Muslim Observer

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News from Around the World
Volume 16, Issue 34 Shawwal 19 - 25, 1435 Aug 15 - 21, 2014
How Hamas Beat Israel
By Ronen Bergman
$2.00
Ahmed Daver Faheem
Ahmed Daver
Faheem to lead
W.Virginia Medical
Board
Dr. Ahmed Daver Faheem,
Ahmed, p. 13
Tel Aviv — If body-counts
and destroyed weaponry are the
main criteria for victory, Israel is
the clear winner in the latest confrontation
with Hamas. There’s
no doubt that Israel could conquer
the entire Gaza Strip and completely
wipe out Hamas’s military
apparatus. Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has chosen not to
do so and now enjoys his highest
approval ratings ever.
But counting bodies is not
the most important criterion in
deciding who should be declared
the victor. Much more important
is comparing each side’s goals
before the fighting and what they
have achieved. Seen in this light,
Hamas, p. 20
ISNA President’s Letter to the
American Muslim Community
Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Raheem
“O you who believe! Fear
Allah, and say a word directed to
the Right: That He many make
your conduct whole and sound
and forgive you your sins: He that
obeys Allah and His Messenger,
has already attained the highest
Achievement.” 33:70-71
Brothers and Sister of the
American Muslim community,
I have become aware of the
dialogue taking place in social
media about the American Muslim
community, and specifically
about the Islamic Society of North
America and its role in the United
States. This includes ISNA’s philosophy
and strategy of engagement
with the government and
public officials. I welcome this
dialogue, as do all the leaders of
ISNA. This may be a good beginning
for a larger discourse among
the American Muslim community
Palestinian children waving Hamas flags cheer as they stand on Israeli military
equipment, which witnesses said was left behind by Israeli forces during a
ground offensive, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 5, 2014.
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
ISNA President Mohamed Magid.
and its leadership as the American
Muslim knows best what is
in the best interest of its communities.
Imam Malik exemplified
for us the importance of understanding
the context before issuing
the ruling or critique when
he told a man from another land
who came to see him that he
could not give an answer to the
man on the situation of his people.
“You know better than I do
about your situation,” he said.
No Muslim leader in America,
particularly those who volunteer
in their positions wish to
find themselves stuck between a
rock and a hard place. However,
reality is that many of us are
between two attacks, those that
come from Islamaphobes from
whom we must defend our faith,
our rights, and our communities,
and those that are coming from
our fellow Muslims, from whom
we must defend the integrity and
intentions of our leadership. It is
appropriate and encouraged for
ISNA, p. 23
Galloway dares British Government
to arrest him on declaring
Bradford an ‘Israel-freezone’.
By M Ghazali Khan
London: Such is the anger of
British public against BBC’s coverage
of Israeli atrocities in Gaza
that the anti-Israeli-barbarismrally,
Saturday, attended by at least
Masjid
Al-Aqsa in
History
By Zafar Bangash
Masjid al-Aqsa has a rich
history. It is intimately linked
with Prophetic history, not of one
but numerous prophets. It was
first built by the Prophet Abraham
(peace be upon Him) years
after he built the Ka‘aba with his
first son Ishmael (peace be upon
Al-Aqsa, p. 14
London’s Biggest Ever
Pro-Palestine Protest
150,000 protestors, began right
from outside the BBC Headquarter
in central London and passing
by the BBC’s offices in Portland
Street, protesters made victory
signs pointing towards BBC building
and chanting, “No justice,
no peace” and “shame on you”,
“shame on BBC”.
London, p. 12
Huge protest in London against the Israeli aggression in Gaza.

international
2 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
MMCC Press Relase:
The ISIS Crisis and
the Carnage in Gaza
Press Release
(Royal Oak, MI, 08/11/14) –
The Imams Council of the Michigan
Muslim Community Council
(MMCC) strongly condemns the
continuing atrocities committed
by the extremist group the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The Imams opinion is based
upon the teachings of the Holy
Quran and example of Prophet
Muhammad, peace be upon him
(PBUH).
ISIS’ actions of mass executions,
ethnic cleansing of
Christians and other religious minorities,
desecration of shrines,
mosques and churches are against
the teachings of Islam.
“Had God not repel some
people by means of others,
many monasteries, churches,
synagogues, and mosques, where
God’s name is much invoked,
would have been destroyed.”
(Quran, 22:40).
Forced conversions are contrary
to Islamic teachings. “There
shall be no coercion in matters of
faith” (Quran, 2:256).
For reasons cited above and
more, recognized Muslim scholars
have rejected the legitimacy
of ISIS’ claims to the caliphate.
The International Union of
Muslim Scholars stated that the
caliphate declaration is “null and
void” and “lacks any realistic or
legitimate standards.” The Imams
agree with the renowned scholars
that, “All the affairs of the state
and religious political practice
should be based on shura (consultation).”
The Quran and teachings
of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
emphasize the concept of shura,
rather than coercion. Leadership
is earned and not proclaimed,
Muslim caliphs were thus elected
by their followers.
The Imams Council equally
condemns the carnage that has
unfolded in Gaza, due to disproportionate
attacks by the Israeli
forces. Eighty percent killed were
women and children - an intentional
and systematic violence
against the Palestinian people.
This contradicts clear spiritual
obligations in the Jewish faith.
The Quran conveys the Jewish
scriptural principles regarding
the sanctity of human life, “We
(God) decreed to the Children of
Israel that if anyone kills a person-
unless in retribution for murder
or spreading corruption in the
land- it is as if he kills all mankind,
while if any saves a life it is
as if he saves the lives of all mankind.
Our messengers came to
them with clear signs, but many
of them continued to commit excesses
in the land” (Quran, 5:32).
We echo the outrage of the
international community’s condemnation
of the repeated and
systematic destruction of essential
infrastructure in Gaza
destroying homes, businesses,
power plants, schools, mosques
and hospitals.
The Imams also urge supporting
the humanitarian efforts
on behalf of UN approved charitable
organizations that provide
basic needs of food, water, medicine,
shelter and electricity to Gazans.
We stand in solidarity with
all people of faith and conscience,
praying for an everlasting peace.
Imam Mohammad Elahi
Imam Mustapha Elturk
Co-Chairs Imams Council,
The Imams Council of
MMCC represents a coalition of
Muslim religious leaders (imams)
in the Metro-Detroit area.
CONTACT: MMCC Spokesperson:
Mr. Dawood Zwink,
Executive Director dzwink@mimuslimcouncil.com
or call (313)
505-2423.
Multi-Tasking Couple Finishes Phds on
Consecutive Days
Adeel Ajaib and Fariha Nasir pose with their children.
By Ann Manser
Adeel Ajaib thinks that he and his wife, Fariha
Nasir, will probably look back on 2014 sometime
in the future — when their lives are less hectic —
and ask each other in amazement, “How did we do
that?”
That’s exactly what many of their fellow graduate
students and faculty members in the University
of Delaware’s Department of Physics and Astronomy
have undoubtedly been wondering for some
time about the young couple.
After studying and conducting research in particle
physics with their graduate adviser, Qaisar Shafi,
Bartol Research Institute Professor of Physics, Ajaib
and Nasir successfully defended their doctoral dissertations
on consecutive days in July. Adding to the
stress of preparing for that milestone was the birth of
their second child just two months ago.
“The last couple of months before our defense
were totally disorganized in our house,” Ajaib said.
“All we did was take care of the children and talk
about physics. We had [whiteboards] that we were
always writing on.”
“There wasn’t a lot of sleep,” Nasir added.
“And I don’t think I sat down and ate a meal for
three months.”
But it has all been worth it, both said. Their
children, 3-year-old Raima Adeel and her new baby
brother, Umar Adeel, are healthy, and that’s “the
only really important thing,” Ajaib said. Both dissertation
defenses were successful, and Ajaib has been
offered a faculty position in Pennsylvania, where
Nasir will also pursue career opportunities.
PhDs, p. 13

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
news & views
Women’s Liberation: Beyond Feminism
By Karin Friedemann, TMO
Recently, I posted a status
update on Facebook that read,
“Men are supposed to pay for
women not vice versa in terms of
marriage living expenses. Women
income is the nest egg, u can’t
touch it. Never buy a big house
dependent on two incomes. It’s
haram.”
I was actually quite surprised
by the vitriol that ensued against
me, peppered with insults against
Islam. Minus the last two words,
my statement isn’t even remotely
religious and could be practiced
by anyone, regardless of religion.
The above statement is just logical
financial advice. Most women
have no idea that they have a
right to ask for maintenance as a
condition for marriage, and could
even write it into a legally binding
contract. Such an agreement
would be a tremendous blessing
not only for the woman but for
the financial stability of the family.
When a couple’s lifestyle is
dependent on two incomes, if one
person loses their job or they get
divorced, they lose the house. It
simply makes sense to live simply.
How does that make me “ridiculous”?
I was told by several people
that Islamic law is outdated and
Muslims need to come into the
modern century and stop viewing
women as baby making machines.
This attitude did not shift
even after I explained that Islam
allows birth control. I could understand
this reaction if I had
stated that Americans should return
to last century’s America,
where a woman had to get her
husband’s permission to open a
bank account, and her property
automatically became his property
upon marriage. Obviously, a
jobless housewife of any religion
will have limited freedoms. But a
woman with her own income and
a separate bank account, whose
husband pays all her bills, has unlimited
options! Why are people
so frightened by a woman with
unlimited options?
I knew a Pakistani woman
who was a fashion designer in
New York, whose husband would
not allow her to pay for any
household expenses. She told me
all her female co-workers were
jealous of her because whenever
they got paid, they had to hand
over their paychecks to their husbands.
The happy couple delayed
parenthood for some years. When
they decided to have children
it was a good situation for them
because the woman had plenty
of self confidence about her ability
to exist in the world as an independent
person, plus they had
good savings which enabled her
to stay home with her children.
Contrast with a memory
seared into my mind where a
Christian woman relative of mine
was getting chest pains and stomach
aches because she dreaded
her job so much, where she was
treated abusively. She was sobbing
and crying at length, saying
she wanted to quit her job but her
husband said nothing. I asked
him, “Why don’t you sell this
house and get an apartment so
she doesn’t have to be trapped in
such stress?” He brushed me off,
saying, “Oh she just likes to complain!”
How is this not female
slavery?
Nowadays a woman who financially
supports her husband is
considered a “good wife,” while
a woman whose husband supports
her is treated with derision
by society, which views the only
choice of female importance as
the abortion option. The “power
couple” with the big house and no
children might throw great parties,
but when a wife is obligated
to earn her keep in a relationship,
full-time motherhood is not a
choice.
Ironically, one woman who
was bashing Islam mentioned
that while she was happy to have
a good career, and she was willing
to use her money to support
a family, she was having trouble
finding any man even willing
to get her pregnant, a problem
which worried her greatly due to
being over 40. Many men just
don’t want the responsibility of
a family anymore, when it’s so
common to live with a woman
like roommates.
New York Times article
glimpses America’s role in creating
the leader of ISIS—the violent
Islamic group “redraw[ing] the
map of the Middle East”—and
confirms the line by English poet
W.H. Auden: “Those to whom evil
is done Do evil in return.”
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “was
a street thug when we picked him
up in 2004,” said an anonymous
Pentagon official quoted in the article
published Sunday. American
forces “picked up” al-Baghdadi,
then a “hanger-on” in his early
30s, the paper reports, in a raid on
a home near Fallujah “during the
turbulent 2004 offensive against
the Iraqi Sunni insurgency.”
“It’s hard to imagine we
could have had a crystal ball then
that would tell us he’d become
head of ISIS,” the official added.
The Times states in a crucial
For the classic liberal feminist,
career gives a woman status,
and without status, a woman
isn’t worthy of respect. These men
speak of “partnership” but there
is no choice for the woman if she
wants to work or not. The woman
who chooses to stay home is spoken
down to with mockery and derision,
not by her husband, but by
society. Feminism so interpreted
is just a more modern way to treat
women as chattel. Since children
are now regarded as a burden and
not valued by society, women are
now only valued as financial assets
of the man, as someone to pay half
his bills.
At the end of the day, only
women with money have legal
rights. Women have to choose between
having legal rights or having
children nowadays - unless they
follow the Islamic model. What
is ironic is that those who angrily
cling to the concept of the “power
couple” as if it was the “correct”
way to live are the over-40 set.
Among young people, the
Asian influence in the public
school system is resulting in more
family oriented thinking US high
schools, even among non-Muslims.
Not that it is the norm, just
passage:
At every turn, Mr. Baghdadi’s
rise has been shaped by
the United States’ involvement
in Iraq — most of the political
changes that fueled his fight, or
led to his promotion, were born
directly from some American
action. And now he has forced a
new chapter of that intervention,
after ISIS’ military successes and
brutal massacres of minorities in
its advance prompted President
Obama to order airstrikes in Iraq.
Mr. Baghdadi has seemed to
revel in the fight, promising that
ISIS would soon be in “direct
confrontation” with the United
States.
Still, when he first latched
on to Al Qaeda, in the early years
of the American occupation, it
was not as a fighter, but rather as
a religious figure. He has since
The Muslim Observer
3
Imam Salie
that is a norm. Young ladies now
have a choice. This was unheard of
in previous decades when having
a boyfriend defined a girl’s social
status. Young people now have a
more clear idea of what they could
gain if they stay away from boys
and concentrate on their studies.
This new generation of women,
entering professional jobs with
their virginity intact, has a lot
more negotiating power than any
other generation has had in history.
It is wise to learn what a woman
can ask for in a marriage contract,
including the right to expect her
husband to support her, regardless
of her income. How she uses her
money is her choice. Now that’s
feminine progress!
The New Iraqi Monster America Helped Make
A painted portrait of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Photo by Abode of Chaos (CC BY 2.0)
declared himself caliph of the Islamic
world, and pressed a violent
campaign to root out religious
minorities, like Shiites and Yazidis,
that has brought condemnation
even from Qaeda leaders.
The paper goes on to state
that Baghdadi grew up in a poor
community of Sufis—a strain of
Islam known for its tolerance—
in a farming village near the
town of Samarra. He went on to
become a mosque preacher and
earn a doctorate in Islamic studies
from a university in Baghdad
in the 1990s, during which time
he became radicalized. Iraqi
scholar Hisham al-Hashimi, who
researched Baghdadi’s life, says
Baghdadi’s views hardened over
a period of five years he spent in
an American detention facility.
Monster, p. 15

