about on a street in Baghdad. The photographer’s camera is mistaken as a weapon. Thus the crowd itself is misapprehended as an insurgent group, and the pilots open fire. Most of the men are killed almost instantaneously and the pilots then proceed to crow over the killings — “Look at those dead bastards,” one pilot remarks.

One of the Reuters employees, however, is seriously wounded and begins to crawl away from the scene. The pilots hope for reasonable justification to resume firing at him again — “All you gotta do is pick up a weapon — if we see a weapon, we’re going to engage!” one pilot says.

A van drives up a while later, and several men who are clearly unarmed, jump out to rescue the fallen. The pilots seek and receive permission to engage — within a few minutes, everyone is apparently dead. U.S. armored vehicles move onto the scene and one of them drives over a corpse, causing one of the observers in the helicopter to chuckle and say, “I think they just drove over a body.”

The situation was not hostile, and “[t]here was no threat warranting a hail of 30 mm [caliber gunfire] from above,” Anthony Martinez, a former U.S. army officer who has watched thousands of aerial footage from Iraq, has said. U.S. military inquiry into the killings, however, has absolved the officers of any criminal acts, even though firing at those rescuing the wounded is a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.

This brutal massacre is not an isolated anomaly, Mike Prysner, an Iraq war veteran and co-founder of March Forward!, told me. “You can tell by the way they are talking and communicating with each other that this is just standard procedure — just another day in the field. I’m not surprised that this happened.” The only unique facet of this incident is that it was caught on tape and released to the media. “And it’s not as if they were a bunch of rouges — everything that happened was condoned by higher authority.”

This is what is happening all over Iraq, and this is why so many civilians have died — because this is the way we choose to go about fighting our wars. “This is a colonial occupation,” Prysner said, “which means that the civilians are our enemy.”

http://collateralmurder.com/