4 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Plea in Support of Imam Jamil
Imam Jamil and his family
have received the results of his
biopsy from a physician at BOP’s
Butner Medical facility. According
to the report, Imam Jamil has
an early stage myeloma and will
not be receiving cancer drugs, radiation
or other medical interventions
at this time. However, the
same doctor stressed the importance
of Imam Jamil’s condition
being closely monitored, with
continued and regular biopsies
at two-to-three-month intervals
to check for increased levels of
myeloma cells. We are deeply
concerned that BOP may consider
returning Imam Jamil to the
Florence ADMAX USP, where he
will not receive the proper medical
care and follow-up that his
condition requires and that is his
right.
YOUR EFFORTS ARE
STILL NEEDED
Because of your efforts,
Imam Jamil has received a needed
biopsy and timely results at
a proper medical facility. Your
continued efforts are needed to
advocate for the medical care and
follow-up that Imam Jamil urgently
needs.
OUR ADVOCACY FOR
IMAM JAMIL
Our advocacy for Imam
Jamil is that: (1) Jamil Al-Amin
#99974-555 be housed at a BOP
facility in Butner, where (2) he receive
regular biopsies to monitor
growth of myeloma cells in his
body; (3) that he receive the ongoing
and qualified medical care
necessary to monitor and treat his
disease, as is his right; and (4)
that he not be returned to Florence
ADMAX USP due to that
facility’s demonstrated inability
to provide for basic medical and
dental care or for medical emergencies;
let alone the specialized
care that Imam Jamil’s medical
condition requires, and as is his
right.
YOUR RESPONSE IS
CRITICAL
GO TO>>> http://www.bop.
gov/inmates/concerns.jsp
SELECT LOCATION:
Florence ADMAX USP
YOUR EMAIL: Include
your email to get a confirmation
ENTER INMATE: Jamil
Al-Amin #99974-555
YOUR CONCERNS: See
advocacy above
EMAIL NOW:
FLM/execassistant@bop.
gov
Emotions Spill over at
Lincolnwood Meeting About
Palestinian Flag
A Monday night meeting at
Village Hall in Lincolnwood got
tense near the end, after Mayor
Gerald Turry chastised a man
who screamed ‘terrorist.’
By Angie Leventis Lourgos
A Monday night meeting
over a Palestinian flag in north
suburban Lincolnwood was intense
but civil much of the way
before emotions spilled over
Lincolnwood, p. 18
a whole. If we can educate more girls, provide them
with employment opportunities and give them the
right life skills, their world will open up!
Girls transformed
As I sat in a circle with a group of girls playing
a team game about working together and sharing
responsibilities, delegating and planning, I could see
the true impact of this program. Games like these,
alongside Barclays volunteers sharing their financial
knowledge, are what help the girls plan, set up
and develop their own enterprises. At the end of the
session, the girls came together to sing an anthem
created especially for them about how “they are taking
charge.” I had goose pimples just listening to
the power and determination in their voices. They
had overcome so many hardships and yet they were
ready to take on new challenges and improve the
quality of life for themselves and everyone around
them. I was truly inspired.
I was invited to their marketplace to see the
businesses some of the girls have set up with their
new found business and saving skills -- making
bags, saris and sanitary napkins -- each a story of a
girl transformed, taking charge of her life and starting
something of larger social relevance. It was a
shopping trip with a difference.
So what are the ingredients for a strong girl?
How can we make sure that “all girls and boys can
make their own name and fate and be independent,”
as one girl told me.
They had overcome so many hardships and yet
they were ready to take on new challenges and improve
the quality of life for themselves and everyone
around them.
Here’s my list:
• Teach a young adult not what to think but how
to think
• Encourage young people to dare to believe, to
realize dreams
• Foster a young girls confidence to voice her
own opinions and solve her own problems
• Instill an understanding of saving, money and
business to become financially independent
• Nurture an interest in their community so their
impacts can be shared
Alongside all this, add a bit of magic, encouraging
the girls to share their new power and use it
to do good for the community. These girls go out
and teach other girls and the ripple of empowerment
spreads. It’s a real, tangible, positive effect where is
there for all to see.
Walking along a path in this quiet village in the
middle of nowhere, it is easy to see how a girl can
get lost -- lost for life.
I was there to meet Sadhana, 23, who had invited
me into her home. She was far from lost. One
of five sisters, her parents had initially been indifferent
and felt burdened by them. The girls were not
expected to have a future. Her father was paralyzed
and was not able to take care of the family and that’s
where his young daughter stepped in. Today Sad-
Youth Day, p. 18
op-ed
International Youth Day: Priyanka Chopra
Inspires Girls to Aim High
Actress inspires girls to aim high
By Priyanka Chopra, Special for CNN
Editor’s note: Bollywood actress, international
recording artist and UNICEF India Ambassador
Priyanka Chopra, met with young women in Chandrapur,
India, to mark International Youth Day
and witness how their lives are being transformed
through the Building Young Futures program. The
opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.
Chandrapur, India (CNN) -- My latest film,
“Mary Kom” is about to hit the screens. In it, I play
quite literally one of India’s strongest women -- the
only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one
of the six world championships.
Her’s is an inspiring story of a young woman
who fought odds that were heavily stacked against
her to achieve her dreams. She came from a small
town but never let the lack of opportunities or any
form of discrimination stop her.
With her story still ringing in my head, I set off
to a small village near Chandrapur in India’s Maharashtra
state on International Youth Day at the behest
of UNICEF to visit a new generation of strong
young Indian women with some very inspiring stories.
The girls I met are part of the Building Young
Futures program, or Deepshikha as it is locally
known, run in partnership with UNICEF, Barclays
and the Government of Maharashtra. The program
is determined to challenge the difficulties many girls
face across India, providing them with the knowledge
and skills required to become strong financially
independent women and also very importantly, to
become the agents for change and development in
their communities.
Bursting with potential
In my eight years as a UNICEF Ambassador
championing the cause of adolescent girls, I am so
proud of the work we’ve been able to do together. I
passionately believe that young people are bursting
with potential, that they can transform society.
But they need help. We need to urgently invest
in their future and help them realize their potential
and I am determined to help make that happen. Consider
the numbers and you will see why this is such
a critical requirement: There are approximately 1.2
billion adolescents in the world today, according to
the United Nations, of which 243 million of them
are in India.
I remember the dreams I had when I was a teenager.
With support, opportunities and a lot of hard
work I’ve been able to make them happen. But I
know that many youngsters aren’t so lucky. In Maharashtra,
like many other states in India, girls are
held back by not completing education, early marriage,
ignorance around health issues, and lacking
financial understanding and a voice for decision
making.
UNICEF India Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka
Chopra
We owe them a better life, which in itself will
have a positive impact on our nation and society as

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
By Chris Hedges
By clicking hereyou can see
Chris Hedges deliver his speech
(transcript below) in a video made
by Leigha Cohen. Hedges spoke
Saturday at a New York City rally
and march in support of the people
of Gaza. The address was inspired
in part by a short essay on
Facebookby Naomi Wolf.
God’s covenant in the Promised
Land was not made with
those who pilot F-16 fighter
jets that drop 1,000-pound iron
fragmentation bombs over the
concrete hovels of Gaza. It was
not made with those operating
Apache or Cobra attack helicopters
that unleash lethal fire over
crowded refugee camps. It was
not made with drone operators
that clinically kill children ... outside
mosques. It was not made
with M-60 tank units and artillery
crews that murder families huddled
in terror in their homes. It
was not made with those on gunboats
that slaughter boys playing
on a beach. It was not made with
those that fire Sidewinder missiles
and drop 250-pound “smart
bombs” on apartment blocks. It
was not made with snipers from
the Golani Brigade that gun down
unarmed men and women for
sport. It was not made with occupiers
that reduce an entire people
to a starvation diet—indeed count
the calories to keep them barely
alive—or to those who use words
like “mowing the lawn” to justify
the indiscriminant slaughter of innocents.
God’s covenant in the Promised
Land was not made with politicians—including
every member
of the U.S. Senate—that mouth
words for peace and perpetuate
war, that call for justice and perpetuate
injustice, that refuse to
stand up for the rule of law and
the right of a captive people to be
free.
God’s covenant in the Promised
Land was not made, finally,
with any race or religion. It was
not made with the Jews. It was
not made with the Muslims. It
was not made with the Christians.
God’s covenant—in the Bible and
the Koran—was made with the
righteous. When Ibrahim asked
in the holy Koran if the covenant
could be inherited, he was
told bluntly: “My covenant is not
given to oppressors.” And God’s
iron requirement to stand with the
oppressed occurs as well in the
Hebrew and Greek bibles. Those
who turn away from righteousness—be
they Jew, Christian or
Muslim—violate that covenant.
They are not God’s people.
God’s covenant is made
with those who love mercy and
do justice, with those who care
for the stranger, the orphan and
the widow, with those who frus-
opinion
Let My People Go
A Palestinian walks away from his house, destroyed by an Israeli strike, in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah.
AP/Lefteris Pitarakis
trate the ways of the wicked, with
those who bring good news to
the oppressed, who bind up the
brokenhearted, who proclaim liberty
to the captives and release
to all those in prison, including
those imprisoned in Gaza. God’s
covenant is with those men and
women—Jews, Christians and
Muslims, believers and nonbelievers—who
say, “Let my people
go, oppressed so hard they could
not stand. Let my people go.”
And God calls these people oaks
of righteousness. And they are
God’s people.
Why does God weep in the
Promised Land?
God weeps because families,
huddled in terror in their homes,
are dismembered and killed by
Israeli bombs. God weeps because
mothers howl in grief over
the bodies of their children in
U.N. schools hit by Israeli shells.
God weeps because the old and
disabled, who could not flee the
deadly Israeli advance, died helpless
and afraid. God weeps because
the powerful, here and in
Israel, lie and dissemble to justify
murder. And God weeps for all
those who stand by and do nothing.
God weeps because the assault
on Gaza is not about Israel’s
right to self-defense or about removing
Hamas from power. It is
not about achieving peace. God
weeps because the assault on
Gaza is about the decades-long
campaign to destroy and ethnically
cleanse the Palestinian people
from their land. God weeps
because Israel is constructing
squalid, lawless and impoverished
ghettos where life for Palestinians
is barely sustainable. God
weeps because Israel restricts or
shuts off movement, food, medicine
and goods to accentuate the
human misery. God weeps because
Israel has turned Gaza, now
largely without power, running
water and sewage [systems], into
a vast gulag.
Gaza, p. 20
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
Submissions: We welcome submissions. Please send to submissions@muslimobserver.com, subject “submission.” Due to some recent confusion,we ask that no submissions be
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financial news
6 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Iraq’s Insurgency Puts its Oil in the Spotlight
By Rania El Gamal
Smoke rises from an oil field in Al-Rmelan, Qamshli province November 11, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer
DUBAI, August 4 (Reuters)
- Iraq’s Sunni Islamist insurgency,
crippling further its dream to
match the oil power of Saudi Arabia,
makes oilfields in the safer
south more vital, but even that region
has not been completely free
from attacks.
Baghdad is struggling to contain
the Islamic State militancy
which seized some oil facilities
when it swept through the northwest
in June, emboldening the
Kurds in their autonomous northern
region to capture the giant
Kirkuk oilfields.
There has been little impact
on southern oil output, which is
around 3.15 million barrels per
day.
The south’s oil capital Basra
has seen less violence this year
than other cities - but there have
been few car bombs, assassination
attempts and kidnappings of
foreign workers there over the
past several months, security and
oil sources say.
It is not clear who was behind
those attacks. The line between
insurgency and crime is
often blurred.
History suggests nothing can
be ruled out. In 2011, bombings
of southern pipelines disrupted
output from the Rumaila oilfield,
**Currency Exchange:
One US dollar = ______:
Algerian Dinar............................... 79.1
Bahraini Dinar............................... .377
Bangladesh Taka............................ 76.4
British Pound................................... .59
Brunei Dollar................................ 1.25
Canadian Dollar.............................. 1.1
Egyptian Pound............................... 7.1
EU Euro.......................................... .73
Indian Rupee................................. 59.9
Indonesian Rupiah (1,000)......... 11,990
Iranian Riyal (1,000)................. 25,630
Jordanian Dinar............................... .71
Kuwaiti Dinar................................... .28
Lebanese Pound (1,000)............... 1,510
Malaysian Ringgit......................... 3.21
Moroccan Dirham........................ 8.22
Omani Rial...................................... .39
Pakistani Rupee............................. 98.6
Qatari Riyal................................... 3.64
Saudi Arabian Riyal...................... 3.75
Singapore Dollar........................... 1.25
Sudanese Dinar (1,000)............... 568.0
Tunisian Dinar................................ 1.68
U.A.E. Dirham............................... 3.67
Yemen (1,000).............................. 214.8
Source: Oanda.com
Updated Monday
The above rate varies minute by
minute and day by day and depends
upon bank commissions and varies
from one bank to another.
Iraq’s largest, at least twice.
Thamer Ghadhban, top energy
adviser to Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki, said at present everything
“is going on as planned,”
with southern output unaffected
and national output targets in
place.
“We have not seriously reconsidered
the long-term targets.
Until now there has been no revision.
We hope there would be political
solutions soon so we don’t
reconsider the long-term targets,”
he told Reuters.
Over the past few years,
poor infrastructure and technical
problems have forced Baghdad to
scale back ambitions of reaching
output capacity of 12 million bpd
by 2020, a level eclipsed only by
Saudi Arabia with 12.5 million
bpd.
Now even Iraq’s new longterm
capacity target of 8.4 million
bpd is over optimistic, industry
experts and analysts say.
The southern export facilities
have remained insulated from the
turmoil; oil exports in July averaged
2.442 million bpd, near a
record rate.
Around 300,000-400,000
bpd of crude used to move
through the northern pipeline
from Iraq’s Kirkuk in the north to
Turkey’s Ceyhan before flow was
halted by bombing in February,
Ghadhban said.
“Kirkuk and other areas have
been affected by the security situation
- without a doubt that will
have an effect” on Iraq’s output in
the short term, he said.
Iraq has previously said it
aimed to boost oil production to
3.7 million bpd in 2014, a figure
that excludes Kurdish crude, as
Baghdad is locked in a legal and
diplomatic dispute with the autonomous
Kurdish region over oil
sales and exports.
Ghadhban conceded Iraq was
now unlikely to reach its 2014
output target, but did not give a
revised figure.
Some industry experts see
3.4 million bpd as more feasible
this year. A Merrill Lynch research
note in June said Iraqi oil
output was unlikely to grow at all
this year.
Major attacks on southern oil
Oil, p. 23
Please call
Shafi Lokhandwala
248-478-0074

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
michigan
The Muslim Observer
7
SE Michigan news
Compiled by Adil James, detroit@muslimobserver.com
Michigan’s First Halal Food Festival
TMO Stringer, adapted from Press Release
Canton, MI, August 12, 2014 –Michigan’s first
and largest Halal Food Festival (Halal Fest) took
place at the Heritage Park in Canton, Michigan.
Hundreds of people from different ethnicity
and background attended the Halal Fest. It was like
a mini carnival atmosphere with people enjoying the
food and the beautiful sunny weather.
There were about 10 food stalls serving different
ethnic food and they all had long queues. Sometimes
the waiting period was over ½ an hour. The
longest waiting period was at the ice cream truck.
Children enjoyed face painting, slides, air
jumper, and small carnival rides.
Although the fest was to run up to 7:00 PM
most of the stalls were running out of food items by
6:00 PM.
People reacted differently, one said, “it is successful
considering it is being held for the first time”.
While other thought it was not organized properly as
there was no one to answer a question nor any officially
responsible person was visible. Another person
questioned the authenticity of the halal/zabiha
food. He further said, “I see non Halal atmosphere
in Halal fest, commenting on children’s face painting,
etc.”
Over all the efforts of Chef, LLC, in organizing
this event was successful in drawing a large crowed
from diverse background, enjoying different food
and meeting friends.
Dalia Mogahed
ISPU Appoints Mogahed
Press Release
The Institute for Social Policy
and Understanding is pleased
to welcome Dalia Mogahed as
the institute’s new Director of
Research.
Washington, DC - The Institute
for Social Policy and Understanding
is pleased to welcome
Dalia Mogahed as the institute’s
new Director of Research.
Ms. Mogahed is an experienced
research analyst and director
who has capably managed
the establishment and growth of
other research based institutions
that study issues related to Muslim
populations in the US and
abroad. ISPU wanted to recruit a
Director of Research who would
be able to lead its research department
through its next phase
of growth and development.
ISPU strives to produce evidence
based recommendations for both
communities and policy makers.
Working closely with the Executive
Director, Chief Operating
Officer, and ISPU Research Fellows,
the Director of Research
will develop, lead and execute
ISPU’s research strategy.
Ms. Mogahed previously
served as the Executive Director
and Senior Analyst for the Gallup
Center for Muslim Studies where
she led global research analysis of
surveys from over 40 countries,
resulting in widely cited policy
briefs, reports and scholarly articles.
By effectively managing
diverse teams and multimillion
dollar budgets, Ms. Mogahed
was able to successfully establish
the Gallup Center as a leading authority
on Muslim affairs.
In 2008 with Dr. John L.
Esposito, Ms. Mogahed coauthored
the book Who Speaks for
Islam? What a Billion Muslims
Really Think. Ms. Mogahed is a
frequent commentator in global
media outlets and international
forums. She has received numerous
awards and recognitions
from entities such as the World
Economic Forum, University of
Wisconsin, Ashoka, and Freedom
House.
“I’m excited to join ISPU
because of the important research
the organization is pioneering on
the challenges and opportunities
facing the Muslim American
community. I’m also thrilled to
be working with the ISPU team, a
group of passionate and genuine
people committed to growth and
excellence,” said Mogahed.
ISPU’s Interim Executive
Director, COO and Director of
Policy Impact, Farhan Latif added,
“This is a great juncture for
Dalia to be joining ISPU. Dalia’s
leadership as Director of Research
will infuse ISPU with her
passion for producing practical,
evidence based solutions to complex
challenges. Building upon
an assessment of our first twelve
years, we’ve refined our focus to
concentrate on issues that impact
the American Muslim population.
Dalia’s experiences blend
research management with content
expertise in such a way that
it makes her an exceptional candidate
to lead our research efforts
in this second decade of ISPU’s
growth.”
“I’m pleased to see that ISPU
continues to attract new leaders
of such national significance as
Dalia. We are excited to have her
join the ISPU family,” added Dr.
Farid Senzai, ISPU Board Member
and former founding Director
of Research.
Children play in bounce houses at the halal food festival.
Water Deal Could Force Another Delay in
Detroit Bankruptcy Trial
By Lisa Lambert and Karen Pierog
Aug 12 (Reuters) - A federal
judge could once again push
back the start date for the trial
on Detroit’s exit from the largest
municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history
after some creditors said on
Tuesday a possible settlement is
snarling key components of the
restructuring plan.
The complicated settlement
rests on a tender offer for $5.2 billion
of the city’s water and sewer
revenue bonds. The deadline for
bondholders to tender their debt
voluntarily for repurchase is Aug.
21, the same day the trial is to begin,
with the final settlement possibly
becoming firm weeks later,
in the middle of the proceeding.
Because the settlement could
significantly alter the proposed
restructuring plan that U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge Steven Rhodes will
weigh at the trial, some city creditors
are asking for a two-week delay
to the start date. They say that
would give the city enough time
to file a new version of the plan
incorporating the settlement.
In a hearing on Tuesday,
Rhodes, who has already delayed
the trial once, appeared to agree.
Detroit wants to maintain the
current schedule and has suggested
moving testimony on the revenue
bond settlement toward the
end of the trial. If Rhodes decides
the plan is fair and feasible, then
the delay will make it hard for
Detroit to meet some of its deadlines,
lawyers for the city said at
Tuesday’s hearing.
“Understand what you’re
asking the court to do,” Rhodes
said to the lawyers. “You’re asking
the court to start a confirmation
hearing on a plan you don’t
want confirmed, knowing you’re
going to file a plan two weeks
later that you do want confirmed.
That’s very tough.”
Since Detroit filed for bankruptcy
protection more than a
year ago, it has reached a long
string of settlements on its $18
billion in debt and obligations.
But coming to an agreement
around Detroit Water and Sewerage
Department debt had seemed
nearly impossible, and in July
most of the bondholders voted
against the city’s debt adjustment
plan. Last week, though, the
DWSD announced the tender offer,
saying those who agree to exchange
their current debt for new
bonds will not be able to oppose
the restructuring plan.
There is a possibility, though,
that not enough bondholders will
tender their debt or the offer will
not create “sufficient savings,”
Heather Lennox, an attorney for
the city, said at the hearing. At
that point, the current bankruptcy
plan’s treatment of the bonds will
stand.
Three counties, meanwhile,
whose residents pay for and receive
DWSD services, object to
the plan’s proposed diversion of
millions of dollars in department
revenue to city pension payments.
They claim that money is needed
for critical water and sewer system
improvements. On Tuesday,
Rhodes allowed their objections
to move forward.
WATER PLAN HAS MANY
FACETS
Detroit outlined its tender
offer for $2.75 billion of sewer
bonds and $2.433 billion of water
supply system bonds in a court
filing late on Monday. It offers
Water, p. 18

news
8 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Squash champ
Hashim Khan in
poor health
Hashim Khan, a former
world squash champion, who
lives in US is reportedly in poor
health. His exact age his not
known but family members say
that he is above the age of 100.
Pakistan born Khan won first
British Open title in 1951 at an
age when most retire and then six
more championships after that.
He later traveled to America to
raise a family of 12 and help hook
a younger generation on the sport.
Over the last six months, his
Community News - North America
health has drastically deteriorated.
Hospice workers are now providing
around-the-clock care for him
at his home.
Khan brought his family to
the U.S. in the early 1960s after
being offered a lucrative deal to
teach squash at the Uptown Athletic
Club in Detroit. He later took
a pro position at the Denver Athletic
Club in the early ‘70s, with
membership instantly soaring.
Aftab Ahmed appointed
lead designer
Compiled by Mohammed Ayub Khan, international@muslimobserver.com
Discountwebdesigns.net an-
Egypt Presents Proposal to
End War in Gaza
With cease-fire deadline looming, Egypt proposes plan aimed at
ending war in Gaza.
By Mohammed Daraghmeh
CAIRO--Egypt presented
a proposed cease-fire to Israel
and Hamas aimed at ending the
monthlong war, Palestinian officials
said early Wednesday after
negotiators huddled for a second
day of Egyptian-mediated talks
meant to resolve the crisis and
bring relief to the embattled Gaza
Strip.
Palestinian officials told The
Associated Press early Wednesday
morning that Egypt’s proposal
calls for easing parts of the
Israeli blockade of Gaza, bringing
some relief to the territory. But it
leaves the key areas of disagreement,
including the Islamic militant
group Hamas’ demand for a
full lifting of the blockade and
Israeli calls for Hamas to disarm,
to later negotiations.
If the sides accept the proposal
it would have a significant
impact on Palestinians in Gaza as
it would improve the movement
of individuals and merchandise to
the West Bank, the officials said.
Gaza exports and other businesses
have been hit hard by restrictions
imposed on the territory by
Israel and Egypt after Hamas took
control of Gaza in 2007.
One of the Palestinian officials
who spoke to AP said that
according to the Egyptian proposal
the blockade would be gradually
eased.
He said it would stipulate
that Israel would end airstrikes
on militants, and a 500-meter
(547-yard) buffer zone next to the
Gaza and Israel frontier would be
reduced over time, he said.
The Israeli and Palestinian
negotiating teams retired after 10
hours of discussions and will resume
the talks later Wednesday,
about 12 hours before the current
cease-fire is set to expire at midnight,
the officials said.
It was not immediately clear
if either side would accept the
deal.
The Palestinian officials
spoke to AP on condition of anonymity
because they are not authorized
to discuss the negotiations
with the media.
The negotiations took place
after a three-day truce brokered
by Egypt took effect Monday. A
similar truce collapsed last Friday
after Gaza militants quickly
resumed rocket fire with its expiration.
The monthlong Gaza war
has killed more than 1,900 Palestinians,
the majority of them
civilians, Palestinian and U.N.
officials say. In Israel, 67 people
have been killed, all but three of
them soldiers.
Hamas is demanding an end
to an Israel-Egyptian blockade
that has ravaged Gaza’s economy.
Israel says the blockade is needed
to keep Hamas, which fired thousands
of rockets into Israel during
the war, from smuggling weapons.
Israel is seeking guarantees
that it disarm.
With the truce set to expire,
Egypt pressed the sides hard to
reach a deal.
“The talks are difficult but
serious,” Moussa Abu Marzouk,
head of the Hamas delegation,
wrote on his Facebook page.
“The delegation needs to achieve
the hopes of the people.”
Hamas, shunned by the international
community as a terrorist
organization, seized control of
Gaza from internationally backed
Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas in 2007.
Any deal will almost certainly
include an increased role by
Abbas. The Palestinian leader recently
formed a unity government
backed by Hamas, ostensibly putting
him in charge of Gaza. But in
reality, Hamas, with its thousands
of fighters and arsenal of rockets,
remains the real power.
Another member of the Palestinian
delegation reported some
nounced that it has just reached
and agreement for its new lead
designer Aftab Ahmed. Mr.
Ahmed comes with years of experience
in Wordpress Design as
well as an extensive background
in Graphic Design and is a leading
Photoshop Designer as well.
Mr. Ahmed said, “I am so
excited about being able to work
By Alexander Dziadosz and Raheem Salman
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An increasingly isolated
Nuri al-Maliki again protested his removal as
Iraqi prime minister on Wednesday, as his own political
party and his former sponsor in Iran publicly
endorsed a successor who many in Baghdad hope
can halt advancing Sunni jihadists.
Although abandoned by former backers in the
United States and Iraq’s Shi’ite political and religious
establishment, Maliki pressed his legal claim
on power. Premier-designate Haider al-Abadi,
meanwhile, held consultations on forming a coalition
government that can unite warring factions after
eight years that drove Sunnis to revolt over what
they say was Maliki’s sectarian bias.
Shi’ite-led government forces and their allies
among the ethnic Kurdish militias of northern Iraq
were in action on the front lines against the Sunni
fighters of the Islamic State as European Union
states began to follow the U.S. lead and provide
arms directly to the Kurds and step up efforts to help
tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the advancing
hard-line Islamists.
Maliki has built up a network of commanders in
the armed forces and Shi’ite militias who are loyal
to him, but there was no sign that he was ready to
resort to force against Abadi, a long-time associate
in the Islamic Dawa Party.
In his continuing capacity as acting prime minister,
Maliki said in a speech on state television that
he was waiting for Iraq’s Supreme Court to rule on
his complaint that, as leader of the biggest bloc in
the parliament elected in April, it was he, not Abadi,
whom the president should invite to form a government.
A court ruling against Maliki could be a way
out of the stand-off.
“The violation that occurred has no value,” Maliki
said. “This government is continuing, and will
not be changed except after the Federal Court issues
its decision.”
In a blow to Maliki, his Dawa Party called on
Iraqi politicians to work with Abadi to form a new
government.
The United States, during whose occupation
Maliki first rose to power, made clear again that
progress, saying Israel had offered
a number of gestures aimed
at improving life for Gaza’s 1.8
million residents. They included
an increase in the number of
trucks permitted to deliver goods
into the territory from Israel each
day, and the transfer of funds by
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority to
Hamas-affiliated government
employees in Gaza. The cashstrapped
Hamas has been unable
to pay the salaries of its employees
for months.
Also included in the purported
Israeli package, the official
said, was an eventual quadrupling
— to 12 miles (19 kilometers)
— of the sea area in which Gaza
in such a creative environment, I
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believes
that the addition of Mr. Ahmed
Maliki Refuses to Go as Iraqis
Turn to New Leader
fishing vessels are permitted to
operate.
But the official said Israel
was linking progress on the Palestinians’
biggest demands —
to reopen the territory’s sea and
airport — to Hamas disarming.
The group has rejected this demand.
He spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was discussing
ongoing negotiations.
Palestinian officials said they
were open to extending the talks
if progress was being made.
Israeli officials declined
comment on the negotiations. But
in a possible sign of progress, the
Egypt, p. 18
will greatly enhance the already
formidable capabilities of Discountwebdesigns.net
to keep
pace with the ever-changing technology.
“I am delighted that Aftab
has decided to join us in our quest
to being the best web designers
in the business. Aftab brings
with him a wealth of knowledge
as well as an energy that I believe
will help catapult our company.
it has had enough of him. The White House said
it would be glad to see an Abadi government and
urged Maliki to let the political process move forward.
IRANIAN ENDORSEMENT
And Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, bound to Tehran’s U.S. adversary by a
common interest in curbing the rise of Sunni jihadists
in Syria and Iraq, offered his personal endorsement
to Abadi. He very publicly distanced himself
in the process from Maliki, who has looked for support
from Iran, where he spent years in exile opposing
Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
“I hope the designation of the new prime minister
in Iraq will untie the knot and lead to the establishment
of a new government and teach a good lesson
to those who aim for sedition in Iraq,” Khamenei
said in a statement on his website.
Iranian media carried reports that Khamenei
sent an envoy last month to take part in discussions
with Shi’ite political and religious leaders to find an
alternative to Maliki.
Those leaders, including reclusive top cleric
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week rallied
around Abadi, who once ran a British engineering
company, as a compromise figure who could bring
moderate Sunnis into power.
In online statements, Abadi said on Wednesday
he had called on the various political blocs to appoint
representatives to take part in talks on forming
a cabinet. He hoped for a “strong government” that
could help the country resolve the “crises and problems
it faces on the political and security levels.”
The U.N. Security Council urged Abadi “to
work swiftly” to form an inclusive government and
called on all political parties and their supporters “to
remain calm and respect the political process.”
VIOLENCE IN BAGHDAD
There was more bloodshed in Baghdad, where
at least 12 people were killed by bombs in two mainly
Shi’ite areas.
Violence also was reported along the 1,000-km
(600-mile) front established by the Islamic State,
Maliki, p. 18
puzzle answers from
pp. 21 and 16

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
arizona
arizona update
Compiled by Nidah Chatriwala
The Rug of Purification
By Nidah Chatriwala, TMO
You open me up and lay me
down over dirt.
I silently spread without any
discomfort.
Hope guides your feet onto
me.
You take your position carrying
the weight of yours sins as
deep as the sea.
Intention veils your heart
and mind.
You then recite verses that
will please the Creator who is the
most kind.
You praise Him in your bow.
You beg for His mercy here
and now.
As an obedient slave, your
forehead meets my chest.
Whispering your plea for
guidance you prolong your prostration
to experience rest.
Wrinkled hands swipe my
velvet threads in reverse.
Daily chores and worries
play in your mind making you feel
worse.
You fight to stay focused.
Under all that darkness a
faint hint of light is noticed.
Your life’s deeds and sins
playback in your mind like a film.
You then question your status
as a Muslim.
Tears carrying your request
for forgiveness fall upon me.
Your fragrance merges with
mine as you embrace me as a
The Muslim Observer
9
devotee.
Rituals continue until you
have fulfilled the command of salaah.
Turning your head right and
then left you offer salaam.
You brush past my shoulder
to pick the necklace made up of
beads.
Dropping them in the center
of my heart, you then make dua to
express your needs.
Time for departure gets near.
Your renewed emaan has
now made you sincere.
Two folds is all it took for you
to close me up before putting me
back on the dusty shelf.
I am the rug of purification
so forget me not or risk forgetting
yourself.
Nidah Chatriwala
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10 The Muslim Observer international
Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Russia to Boost Trade with
Egypt after Western Food Ban
By Alexei Anishchuk
SOCHI, Russia, Aug 12
(Reuters) - Russia will increase
exports of wheat to Egypt and
imports of other agriculture products
from it, Russian officials said
on Tuesday as the two countries
discussed the potential for free
trade.
The move comes as Russia
seeks new sources of supply after
it banned most food imports from
the United States, the European
Union, Australia, Canada and
Norway last week in retaliation
for Western sanctions over the
crisis in Ukraine.
“Egypt has already increased
(agricultural) supplies to our market
by 30 percent (and) is ready to
increase (supplies) by yet another
30 percent in the near future,”
Russian President Vladimir Putin
said after meeting with Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Increased Egyptian shipments
of products such as potato,
onion, garlic and oranges will
compensate for up to half of the
shortfall of these products caused
by the ban, Russian Agriculture
Minister Nikolai Fyodorov told
reporters in Sochi.
Egypt is the world’s biggest
wheat importer and the largest
buyer of Russian wheat. The
North African country bought 3.6
million tonnes of Russian wheat
in the marketing year to end-June.
“Our partners were interested
in opportunities for this year’s
export,” Putin told reporters. “For
Egypt it will be at least 5-5.5 million
tonnes.”
Putin did not say who would
supply the additional volumes.
Russian grain exports are dominated
by foreign and local nongovernment
trading firms.
Putin and al-Sisi discussed
on Tuesday the creation of a free
trade zone between Egypt and the
Moscow-led Customs Union of
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan,
Putin said.
They also discussed the possibility
of setting up an Egyptian
transport logistics hub on the
Russian Black Sea coast and the
creation of a Russian industrial
hub in Egypt as part of its Suez
canal development project.
Russia last year imported
$17.2 billion worth of food from
the countries covered by the sanctions,
of which $9.2 billion was in
the affected categories, according
to the International Trade Center,
a joint venture of the United Nations
and World Trade Organization.
(Writing by Polina Devitt
and Katya Golubkova; Editing
by Alexander Winning and Jane
Baird)
Bombed Three Times, 85-year-old
Palestinian Is Refugee Again
By Sylvia Westall
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian Ibrahim Mohammad
al-Toum, 85, sleeps on the floor on a thin mattress
in a Gaza schoolroom, displaced for the third
time in six years.
A farmer of oranges and lemons, his house in
northern Gaza City has been bombed in each of the
three Israeli-Palestinian conflicts since 2008. He has
no idea why he has been singled out in this way.
“Why did they do it? Why? It is unfair, unfair! I
am a peaceful man!” he said, sitting on the mattress
in the schoolroom, surrounded by members of his
extended family.
At any rate, he will not blame the Palestinian
authorities in the Gaza Strip, a coastal enclave of 1.8
million people dominated since 2007 by the Islamist
Who’s Your Mummy? Egyptian
Mummification Older than Was Thought
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It has long been
known that the practice of mummification of the
dead in ancient Egypt - fundamental to that civilization’s
belief in eternal life - was old, but only now
are researchers unwrapping the mystery of just how
long ago it began.
Researchers on Wednesday said a form of mummification
was being carried out there more than six
thousand years ago, much earlier than previously
thought. They said embalming substances contained
in funerary textiles from the oldest-known Egyptian
cemeteries showed mummy-making from as early
as about 4300 BC.
The embalming agents were infused into the
linen used to wrap the corpse to provide an antibacterial
and protective barrier. It was not as elaborate
as the process used much later on the bodies of powerful
pharaohs and other elites as well as many ordinary
Egyptians, but came more than 1,500 years earlier
than Egyptian mummification had been thought
to have started.
There is evidence of mummification involving
remains from around 2600 BC of Queen Hetepheres,
mother of Khufu, the pharaoh who commissioned
the Great Pyramid at Giza outside Cairo. There also
is evidence of linen that contained resin being used
to wrap bodies around 2800 BC.
The researchers were amazed to find that the
plant, animal and mineral components used in preparing
the mummies at the cemeteries in Mostagedda
in central Egypt were essentially the same embalming
“recipe” used thousands of years later at the
pinnacle of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
“I was surprised that the prehistoric Egyptians,
who lived in a tribal society 1,000 years before the
invention of writing, were already in possession of
the empirical science that would later become true
Ibrahim Mohammad al-Toum, 85, poses in his home that he says has been bombed three times in six years by the Israeli
army, in Gaza City, August 11, 2014. A farmer of oranges and lemons, his house in northern Gaza City has been bombed
in each of the three Israeli-Palestinian conflicts since 2008.
REUTERS/Siegfried Modola
Hamas faction.
Israel says Hamas is responsible because it uses
residential areas as arms depots and launchpads for
rockets, drawing Israeli strikes.
But Toum said it was up to powers outside Gaza
to do something to end the conflict, not authorities
inside. “The Arab countries were asleep when Israel
struck,” Toum said. “The solution is with the Arab
countries, with America to put pressure on Israel. I
don’t want more war, why was there a war?”
Egypt is mediating a new round of indirect
peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, but
with the Middle East gripped by a series of crises
from Libya to Iraq, attention paid by the Arab world
to the Palestinian cause is less than it used to be.
This is despite a higher death toll - 1,938 Palestinians
and 67 Israelis - than in
past Gaza clashes.
Local rights activists say the
month-long conflict has displaced
around 520,000 Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip, and at least half of
them, like Toum and his family,
have been staying in United Nations
refugee camps in schools.
With a new ceasefire agreed
late on Sunday, some families
started to return to their homes
from the camps on Monday, carrying
bags and mattresses on their
backs or loading up donkey carts.
Toum is not sure how he
will repair his house again. When
the Israeli army warned it would
bomb his district last month, the
father of 10 fled Gaza’s northern
Tawam neighborhood.
Tawam used to be covered in
farms but over Toum’s lifetime it
has given way to concrete houses
that have squeezed the rural land.
Toum is worried that his citrus
trees have not received enough
water during the war and he expects
they are dead.
The neighborhood has suffered
relatively light damage in
battles between Israeli soldiers
and Palestinian militants this
time. Several homes have been
destroyed and one of the mosques
is wrecked, its dome lying amid
rubble.
When the fighting began,
Toum traveled to the U.N. camp
in the school on a donkey cart
with members of his family, taking
only two mattresses and a
coarse grey blanket, which four
of them would later share.
mummification,” said one of the researchers, Jana
Jones, an Egyptologist at Macquarie University in
Australia.
Biochemical analysis identified the components
from funerary textiles retrieved from the cemeteries
during excavations in the 1920s and 1930s and
held in Britain’s Bolton Museum. The “recipe” consisted
of a plant oil or animal fat base, with smaller
amounts of a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a
plant gum and petroleum.
“The ancient Egyptians believed the survival of
the body after death was necessary in order to ‘live
again’ in the afterlife and become immortal. Without
the preserved body, this was not possible,” said Stephen
Buckley, an archaeological chemist at Britain’s
University of York who led the scientific research.
Jones said mummification demanded rare and
costly ingredients, some from distant lands. Pine
resin in the Mostagedda textiles may have come
from southeastern Turkey, many hundreds of miles
away.
The practice of mummification reached its peak
during the era known as the New Kingdom, between
about 1550 BC and 1000 BC, when powerful pharaohs
reigned including Ramses II and Thutmose
III, as well as the “boy king” Tutankhamun, better
known as “King Tut.”
It largely stopped with Christianity’s influence
around AD 400. Some Christians continued it in
some form until it ended completely with the arrival
of Arabs spreading the new religion of Islam in AD
642.
The study appears in the scientific journal
PLOS ONE.
(Reporting by Will Dunham, editing by G
Crosse)
His simple concrete house
was hit shortly afterwards, causing
parts of two of its four floors
to collapse together. Toum tried
to return with his 75-year-old
wife Amena several days later but
the area was too dangerous.
“When I and my wife went
back to try to take belongings,
they bombed it again, during
Ramadan. We did not have the
Eid feast this year because of the
war,” he said.
It is an experience he has
gone through twice before during
his old age. Each time the journey
to the camp could take up to one
hour “depending on the health of
the donkey”, he said.
“In 2008 the planes came and
bombed the home. I came to a
refugee school in Gaza. We lived
on bread and cans of fish for 23
days. Then back to Tawam, and
they had destroyed my home,” he
said, starting to cry quietly.
He was given 4,000 euros
($5,354.34) from the United Nations
to rebuild the house but four
years later it was bombed for a
second time.
In 2012, Toum was in the
bedroom when the shelling started.
When he returned after several
days in a refugee camp, the
bedroom walls were pitted with
bullets and there was a gaping
hole near the window.
This time he says he will stay
in the school until water and electricity
are restored to his home
and he feels that the area is safe
again. “But nowhere is better than
home,” he said.

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Estimator: Good News for
Texas’s Economic Outlook
“The Texas ECONOMY continues to expand. We’re through recovery
and into expansion.”
That was the good news
brought by John Heleman, chief
revenue estimator for the office
of the Comptroller of Public Accounts,
to the members of the
state’s Legislative Budget Board
(LBB) this week. Heleman offered
a report on the state’s economy
and an overview of Texas
state revenue.
houston
Houstonian Corner
In fact, he said, if Texas were
a nation, the State would have
the 12th largest economy in the
world, slightly behind Canada,
but larger than Australia.
It was good news all around
from Heleman, who reported that
the state’s economy “CONTIN-
UES to outperform” the United
States’ economy. Texas is “continuing
its trend of growing faster
Compiled by Ilyas Choudry, houston@muslimobserver.com
than our nation as a whole.” Heleman
added that the Comptroller
expects to see a little more money
than anticipated in the rainy day
fund, with an anticipated ending
balance of about $8.4 billion for
FY 2015. And, that figure assumes
passage by Texas voters
of Prop. 1 in November, which
would transfer $1.7 billion out of
the rainy day fund for highway
expenditures.
And how is the state’s revenue
system performing? Heleman
offered this analysis:
Sales tax – The state’s largest
tax has grown quickly. Figures released
just this week show fiscal
year-to-date state sales tax collections
are up more than 5 percent.
Motor vehicle tax – Described
as “particularly robust.”
In 2009, there was an “unprecedented”
22 percent decline in one
year during the early part of the
recession. There were few NEW
CAR PURCHASES. Sales tax
receipts are up 6.25 percent this
fiscal year.
FRANCHISE TAX – The
state is nearing the estimated $4.7
billion in receipts. A rate reduction
in effect this year could very
well be extended – and doubled
– next year.
Oil production and natural
gas tax – Tax receipts in this category
are “outproducing what was
The Muslim Observer
11
expected,” largely due to Eagle
Ford Shale.
In spite of these positive
numbers, LBB member Lt. Gov.
David Dewhurst warned that the
state continues to grow in population
by 1.7 percent per year, and
that growth will have an impact
on the money needed to fund
public education and the state’s
“SAFETY net programs.”
In his overview of the state
ECONOMY, Heleman said Texas
entered the recent recession later
than the nation as a whole, exited
at the same time, but lost fewer
non-farm payroll workers than
the United States as a whole.
He said Texas’ current payroll
worker number are up 3.3
percent over the last 12 months
– growing “twice as fast” as employment
growth of the nation.
And, the state’s unemployment
rate of 5.1 percent is a full percentage
point better than the nation’s.
“We still have 31 states that
have yet to recover all their jobs
they lost in the recession,” said
Heleman. “Many states are struggling.
We’re not seeing that in
Texas.”
The Comptroller’s Office
representative said by November
2011, Texas had recovered all of
the jobs it lost as a result of the recession.
The United States, however,
is just now at the same level
of employment as it was six and
one-half years ago.
Regarding housing, Heleman
said the United States market is
“struggling to recover,” while
Texas is doing “somewhat better”
and the inventory on the market
is growing smaller. Regarding
COMMERCIAL office space,
Heleman said the Dallas, Houston
and Austin Class A office space
vacancy rate is below 10 percent,
even with new construction and
higher rental fees.
THE PRICE OF OIL has
“settled down,” according to Heleman,
and is “relatively stable.”
The focus in Texas now is on
crude oil. He explained that there
are currently about 900 rigs in
the state and only 74 of them are
drilling for natural gas. The other
800-plus are drilling for crude
oil, evidenced by the increase in
activity in both the Eagle Ford
Shale area and the Permian Basin.
Later this week, State Comptroller
Susan Combs said she
anticipates there will be at least
$232 million more in revenue
than her official estimate last
year. That excess will likely allow
the State Legislature to extend the
current FRANCHISE TAX cut
for most businesses and increase
it to 5 percent.

12 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
London
from pg 1
In order to pacify rising
public anger against it, BBC has
shown live coverage of the rally
albeit not without the statement
of an Israeli diplomat expressing
his displeasure, “We don’t have a
problem with the protest per se;
we have a problem with people
expressing support for a terror organisation
which is designated in
the UK [Hamas] and which today
is the key obstacle to the prosperity
of Gaza.”
In another development BBC
has, after the approval from Israeli
Government, decided to broadcast
Gaza relief appeal something
it had refused to show in 2009 on
the pretext that such an appeal
would compromise its impartiality.
It should be remembered that
BBC’s director of news James
Harding is an unabashed supporter
of the Zionist state. Mr Harding,
also former editor of ‘The
Times,’ is on record to have told
‘Jewish Chronicle‘, “I am pro-
Israel,” he said. “I believe in the
state of Israel. I would have had a
real problem if I had been coming
to a paper with a history of being
anti-Israel. And, of course, Rupert
Murdoch is pro-Israel.
Interestingly in 2004 succumbing
to the immense Zionist
pressure Guardian newspaper had
to get rid of its trainee journalist
Dilpazier Aslam for his association
with Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
“Bit by bit, one by one, Israeli
apartheid has to go”; “When injustice
becomes law, resistance
becomes duty”; “Stop bombing
Palestine”; “Stop the massacre”;
“BBC stop whitewashing Israel’s
crimes”
The rally ended at the Hyde
Park where speakers after speakers
attacked Israel and demanded
the British Government to put
arms embargo on Israel.
Addressing the rally known
human rights activist, leader of
the Respect Party and MP from
Bradford, George Galloway who
was reportedly facing the threats
of being arrested and prosecutedfor
declaring in a rally “Bradford
as an Israel-free Zone”.
Reiterating his stand he decontinuation
Holding banners, placards
and even flags of different countries,
protesters passed by the US
Embassy where they stopped for
a while pointing fingers towards
the Embassy building and chanted
in utter anger and disgust,
“shame on you, shame on you”.
Other slogans included,
“Killing children is a crime, free
free Palestine”; “In a thousand
in a million, we are all Palestinians”;
“In a million, in a billion
we are all Palestinians”; “From
the river to the sea, Palestine will
be free”; “One to three four, occupation
no more, five six seven
eight Israel is a terrorist state”;
“Shame on Cameroon, shame on
Netanyahu”; “Gaza, Gaza don’t
you cry we will not let you die”;
clared that he wanted, “Absolute
ban on Israel” except those four
percent of brave Israelis who had
come out in protest against Israeli
atrocities and have endured police
action. He dared the British
Government to arrest him saying,
“Nothing will make me happier
than to meet you in court”. The
MP known for his outspokenness
added, “All the speakers have
told you nothing but the truth but
none of the speakers has yet told
the whole truth and here is the
truth: the whole state of Israel is
a completely illegitimate enterprise.”
Veteran activist, writer and
journalist Tariq Ali said that
British politicians in all political
parties need to understand that,
“There is no equivalence between
the Palestinian resistance and the
Israeli occupation. When a country
is occupied whether it was
Algeria, whether it was Vietnam,
whether it’s Iraq, whether it’s any
other country, always a resistance
emerges. And it’s no good saying
it isn’t a perfect resistance. If the
occupation is ugly you will not
have a pretty resistance…If you
want the tunnels to stop being
built. If you want no rockets being
fired, get out of Gaza, get out
of Palestine.”
Tariq Ali added that in an
interview, not reported in any
mainstream media, to Zionist
American journalist David
Horowitz asked Netanyahu if he
was honestly prepared to consider
a democratic sovereign Palestine,
“Netanyahu replied very clearly,
‘No’. And he is telling the truth.
It’s not just Netanyahu; this has
been the policy of every successive
Zionist government in Israel.
They will not tolerate an independent
Palestine. And that’s why
we say if you are not prepared to
tolerate that then there’s only one
solution: ONE STATE.”
In a pre-recorded telephonic
message from Gaza Palestinian
MP Mustafa Barghouti said no
camera can record the brutality
and devastation he had seen with
his eyes there.
Other speakers included Labour
MPs, Diane Abbott and Jeremy
Corbyn.
This rally was part of the
weekly protests being organised
by Stop the War Coalition,
Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
Friends of Al Aqsa, British
Muslim Initiative, Muslim Association
of Britain and Palestinian
Forum in Britain against Israeli
barbarism.
Among various groups and
organisations participating in the
protest was South Asia Solidarity
Group. A statement distributed by
the SASG at the rally condemned
Israeli barbarism and, “Indian
government for its shameful silence
and ambiguity over Israel’s
genocide and its refusal initially
to even discuss the issue in Parliament.”
It also deplored “India’s
deepening relationship with Israel.”
The Milli Gazette Online

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
continuations
The Muslim Observer
13
PhDs
from pg 2
The couple met as undergraduates
in their native Pakistan,
and Ajaib began graduate studies
at UD in 2008. The next year they
married, and Nasir also enrolled
at UD. Both say that because their
research was largely computational,
as opposed to laboratorybased
experimentation, much of
it could be done at home, giving
them some flexibility in child
care.
Nasir was a teaching assistant
and so spent more time on campus
than her husband, a research
assistant, did. “So he was home
Ahmed
from pg 1
a Nizamabad (Telangana) born
psychiatrist and an alumnus of
Aligarh Muslim University’s
medical college, has been elected
president of West Virginia Board
of Medicine for a two year term.
He was trained in the India, UK,
and the US. He immigrated to the
US in 1976.
Elected a fellow of the American
Psychiatric Association in
1989. He was awarded Distinguished
Life Fellow status, the
association’s highest honor.
Faheem received the Wyeth-
Ayerst Outstanding Community
with our daughter the most,” she
said. “When she first started to
talk, she called him ‘Mama.’”
With their extended family
half a world away, the couple
relied on a part-time baby sitter
and on the understanding of
their colleagues. Shafi, they said,
was especially supportive in encouraging
them to work at home
whenever possible.
Since completing their doctoral
work, life hasn’t slowed
down a lot. This week, the family
is packing and preparing to move.
Nasir smiled: “That’s another
challenge,” she said.
Service Award from the West Virginia
State Medical Association
in 1991 and is a past president of
the Beckley Appalachian Regional
Hospital, the Raleigh County
Medical Society and the West
Virginia Psychiatric Association.
He is also associate medical
director of general psychiatry and
medical director of adolescent
psychiatry at Beckley Appalachian
Regional Hospital, established
a teen outreach program
in Beckley for troubled teenagers
and was the alternate West
Virginia delegate to the AMA for
several year.

14 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Al-Aqsa
from pg 1
Him). Muslims have always been
its true custodians despite illegal
Zionist encroachments.
Glorified by He [Allah]
who transported His servant
[Muhammad(upon Him peace
and blessings)] by night from
Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-
Aqsa whose surroundings He has
blessed, so that We may show
him of Our [God’s] signs… (Al-
Qur’an: 17:01).
Masjid al-Aqsa holds immense
significance in Islamic
religious tradition as well as history.
It is known as the first qibla
of Muslims—the direction
toward which Muslims face to
offer their salat (prayer) —as well
as the third holiest site in Islam. It
is built on the site where the noble
Messenger (upon Him peace
and blessings ) led all the earlier
Prophets in prayer when he was
transported by night from Masjid
al-Haram (in Makkah) before his
miraj (ascension to Heaven) to
the point referred to in the Qur’an
as Sidrat al-Muntaha (53:10-16).
In contemporary history, it
has become a contested place
because the Zionists claim it is
built on the site where their first
and second temples originally
existed. A great deal of myth is
interwoven into this narrative despite
the fact that the temple was
destroyed repeatedly by invading
forces. The Babylonian king
Bakhtnasr (Nebuchadnezzer) attacked
Jerusalem in 587 BC and
destroyed the temple (Beyetel).
The Israelites were enslaved and
suffered greatly for more than 70
years.
There were several phases of
rebuilding and destruction of the
temple the last being the Romans’
destruction of it in 70 CE. No
trace of the temple has ever existed.
While the some hard-core
Zionists are currently trying to
encroach on the Haram al-Sharif
(the noble Sanctuary) and are
even demanding the right to worship
there, Rabbinical law prohibits
Jews from setting foot on
the Temple Mount for fear of desecrating
the “holy of Holies” in
Jewish religious tradition. There
is in fact a board erected near
the Haram al-Sharif that houses
both the Masjid al-Aqsa as well
as Dome of the Rock and numerous
madrassas (religious schools)
and other smaller structures, prohibiting
Jewish trespassing of the
Haram al-Sharif.
Let us first consider who
built Masjid al-Aqsa: was it the
father-and-son Prophets Dawud
(David, peace be upon Him)and
Prophet Sulaiman (Solomon,
peace be upon Him), as claimed
by the Zionists, or built even earlier?
We know from the Qur’an
(2:127-128) that the father and
son Prophets, Ibrahim and Ishmael
(peace be upon them) built
the Ka‘aba in conformity with the
command of God. The Ka‘aba in
Makkah is the first House of worship
for God on earth. Prophet
Abraham (peace be upon Him)
had settled his first son Ishmael
(peace be upon Him) and his
mother, Hajar (peace be upon
Her) there, again according to the
command of God.
Prophet Abraham (peace be
upon Him), however, did not live
in Makkah; he lived in Palestine
in the place that takes its name
from him: al-Khalil (Hebron).
Is it conceivable that Prophet
Abraham (peace be upon Him)
would build a place of worship in
Makkah but not have a place of
worship in Jerusalem that is right
next to Hebron? As the Patriarch
of all the Prophets of God, Abraham
(peace be upon Him) also
built a place of worship in Jerusalem.
This came to be known as
Beteyel (meaning the House of
God in Hebrew).
When Ibrahim’s (peace be
upon Him) second son Is’haq
(Isaac) was born and grew up in
Hebron, he would go to worship
in Beteyel. Interestingly, Is’haq
(peace be upon Him) who was
also a noble Prophet of God, also
prayed in the Ka‘aba in Makkah
and performed the Hajj pilgrimage
there together with his father
(Abraham (peace be upon Him)
and brother (Ishmael (peace be
upon Him), again according to
the commands of God. It was
Abraham (peace be upon Him)
that named Beteyel as Masjid al-
Aqsa—the farthest mosque—in
deference to the Ka ‘aba, from
which it was located far away to
the northwest.
Yaqub (peace be upon Him),
known in the Bible as Jacob who
was the son of Is’haq (peace be
upon Him), was also a noble
Prophet who opened Beteyel as
a place of worship for all those
that accepted the One true God,
God. Naturally in the land of
Palestine many other tribes resided.
The land takes its name
from the Philistines, the people
that lived there. Among the other
tribes were the Moabites and Hittites.
The latter tribe was the one
to which the mother of Solomon
belonged. It needs recalling that
Abraham (peace be upon Him)
was born in Ur (present-day Iraq)
and was forced into exile because
of the oppression and persecution
he faced at the hands of the tyrant
Nimrood. After a long journey,
Abraham (peace be upon Him)
finally settled in al-Khalil (Palestine).
Prophetic history takes many
turns and it is no different with
the Prophets from the lineage of
Abraham (peace be upon Him).
Prophet Joseph (peace be upon
Him) [Joseph] was greatly loved
by his father Yaqub (peace be
upon Him). This created huge
jealousy among his step-brothers
who plotted to kill him but finally
decided to throw him a well.
He was rescued from the
well and sold into slavery ending
in Egypt where the ruler employed
him. The ruler’s wife had
a crush on him because Joseph
(peace be upon Him) was a very
handsome young man but God
protected him from committing
sin and despite being innocent, he
ended up in prison where he spent
many years. When he was finally
continuation
released, the king appointed him
to the important post of the kingdom’s
treasury and he became the
de facto ruler of Egypt. The story
of Joseph (peace be upon Him) is
narrated in exquisite detail in the
noble Qur’an in the surah by the
same name (Surah Yusuf).
Once Joseph (peace be
upon Him) had attained power
in Egypt, he invited his family—father,
mothers and brothers—to
live with him in Egypt.
They readily accepted the offer
as narrated in the chapter on Genesis
46 in the Torah. No one from
Yaqub’s (peace be upon Him)
family was left to take care of
Beteyel/Masjid al-Aqsa. Thus, he
gave charge of the masjid to the
local inhabitants, the Palestinians.
The children of Yaqub (peace be
upon Him), referred to as Bani
Israel in the noble Qur’an lived
in Egypt for more than 400 years.
There was never a hint that they
should return to Palestine to reclaim
ownership/custodianship of
Masjid al-Aqsa.
Many generations later, the
Bani Israel were taken as slaves
by the pharaohs and it was not
until God raised Moses (peace
be upon Him) [Moses] among
them that he led them out of slavery
and across the Red Sea into
the Sinai Peninsula. When God
ordered them to enter Palestine,
they refused, incurring God’s
wrath to wander in the desert for
40 years. During this time, Moses
(peace be upon Him) died
and God raised another Prophet,
David (peace be upon Him) who
was a soldier in the army of Saul.
Because of his courage, David
(peace be upon Him) was made
king and entered Palestine to establish
his kingdom there.
It was Solomon who rebuilt
the temple (Masjid al-Aqsa) with
the support and help of the indigenous
people, principally the
Palestinians. The father-son rule,
however, lasted a total of 73 years.
Thereafter, his sons divided the
kingdom and power once again
slipped from their hands. A chain
of Prophets emerged among their
progeny but the Bani Israel (Children
of Israel) were always argumentative
and refused to abide by
the teachings of the Prophets. The
Qur’an narrates that they killed
many of their prophets among
them Zakariya (peace be upon
Him) as well as his son Yahya –
John the Baptist (peace be upon
Him).
As mentioned earlier, the
Babylonian king Bakhtnasr (Nebuchadnezzer)
laid siege to Jerusalem
and took over the city
and Palestine in 587 BC. He
destroyed the temple/Masjid al-
Aqsa and enslaved all the people.
This story is narrated in detail in
the Bible in Kings 2 Chapters 24
and 25. The Torah also says that
the Israelites were enslaved in
both the Nile (Egypt) and in the
Euphrates (by the Babylonians).
The Persian King Cyrus the
Great rescued the Bani Israel after
seventy years of slavery in
Babylon. He also permitted them
to return to Palestine from where
the Babylonians had driven them
out. The Persian Empire faced a
rival in the Roman Empire and
constant battles occurred between
them. In the year 70 CE, the Romans
captured Jerusalem and destroyed
the temple one more time.
Barely 65 years later in what is
referred to as the Bar Kokhba revolt,
the Romans massacred the
Bani Israel (Children of Israel)
and even dug out the foundations
of the temple in the year 135 CE.
By now, the Romans had accepted
Christianity as their religion
and their enmity toward the Jews
intensified as killers of Prophet
Isa (Jesus - peace be upon Him).
The Romans, however, faced
a constant threat from the Persians
and in the year 614 CE, the
latter took control of Jerusalem
from the Romans. In Makkah
where the noble Messenger
(peace be upon Him) had started
his mission of propagating Islam,
the polytheists made fun of Muslims
because the fire-worshipping
Zoroastrians had vanquished the
Christian Romans. The Qur’an
narrates this in the opening verses
of Surah al-Rum in which God
says that not only the Romans but
Muslims too would be victorious
within a period of less than 10
years.
Given the plight of Muslims
at the time—their numbers were
small and they faced great persecution—the
Makkah polytheist
made great fun of the Qur’anic
verses but God’s Word came
true—as it was bound to—within
the stipulated timeframe and not
only the Romans defeated their
Persian rivals but the Muslims
also triumphed over their Makkah
foes in the Battle of Badr.
It is also pertinent to note
that when Muslims migrated
from Makkah to Madinah, for the
first 17 months, they faced toward
Masjid al-Aqsa in their prayer. It
was during dhuhr salat (the midday
prayer) in the second year of
the hijrah that God’s revelation
about the change of qibla (direction
of prayer) from Masjid al-
Aqsa in Jerusalem to Masjid al-
Haram in Makkah came. This is
narrated in the Quran (2:142-43).
The mosque in Madinah where
the Prophet (peace be upon Him)
was leading the Muslims in salat
is today called Masjid Qiblatain
(Masjid of the two qiblas).
Jerusalem, however, came
into Muslim possession only during
the Khilafah of Umar (Allah
be pleased with Him) in the year
638 CE. The Christian Patriarch,
Sophronius had insisted that he
would hand over the keys of Jerusalem
only to the ruler of Muslims.
The second Khalifah Umar
was on a campaign in the Golan
Heights and when word reached
him, he hurried to Jerusalem to
take possession of the keys without
causing any bloodshed in the
city.
When he entered the city,
Umar (Allah be pleased with
Him) located the place where
the noble Messenger (peace be
upon Him) had led all the Prophets
in prayer before his ascension
of Heaven on his mi‘raj. After
cleansing the place thoroughly,
he led the Muslims in prayer and
a makeshift mosque was erected
there. This simple structure later
developed into what is called
Masjid al-Aqsa today and has
been in Muslim possession ever
since.
There is also another more
impressive structure that emerged
on the Haram al-Sharif. This is
called the Dome of the Rock and
has a huge gold dome. The Ummayyad
ruler Abdul Malik built
this about 50 years later over the
rock where the Heavenly stead,
the Buraq was tethered when the
Prophet (upon Him peace and
blessings) led the other Prophets
in prayer. After mounting the
Buraq that started to ascend, the
rock followed. The Angel Gabriel
asked the noble Messenger (upon
Him peace and blessings) to order
the rock from rising.
The noble Messenger (upon
Him peace and blessings) put his
foot on the rock ordering it to
stop. To this day, there is a footprint
on the rock and it remains
suspended except for very thin
metal rods underneath it. This is
the place where the Dome of the
Rock Mosque exists.
The Muslims lost Masjid al-
Aqsa and Jerusalem to the Crusaders
in the year 1099 CE. Muslim
rulers surrounding Palestine
had become corrupt, much like
the rulers today and had lost the
will to defend Islam or Muslims.
It was not until another 88 years
before Salahuddin Ayyubi (Saladin)
liberated Masjid al-Aqsa and
Jerusalem from the clutches of
the Crusaders.
Unfortunately the decline in
Muslim rule and corruption in
their ranks has led to the loss of
Masjid al-Aqsa one more time. It
occurred in several phases. When
the Ottoman Empire was defeated
and dismembered, the British colonialists
took control of Palestine
and in typical colonial style started
to disburse Muslim lands to
others. The Europeans had never
tolerated the Jews in their midst;
the frequent pogroms against
them being a constant reminder of
the intolerance of the Europeans.
In 1918, when Britain occupied
Palestine, they conspired to hand
it over to the Jews—actually the
Zionists — as a permanent homeland
totally ignoring the rights of
the indigenous Palestinian people.
At the time the Zionist state
was created in Palestine in 1948,
more than 60 percent of Palestinian
land was handed over to the
Zionists. The rest was grabbed
by the Zionists in 1967 together
with East Jerusalem that houses
the Masjid al-Aqsa as well as the
Dome of the Rock.
That is where the situation
stands today:
Masjid al-Aqsa, indeed the
entire Haram al-Sharif is under
Zionist occupation and threat of
destruction. Even while Muslims
throughout their history provided
sanctuary to the Jewish people after
they suffered persecution elsewhere,
the Zionists have turned
out to be the worst kinds of op-
Al Aqsa, p. 15

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
news
Islamic State Carves Jihadist Hub
in Heart of Middle East
By Samia Nakhoul
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Ridiculed
at first, the new power
which has seized a third of Iraq
and triggered the first American
air strikes since the U.S. troop
withdrawal in 2011 – has carved
itself a powerful and possibly
lasting presence in the Middle
East.
The bombing of fighters of
the Sunni Islamic State is unlikely
to turn around Iraq and its
fragmented condition has given
the self-proclaimed caliphate the
opportunity to establish a hub of
jihadism in the heart of the Arab
world.
To confront the Islamic State
storming through the villages of
eastern Syria and western Iraq, an
international coalition sanctioned
by the United Nations would
need to be set up, analysts in and
outside the Gulf region said.
The jihadist army, whose
ambition for a cross-border caliphate
between the Euphrates
and the Tigris rivers was not initially
taken seriously by their opponents,
is now brimming with
confidence, emboldened by blood
and treasure.
The warriors of the new caliphate
are exploiting sectarian
and tribal faultlines in Arab society,
petrifying communities into
submission and exploiting the
reluctance of Washington and the
West to intervene more robustly
in the civil war in Syria.
Unlike Osama bin Laden’s
al Qaeda, which set its sights on
destroying the West, the Islamic
State has territorial goals, aims to
set up social structures and rages
against the Sykes-Picot agreement
of 1916 between Britain
and France that split the Ottoman
empire and carved borders across
the Arab lands.
President Barack Obama’s
decision to step back into the Iraq
quagmire nearly three years after
withdrawing U.S. troops, with
limited air strikes in the past few
days against the Islamic State,
arises in part because of inertia
over Syria.
A failure to arm the mainstream,
mostly Sunni, rebellion
against Bashar al-Assad’s authoritarian
rule opened space for
the Islamic State, which has now
surged back into a broken Iraq,
raising its black flag in town after
town, the analysts said.
Almost a year ago, in a lastminute
change of mind, Obama
decided against bombing Assad
amid accusations of nerve gas attacks
on rebel enclaves. That decision,
many believe, has proved
costly both in Syria and in neighboring
Iraq.
It reinvigorated Assad,
helped in the quashing of Syria’s
moderate rebels and empowered
the militant Islamists who
became a recruiting magnet for
disenchanted Sunnis in Syria and
Iraq.
GROWING CALIPHATE
Well financed and armed, IS
insurgents have captured large
swathes of territory in a summer
offensive, as the Iraqi army – and
now Kurdish Peshmerga forces
in the self-governing north - have
crumbled in the face of its onslaught,
massacring Shi’ites and
minority Christians and Yazidis
as they advance.
The military campaign has
been accompanied by a social
media blitz showing crucifixions,
beheadings and other atrocities.
To many, the business of the Islamic
State is killing infidels,
and it is better at it that any of its
forerunners including al Qaeda,
which has renounced its offshoot
as too brutal.
Interspersed with footage of
executions, and the marking out
of local minorities for extermination,
the message is that the Islamic
State does not just preach;
it acts mercilessly against its catalog
of enemies.
Using captured territory in
north and eastern Syria, nearly
35 percent of the country, as its
rear base, the IS is now attacking
northeastward into Iraqi Kurdistan
and even west across the border
of Lebanon.
Its rapid advances are made
possible by the disintegration
of Syria and Iraq, alienation of
Sunni communities willing to
ally even with IS to resist governments
they see as under the
thumb of Shi’ite Muslims and
their sponsor in Iran, and Sunni
rage at U.S. and Western policy
in the Middle East.
“If you have tens of thousands
of people who are willing
to fight under its banner, that by
itself tells you that the state system
itself is really almost in tatters,”
says Fawaz Gerges, head
of the Middle East Centre at the
London School of Economics.
Obama justified his air
strikes as humanitarian, to protect
tens of thousands of refugees
from the Yazidi community
threatened with genocide, and
defensive - to thwart any IS advance
on Arbil, capital of the
Kurdistan Regional Government
where U.S. diplomats and special
forces might be at risk.
But as Washington starts
provisioning poorly armed Peshmerga
forces policing a 1,000-
km (600-mile) border against
the new caliphate, the strategic
stakes are becoming clearer. The
United States hopes to revitalize
the Peshmerga, whose name
means those who confront death
but who were driven back by the
IS onslaught.
The United States has also
lined up behind Haidar al-Abadi,
a new Iraqi premier to replace
its former ally Nuri al-Maliki –
spurned by his Iranian backers
and most of his own party as a
liability whose sectarian policies
helped drive Iraq’s Sunni minority
into the jihadist camp. The
political struggle exposed the
treacherous political quicksand
Obama now faces.
Dr Hisham al-Hashimi, a
Baghdad-based researcher into
Iraq’s and the region’s armed
groups, said the Islamic State has
found ways to compensate for its
initial lack of manpower, estimated
by most analysts at between
10,000 and 15,000 fighters before
its rapid advance from Syria into
Iraq.
It may be overstretched by
its sudden conquest of vast territory
but has learned to use fear as
a strategic weapon. “The more it
terrorizes the people of those areas,
the longer it can stay” in control,
Hashimi said. “The caliphate
exists and is growing now, in an
environment where (Sunni opinion)
rejects the central government,
be that in Iraq or in Syria”.
In Syria, more than three
years of thwarted rebellion
against Assad, built around the
ruling family’s minority Alawite
sect, a heterodox offshoot of
Shi’ite Islam, has given the militants
a base in the east and north
and a following among the brutalized
Sunni majority.
In Iraq, the increasingly sectarian
rule of Maliki caused anger
in the Sunni minority, which held
power until the U.S.-led invasion
of 2003 deposed Saddam Hussein.
The IS is well-resourced,
with young volunteers, cash to
buy weapons and pay wages,
plus an arsenal of U.S.-supplied
heavy weapons it captured from
the Iraqi army in June, when it
overran the mainly Sunni cities of
Mosul and Tikrit.
Monster
from pg 3
The article concludes with a
grim statement by Brett McGurk,
a top State Department official
on Iraqi policy. At present Baghdadi
commands not just a terrorist
organization, but “a full blown
army,” McGurk said. Speaking at
a recent congressional hearing, he
warned: “It is worse than Al Qaeda.”
Truthdig
Aside from funding from
sympathizers in the Gulf and tens
of millions raised from theft, extortion
and kidnapping, the Islamic
State has oil. “In eastern Syria
IS controls 50 of the 52 oil wells,
while in the north and northwest
of Iraq there are now 20 oil wells
under the control of IS,” Hashimi
said.
Many experts cautioned
against comparing IS with its predecessor,
the al Qaeda-affiliated
Islamic State of Iraq run by Abu
Mussab al-Zarqawi, which was
at the heart of the anti-American
insurgency and the Sunni-Shi’ite
sectarian blood-letting of 2005-
08. Sunni tribes finally rebelled
against it.
“These are not just barbarians
who came here to steal
what they could and then leave,”
Hashimi says. “They are now
fighting to establish a state, while
Zarqawi fought to topple the central
government – there is a big
difference.”
The new caliphate declared
by its Iraqi leader Abu Bakr al-
Baghdadi is filling the vacuum
of imploding states and, unlike al
Qaeda, are establishing a real social
base, says Gerges.
“The al Qaeda of Osama bin
Laden was a borderless, transnational
movement which has never
been able to find a social base.
The reason to take the IS ... seriously
is because they are like a
social epidemic, feeding on sectarian
tensions and the social and
ideological faultlines in Arab societies,”
Gerges said, adding that
Syria’s Nusra Front other militant
Islamists were following a similar
pattern.
“The phenomenon of the Islamic
State is a manifestation of
the weakening and dismantling of
the Arab state as we know it.”
Gerges also called the militants’
spectacular brutality – the
crucifixions, stoning of women
and now, according to Iraqi ministers,
the burying alive of women
and children from the Yazidi minority
– all publicized over the
Internet, as “a strategic choice”.
IS has an extraordinary ability
to multiply its numbers by recruiting
and indoctrinating volunteers,
feeding them their radical
brand of Islam and training them
Al Aqsa
from pg 14
pressors in history. They act with
impunity and are extremely hostile
toward the indigenous Palestinian
people. Heavily armed,
they shoot at the slightest pretext
and have no regard for Palestinian
life.
The corrupt Muslim rulers
are totally subservient to the imperialists
and Zionists. Reposing
hope in them to rescue the Muslims
is a waste of time. It would
For Competitive Fares for Pakistan, India,
Bangladesh, and Middle East
ACCESS TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL
35384 Northmont Dr. Farmington Hills, MI 48331
The Muslim Observer
15
militarily.
Mohsen Sazegara, one of the
founders of Iran’s Revolutionary
Guards who is now a U.S.-based
dissident, said the emergence of
the Islamic State was a reaction
by Sunni factions to Maliki and
his anti-Sunni policies, which
were defended by the Guards.
Maliki, Sazegara said, squandered
the inheritance of the Sahwa,
the U.S.-funded militia drawn
from among the country’s Sunni
Muslim tribes who were a driving
force in fighting al Qaeda predecessors
to IS in Iraq after 2006.
The U.S. decision to hand
over responsibility for the Sahwa
to the Shi’ite-dominated Iraqi
government in 2009 was a mistake,
which alienated them and
drove many to join IS ranks.
“U.S. General (David) Petraeus
used the tribes in Iraq to
fight the al Qaeda predecessors
to IS. But Maliki upset the tribes.
The hardline pro-Shi’ite policy of
Iran and Maliki and those around
him led to this Sunni extremism.
Islamic State is one manifestation
of that,” Sazegara said.
The success of the Islamic
State has created a dilemma for
all the Muslim neighbors and beyond
from Saudi Arabia to Libya.
Riyadh, which until now has
seen non-Arab, Shi’ite Iran as ultimately
posing the greater threat,
is worried that the Islamic State’s
territorial gains will radicalize
Saudis who may eventually target
their own government.
The conservative Sunni kingdom
was so concerned by the Islamic
State’s advance in June and
July that it moved tens of thousands
of troops to the border with
Iraq. Yet, Saudi officials say they
do not believe the Islamic State
is capable of posing any military
threat to the mighty Saudi armed
forces.
By contrast, they regard Iran
and its Shi’ite allies across the
region as posing a far more sustained
and dangerous threat to the
kingdom’s position in the Arab
and Islamic world.
Since the invasion of Iraq
and the overthrow of Saddam’s
Sunni-dominated rule, Saudi Arabia
and its Gulf allies have not
accepted the rise to power of the
Shi’ite majority in Iraq.
require a figure like Salahuddin
Ayyubi to rise among the Muslims
to liberate Masjid al-Aqsa
and Palestine from another group
of Crusaders, this time of the Zionist
variety.
Until then, Muslims can pray
and prepare for that day. A good
starting point would be to become
better informed about their
history that seems to have been
largely forgotten.
Crescent International
For Pakistan - India - Bangladesh:
Phone no: 248 225 5731
Fax no: 248 489 8646
Email: accesstravel@hotmail.com

16 The Muslim Observer health & nutrition
Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Sudoku Puzzle!
The Rules of Sudoku: The classic Sudoku game involves
a grid of 81 squares. The grid is divided into nine
blocks, each containing nine squares.
The rules of the game are simple: each of the nine
blocks has to contain all the numbers 1-9 within its
squares. Each number can only appear once in a row, column
or box.
The difficulty lies in that each vertical nine-square
column, or horizontal nine-square line across, within the
larger square, must also contain the numbers 1-9, without
repetition or omission.
Every puzzle has just one solution (see p. 8).
Tandoori Chicken
By Fizza, fizza@muslimobserver.com
INGREDIENTS
4-5 pounds chicken legs and thighs or
breast, cut into 2s, skin removed
½ cup lemon juice
4 tsp salt
¼ tsp red or yellow food color
1 ½ tsp ground coriander seeds
1 ¼ tsp ground cumin seeds
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground garlic
1 cup yogurt
½ cayenne peppers
3 tbsp butter or vegetable oil
METHOD
Wash the chicken and drain in a colander.
Make a small cut in the flesh
of each piece of chicken. Mix with
lemon juice and salt and spread
on each piece of chicken and into
the cut with your fingers. Place the
chicken pieces in a large bowl and
pour the rest of the ingredients in
the form of a mixture on the chicken.
Cover and set aside in a large
covered bowl in the refrigerator for
12 to 24 hours, shaking the bowl up
and down every 6 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place
the chicken pieces in a baking pan,
with some water in the bottom of
the baking pan to catch the juices.
The water in the bottom of the pan
helps to keep the chicken moist and
makes clean- up of the pan
easier. Brush each piece with
butter or oil. Bake on the centre
rack for about 20 minutes
on each side, turning the chicken
pieces only once.
Tandoori chicken is delicious hot
or cold and will complement
any meal. The yogurt marinade
makes the meat of the chicken
very soft and moist, making it
ideal for picnics or large gatherings
since it can be made in
large quantities ahead of time.
It also freezes very well.
Serves 10 -12
Note: If you see ingredients here that are available in haram or halal form (like vanilla extract), you can choose for yourself which form you want to use--TMO is absolutely not advocating that you
use haram or questionable ingredients.
Acne
By Fasiha Hasham, drfasiha@muslimobserver.com
glands and the presence of bacteria
on the skin. Some cosmetics
promote the development of acne
especially if they are oily. Certain
drugs especially oral contraceptive,
steroids and antiepileptic medications
also increase acne.
Contrary to the popular believe
acne is not caused by eating chocolates
or greasy foods or uncleanliness.
Acne forms deep in the skin
thus surface dirt is not a culprit.
However squeezing pimples can
spread the bacteria that cause cystic
acne and worsen the condition.
DIAGNOSIS AND TREAT-
MENT
If severe cystic acne produces
raised or pitted scars, cosmetic surgery
may be able to smooth the skin
surface.
THE COURSE OF THE
DISEASE
When sebum initially clogs a
hair follicle, the follicle expands into
a visible lump known as comedone.
If the lump remains closed a whitehead
develops. If the comedone
opens, exposed pigment blackens,
forming a blackhead. Pressure inside
the comedone causes sebum to
leak to the surrounding skin, resulting
in cyst.
INTRODUCTION
Acne is a common skin disorder
that is characterized by the
development of pimples, whiteheads
and blackheads. In its most
serious form, disfiguring cysts and
abscesses form resulting in scarring.
Acne can occur at any age
but it is most common in teenagers
than adults. Exceptions include
the acne that sometimes occurs
during pregnancy or menopause.
SYMPTOMS
Pimples, whiteheads and
blackheads or red bumps on the
face and neck, back, chest or buttocks.
Emergence of new eruptions
as older ones heals.
CAUSES
Sebum, a waxy substance secreted
from the sebaceous gland
within the hair follicles, normally
serves to lubricate the skin. If the
channel leading from the gland to
the skin becomes blocked, pimples
and other manifestations of
acne can result.
What starts the process is
still unknown. However, contributing
factors are believed to
be increased levels of male hormone
that stimulate the sebaceous
Acne can be self diagnosed
simply by observing the persistent
presence of pimples, whiteheads
and blackheads. Mild acne can be
treated with self care. More severe
acne may be treated with chemical
peeling agents, antibiotics and retinoic
acid, a prescription drug made
from a derivative of vitamin A.
Depending on the severity of
the acne the doctor may prescribe
one or more medications:
BENZOYL PEROXIDE to
make skin peel and help prevent
new pimples.
ANTIBIOTICS to treat inflammation
and to kill the bacteria
in the skin.
RETONIC ACID cream to inhibit
comedone formation that occurs
in severe cystic acne.
Acne usually begins at puberty
and can be uncomfortable and embarrassing
for teenagers. Most often
it disappears by 20’s.
Since acne is related to hormonal
changes it often reappears at
times when hormonal levels fluctuate.
For example acne often flares
up during pregnancy.
PRECAUTIONS
Practice careful skin hygiene,
washing your face daily or twice if
you have oily skin with unscented
soap.
Avoid the use of creams and
lotions that promote comedone
formation.
Don’t pick at your face.
Keep your hair clean and off
your face especially if it tends to be
oily.

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
advertisement
The Muslim Observer
17
TMO Foundation Essay Contest
Your essay must be received by: September 7th, 2014
Essays should be no more than 1500 words,
Your essay must include your university photo ID card, telephone
number, your email address, and physical mailing address.
The top scholarship award is: $1,200
Second place: $1,000
Third place: $750
There will be a number of consolation prizes or scholarships varying
from $250 to $500
Hurry up , don’t miss this opportunity!
Essays received within the first week will receive extra 4 points, in
second week, 3 points, 3rd week 2 points. So send them soon!
Topics:
1) What makes a state an apartheid state?
2) What are the similarities between the Apartheid state of South Africa
and the apartheid state of Israel?
3) Why does America give blind support to Israel?
4) What role of American Muslims can play in promoting the cause of
human rights all over the world?
5) What is an American Muslim identity?
6) How can Muslims become an effective lobbying group for
humanitarian causes?
Send your essays to:
Email: ceo@muslimobserver.com
Fax: 248 476 8926
Mail: 29004 W 8 Mile Rd, Farmington-MI-48336

continuations
18 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
The Palestinian and American flags in Lincolnwood, IL
Lincolnwood
from pg 4
among some in attendance, with
one man leaving after being chastised
by the mayor.
A Palestinian flag that was
the subject of heated debate on
Monday is part of a display of
about 60 international flags along
Egypt
from pg 8
Ynet website said Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
had been speaking to senior Cabinet
ministers about an emerging
agreement.
It said the deal would include
a softening of the blockade to allow
the entry of construction materials
for rebuilding Gaza under
strict international supervision.
Israel has limited the flow of
goods like concrete and metal,
saying Hamas would use them for
military use.
Defense Minister Moshe
Yaalon said he did not know if
there would be a deal by Wednesday
night’s deadline, and warned
that fighting could resume.
“I don’t know if we should
extend negotiations. It could be
that fire erupts again,” he said.
“We must be on alert and ready
all the time.”
The U.N. Human Rights
Lincoln Avenue that stretches
from Devon to Touhy. (Jessica
Tezak, Chicago Tribune)
The flag that was the subject
of heated debate is part of a
display of about 60 international
flags along Lincoln Avenue that
stretches from Devon to Touhy.
Several residents have recently
asked that the Palestinian flag be
removed, but village officials say
they have no plans to do so. Community
members spoke in favor
of and against the flag before the
village’s human relations committee.
The meeting briefly devolved
into yelling toward the end.
“We’ve seen on television
there are Palestinian moth-
Council in Geneva this week
formed a commission to look into
possible war crimes violations
during the Gaza fighting.
Israel has not said whether
it will cooperate with the investigation.
But the Foreign Ministry
said Tuesday that it believes the
commission, and its chief investigator,
Canadian law professor
William Schabas, are biased
against Israel.
In a television interview,
Schabas said he wouldn’t let his
history of criticizing Israeli leaders
affect his ability to carry out
the investigation.
“What someone who sits in
a commission or who is a judge
has to be able to do is put these
things behind them and start fresh
and this is what I intend to do,” he
told Israel’s Channel 2 TV.
He would not say whether
he would investigate Hamas’ actions.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry
called the commission a “kangaroo
court” whose verdict is
“known ahead of time.”
Meanwhile, the world’s largest
bloc of Islamic nations called
for an international donors conference
for Gaza. The 56-member
Organization of Islamic Cooperation
also expressed its disappointment
at the failure of the U.N.
Security Council “to assume its
responsibilities” of maintaining
peace and security.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign
Minister Saud Al-Faisal said his
country would work with other
donors to finance $500 million
for the reconstruction of houses
and facilities in Gaza. He did not
elaborate. Officials have said at
least $6 billion is needed.
———
Associated Press writers
Ian Deitch in Jerusalem and Aya
Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, contributed to this report.
The Associated Press
ers teaching their children from
their youth to murder, to hate, to
blow yourself up, anything for
the cause,” said resident Sherry
Friedman. She was asked to sit
down by Mayor Gerald Turry and
complied.
Many in the crowd that
spilled into the aisles grew angry,
and one man yelled “terrorist
scum shut up.”
The man was later admonished
by the mayor.
“I’m going to politely ask
you to shut your mouth,” Turry
told the man, who left the meeting.
Many speakers thanked the
village for keeping the flag. The
display is erected each August to
celebrate diversity in this suburb
of about 12,500, where 42 different
languages are spoken in its
homes, according to school data.
Members of the public donate the
flags, which can represent a nationality,
ethnicity or country.
Youth Day
from pg 4
hana provides for her parents and
her family by saving and building
a tailoring business herself, as
well as doing much good in her
village. Her strength is palpable.
As I was leaving, her father told
me she had become the son he
never had. I replied that he didn’t
need a son, he already had his
daughters!
Water
from pg 7
various purchase prices as percentages
of the par amounts of
the senior and second lien bonds.
If enough bonds are returned,
Detroit would have to decide
whether to finance the tender by
issuing refunding bonds through
the Michigan Finance Authority,
with Citigroup as the senior underwriter,
or by privately placing
debt with Citibank and other yetto-be
determined financial institutions.
On Tuesday, the state authority
approved the set-up and authorized
the sale of $175 million
of new debt for the department’s
capital needs in the coming year.
Under the public sale, the
pricing date would be Aug. 26
with settlement on Sept. 4. The
The display has existed since
2004 and the Palestinian flag was
added last year, village officials
said. There were no complaints
until the last few weeks, amid
skyrocketing violence in the Middle
East.
Faatima Khan grew up on
Devon near Lincolnwood and
said she was uncomfortable that
anyone there would object to a
symbol of cultural pride.
“If seeing the flag hurts your
feelings, maybe you should discuss
that with the children who
are orphans and the families who
don’t have homes,” she said.
Resident Aaron Shafter disagreed,
saying “until the Palestinian
people properly enter a peace
agreement with the people of Israel
and until the United States
makes a decision to recognize
that state, that flag should not be
flown.”
eleventis@tribune.com
Sadhana told me she learned
that she “cannot do anything
sitting at home,” that she must
“come out and take charge of my
own destiny.”
I thought that was a great
message for young people everywhere
on International Youth
Day. With programs like Building
Young Futures, these positive
stories and messages will only
grow in number.
option calls for a portion of the
30-year bonds to be insured by
Assured Guaranty and projects
bond coupons of 5.75 percent or
less.
With the new bonds, the city
will seek a court order that water
and sewer net revenue pledged as
security constitutes a lien on special
revenue.
The tender offer also reflects
a deal between Detroit and four
bond insurance companies, an
ad hoc committee of bondholders
and the bond trustee to tap no
more than $24 million a year in
water and sewer revenue for the
city’s General Retirement System,
far less than the $43 million
the city originally sought.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert in
Washington and Karen Pierog in
Chicago; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Maliki
from pg 8
which exploited the political
stalemate in Baghdad to burst
beyond strongholds in Syria to
claim a cross-border caliphate occupying
up to a third of Iraq.
Kurdish Peshmerga militia
sources said their forces clashed
with IS fighters in Diyala, northeast
of Baghdad. In the provincial
capital, Baquba, five Sunni
Muslims were killed when Shi’ite
gunmen shot them as they prayed
in a mosque.
Government forces, which
collapsed in the face of the Islamic
State in June, fought alongside
Shi’ite volunteers around
the Sunni city of Tikrit, north of
the capital, and residents also reported
skirmishes in the western
cities of Ramadi and Falluja.
With ethnic Kurdish Peshmerga
forces pushed back on the
defensive by the Islamic State
this month, France announced it
was joining the United States in
urgently supplying what it called
“sophisticated arms” to the autonomous
regional force, and EU
foreign ministers agreed to break
summer holidays to discuss the
crisis on Friday.
A U.S. official said talks
were also under way with Arab
countries to supply munitions to
the Kurds.
Germany said it would send
non-lethal military equipment to
Kurdish fighters this weekend,
and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier said Berlin was
prepared to bend its restrictive
policies on weapons exports and
send arms to the Kurds.
In addition to arming the
Peshmerga and, in the case of
Washington, bombing militant
positions, Western powers have
been trying to help aid agencies
drop supplies and provide refuge
for tens of thousands of people,
many of them from non-Sunni
communities, who have fled attacks
by the Islamic State.
The White House said the
United States and its allies were
considering setting up airlifts
and safe land corridors to rescue
people, including many from the
Yazidi sect stranded on the arid
heights of Mount Sinjar near the
Syrian border.
But a U.S. assessment team
sent to Mount Sinjar on Wednesday
found the situation better
than expected, and the Pentagon
said an evacuation mission was
“far less likely.”
The U.S. team found fewer
civilians than expected and their
condition was better than previously
believed, the Pentagon said,
crediting humanitarian air drops,
U.S. air strikes on Islamic State
targets and the ability of Yazidis
to evacuate the mountain in recent
nights.
The U.S. military, which
has been hitting Islamic State
targets since Friday in support
of the trapped Yazidis, said a
drone strike destroyed an armed
truck near the village of Sinjar on
Wednesday.
The White House said that
while President Barack Obama
has ruled out sending back combat
troops to Iraq it could not rule
out ground troops being used in
a humanitarian role, a sign that
Western powers could be drawn
back into the region despite public
reluctance to repeat the experience
of the last decade.
(Additional reporting by Michael
Georgy in Baghdad and
Mehrdad Balali in Dubai; Writing
by Alastair Macdonald; Editing
by Will Waterman, Ken Wills
and Lisa Shumaker)

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
international
International Summary
The Muslim Observer
19
Casualties:
Coalition KIA in Afghanistan: 1**
Cost of war: $1.3 billion***
total as of this week--
Tuesday 8/12/14
Coalition KIA (both wars): *8,270
Cost of War: $1,556.7 billion
total as of one week ago--
Wednesday 8/6/14
Coalition KIA (both wars): *8,269
Cost of War: $1,553.4 billion
** We have now changed our focus
to include only Afghanistan,
despite the continually growing
death toll from unrest in Iraq that
could be attributed to the American
invasion, because the US has
left Iraq.
*** www.costofwar.com. National
Priorities Project (NPP) numbers
revised. An estimate based on
the current amount budgeted for
the war. This number occasionally
jumps based on new budget allocations
or amended calculations.
Ukraine says may
block Russian aid
convoy
KIEV/MOSCOW (Reuters)
- A Russian convoy of trucks
carrying tonnes of humanitarian
aid left on Tuesday for eastern
Ukraine, where government forces
are closing in on pro-Russian
rebels, but Kiev said it would not
allow the vehicles to cross onto
its territory.
U.S. ready to help
new Iraq leader, Iran
welcomes choice
BAGHDAD (Reuters) -
Iraq’s new prime minister-designate
won swift endorsements
from uneasy mutual allies the
United States and Iran on Tuesday
as he called on political leaders
to end crippling feuds that
have let jihadists seize a third of
the country.
Talks on ending
Gaza war ‘difficult’,
but truce holds
GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) -
Talks to end a month-long war
between Israel and Gaza militants
are “difficult”, Palestinian
delegates said on Tuesday, while
Israeli officials said no progress
had been made so far and fighting
could soon resume.
Fearing Iraq’s downfall,
power brokers
chose safe bet Abadi
BAGHDAD (Reuters) -
Pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki to step aside
had become unbearable. Sunnis,
Kurds, fellow Shi’ites, regional
power broker Iran and the United
States all wanted him out.
Afghan candidate
casts fresh doubt
over deal to share
power
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan
presidential candidate Ashraf
Ghani cast fresh doubt over a
deal to share power with his rival
Abdullah Abdullah on Tuesday,
saying the accord was ambiguous
and needed clarifying.
Magnitude 5.1
earthquake strikes
Ecuador’s capital of
Quito: USGS
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
- A magnitude 5.1 earthquake
struck Ecuador’s capital of Quito
on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological
Survey said.
Obama congratulates
Turkey’s Erdogan
on presidential
win
EDGARTOWN Mass. (Reuters)
- U.S. President Barack
Obama congratulated Turkish
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
on Tuesday for his victory as
the country’s next president, the
White House said.
Concerns over South
Sudan arms reports
as famine looms:
U.N.
JUBA/MALAKAL (Reuters)
- There are reports that South Sudan’s
warring factions are arming
themselves for another bout of
fighting, a delegation from the
U.N. Security Council said on
Tuesday, threatening both sides
with sanctions amid growing
fears of a man-made famine.
Liberia to give two
doctors trial drug,
Ebola toll at 1,013
MONROVIA/DAKAR (Reuters)
- Liberia said on Tuesday
it would treat two infected doctors
with the scarce experimental
Ebola drug ZMapp, the first Africans
to receive the treatment,
while authorities in Spain said a
75-year-old priest had died of the
disease.
Spain picks up almost
1,000 African
migrants in two
days
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish
emergency services picked
up 755 immigrants traveling in
dozens of small boats and makeshift
rafts across the Strait of Gibraltar
on Tuesday and 227 from
the same stretch of water the
day before, the Maritime Safety
Agency said.
Shi’ite deputy speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives Haider Abadi, a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki’s State of Law bloc, addresses a news conference in Baghdad in this July 15, 2014 file photo. Al-Abadi called
on Iraqis to unite against the “barbaric” campaign waged by Islamic State militants whose latest sweep through the
north has caused alarm at home and abroad. To match story IRAQ-SECURITY/ABADI REUTERS/Ahmed Saad/Files

continuations
20 The Muslim Observer Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
Gaza
from pg 5
God weeps because the failure
to condemn Israeli war crimes
by our political establishment and
our compliant media betrays the
memory of those killed in other
genocides, from the Holocaust
to Cambodia to Rwanda to Bosnia.
God weeps because we have
failed to learn the fundamental
lesson of the Holocaust, which is
not that Jews are unique or eternal
victims, but that when you have
the capacity to stop genocide, and
you do not, you are culpable. And
we [Americans], who provide 95
percent of Israel’s weapons, are
very culpable.
All tyrants fall under the
weight of their own depravity.
Justice does come. The captives
are set free. There will be a day
when the instruments of war will
no longer leave our shores to be
delivered into the hands of killers.
Not one bullet. And those who
have broken God’s covenant will
feel the blast of justice, the fury of
the righteous who will rise up on
behalf of the oppressed.
Peace in the Promised Land
is in our hands. It will not come
from politicians here or in Jerusalem.
It will not come from courts
of law. It will not come from international
bodies.
Peace in the Promised Land
will come when those who love
mercy and do justice build a sustained
mass movement—as we
did against the apartheid regime
in South Africa—week after
week, month after month, year
after year until the captives are
set free. Peace in the Promised
Land will come when we force,
through boycotts, divestments
and sanctions, the powerful to
end the blockade of Gaza and
deny the instruments of death to
Israel. But it is up to us. We are all
that stands between the Palestinians
and obliteration.
The road to justice will be
long and hard. It will require sacrifice,
including personal sacrifice.
Those who worship power
cling furiously to it. And they
will use that power against us.
Our names will be reviled. Our
voices will be marginalized. Our
motives will be impugned. Our
character will be assaulted. Our
bodies will be taxed. We will be
jailed. And we will know frustration
and despair.
The road to justice will be
long and hard. But there is no
turning back, for we are no longer
driven by a vision of suffering but
possessed by it. We hear the cries
from Gaza. We carry these cries
within us. We will not rest until
there is a balm to anoint the afflicted.
We will not rest until there
is comfort and justice for the oppressed.
We will not rest until the
children of Gaza have their childhood
returned to them. We will
not rest until the people of Gaza,
no longer imprisoned, live in a
free and independent Palestine.
Let my people go,
Oppress’d so hard they could
not stand, Let my People go.
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt’s land,
Tell old Pharaoh,
Let my people go.
Hamas
from pg 1
Hamas won.
Hamas started the war because
it was in dire straits; its relations
with Iran and Egypt were
severed. But soon enough Hamas
was dictating the duration of
the conflict by repeatedly refusing
cease-fires. Furthermore, it
preserved its capability of firing
rockets and missiles at most of
Israel’s territory, despite the immense
effort the Israeli Air Force
invested in knocking out launch
sites.
Hamas also waged an urban
campaign against Israeli ground
forces, inflicting at least five
times as many casualties as in
the last conflict and successfully
used tunnels to penetrate Israeli
Tawheed Center of Farmington Hills, MI requires
Math/Science Teacher
territory and sow fear and demoralization.
It made Israel pay a
heavy price and the I.D.F. eventually
withdrew its ground troops
from Gaza without a cease-fire.
Israeli leaders have now set
the demilitarization of Gaza as
one of their goals. But it’s difficult
to picture how this could be
achieved. Hamas would never
agree to disarm unless faced with
a protracted Israeli occupation of
the Gaza Strip, which is something
Mr. Netanyahu has declared
he won’t undertake.
So how did a terrorist guerrilla
organization overcome the
strongest army in the Middle
East?
Hamas’s achievements on
the battlefield are the fruit of a
concerted effort to draw lessons
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from previous Israeli defeats.
In July 2006, Hezbollah abducted
two Israeli soldiers on
the Israel-Lebanon border. In response,
Israel sought to destroy
the group. It failed — and even
the more modest aims of returning
of abducted men or demilitarizing
southern Lebanon, proved
unattainable. Israel came out of
that war battered, leading to the
departure of almost the entire top
military command, and a number
of hard-hitting internal inquiries.
Israel overhauled its intelligence
and ground fighting capabilities
and applied the lessons
of Lebanon in two subsequent
clashes with Hamas. Operation
Cast Lead in 2008 began with the
destruction of 1,200 targets in an
immense aerial bombardment.
And Hamas was stunned when it
saw that Israel didn’t recoil from
putting boots on the ground in
Gaza.
In November 2012, Israel
fired the opening shot by assassinating
the Hamas military chief,
Ahmad Jabari. Then it bombed
most of Hamas’s rocket launching
sites and staged a ground incursion.
The Hamas forces were
thrown into disorder and mostly
fled.
Israel agreed to an early
cease-fire, for a reason that has
remained a closely guarded secret:
The Iron Dome anti-missile
defense system, generously financed
by the United States, had
run out of ammunition. Israel
learned the lesson and made sure
that sufficient quantities of Iron
Dome missiles were available
this time around.
But Hamas didn’t walk away
empty handed in 2012. It learned
lessons and acted on them. First,
Hamas took stringent counterintelligence
measures to avoid
Israeli electronic surveillance.
Israel consequently knew much
less than it should have about the
increased range and payloads of
Hamas rockets, the distribution of
rocket storage depots and the firing
of rockets by remote control.
Second, in order to prepare
for an Israeli invasion, Hamas
replaced its battalion commanders
with new men who had undergone
training in Lebanon or
Iran. It developed a systematic
urban warfare doctrine to ensure
maximal Israeli casualties and to
protect its high command from
assassination.
Finally, Hamas invested in
the construction of a vast and
complex network of tunnels that
reached into Israeli territory and
formed units of frogmen to attack
Israel from the sea. These were
major advances.
Israel’s leaders are determined
to represent Defensive
Edge as a victory, and it is therefore
unlikely that public inquiry
panels will be set up as they were
after the Lebanon war in 2006 or
that heads will roll.
However, the I.D.F. will
have to reinvent the way it counters
guerrilla warfare. It will once
again have to try to recruit agents
in Gaza, now that it has become
clear that electronic spying is insufficient
because Hamas has become
more careful.
Israel’s foreign intelligence
agency, the Mossad, will now
have to pay more attention to
Hamas operatives in Qatar and
Turkey and intercept Hamas’s
communications from weapons
suppliers, like North Korea.
Israel may also decide to
focus on striking Hamas personnel
outside Gaza, without taking
responsibility. When the Mossad
assassinated a top Hamas official
in 2010 in Dubai, the large
amount of negative publicity led
to a cessation of such acts, but
they may now be judged more effective
than massive military action.
Likewise, special operations
will get more attention. Hamas
surprised Israel, but Israel has
carried out almost no imaginative
or daring targeted operations in
this latest war. Ehud Barak, the
most prominent commando fighter
in Israel’s history, proposed
some such schemes when he was
defense minister in 2010, but they
were not adopted.
Finally, the defense ministry
will be given unlimited funding
to devise an underground electronic
“fence” based on oil and
gas prospecting technology, that
will be laid all along the border
between Israel and Gaza to detect
tunnels as they are built.
For Israel, this round of fighting
will probably end politically
more or less at the point where it
began but with significant damage
to Israel’s deterrence.
And the feeble efforts at
negotiation efforts between
Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian
Authority and Israel now seem
completely irrelevant, as military
commanders on both sides go
back to their drawing boards to
plan the inevitable next round.
And as much as Israel is
seeking to marginalize Hamas
and empower the weakened Mr.
Abbas, Hamas is, for the first time
in its history, on the verge of being
internationally recognized as
an equal party in the Israeli-Palestinian
dispute.
Ronen Bergman, a senior
political and military analyst for
the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot,
is writing a history of the
Mossad.
New York Times.

Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
The Kids’ Page
The Muslim Observer
21
Styrofoam
Jigsaw-doku
BEADS
BUOYANT
CARCINOGEN
CHEMICAL
CRAFT
DOW
HUMAN
INSULATION
MATERIAL
MATTRESS
ORGANIC
PACKAGING
PAINT
POLYSTYRENE
PRODUCTS
PROPELLANTS
ROUGHNESS
SOLVENTS
SPRAY
STRUCTURES
STYROFOAM
THERMACOL
THERMAL
Find 7 differences
• STYROFOAM
boards contain a flame retardant
additive to inhibit accidental
ignition from a small
fire source. The boards are,
however, combustible and, if
exposed to an intensive fire,
may burn rapidly.
• STYROFOAM boards
can be stored outside, but
should be protected against
intense sunlight, preferably
by retention in their original
packaging. The boards
should not exposed to other
ignition sources. Exposed to
intense sunlight over prolonged
periods, the surface
of the boards degrades into
fine dust. STYROFOAM TG
boards should be stored inside.
• STYROFOAM products
should be applied within
the recommended temperature
range. When exposed
to higher temperature than
the recommended max. 75°
C, the boards can either
soften, undergo irreversible
dimensional changes and
eventually melt or become
brittle and lose its mechanical
properties. Under no cir-
Rules: Draw one of each tile in every
row, column and box Ask your
parents if you want, for help with
this puzzle--solution on page 8...
cumstances STYROFOAM
should be installed under
black membrane
• STYROFOAM boards
can be cut using knife, fine
teeth saw, hot wire equipment,
etc.
• STYROFOAM boards
are resistant to most commonly
occurring construction
materials like solventfree
bituminous compounds,
water-based wood preservatives,
lime, cement, plaster,
anhydrous gypsum as well as
alcohols, acids and alkalis.
Certain organic materials like
solvent based wood preservatives,
coal tar and derivatives
(aerosol etc.), paint thinners
and common solvents such as
acetone, ethyl acetate, petrol
toluene, white spirit can
attack the XPS boards resulting
in softening, shrinkage
and even dissolving with
the consequent loss of performance.
When bonding
STYROFOAM boards, the
use of solvent free adhesive
is recommended. Compatibility
with polystyrene foam
should be sought from the
adhesive manufacturer prior
to application.
• STYROFOAM products
are not bio-degradable
in the environment and do
not present an environmental
hazard in the water/soil
compartment.
Adventures of Salih!
1) sun, 2) butterfly, 3) tree shape, 4) birds, 5) chimney, 6) shape
of windows, 7) extra window.
© 2005, All Rights Reserved for all work—Salem Djebili
kids@muslimobserver.com

22 The Muslim Observer advertisement
Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
AFMI
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a new generation of educated
Muslims in India
Please Donate Generously
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Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014
continuations
The Muslim Observer
23
ISNA
from pg 1
members of the Muslim community
to hold leadership accountable
and to ask tough questions
and it is the responsibility of the
leadership to respond. This is
why I will try to participate in this
dialogue, to answer some of the
issues and concerns what were
raised.
However, before I go further
in addressing the current issues,
I would like to establish general
guidelines for constructive dialogue.
Imam Shaafi’ said, “My
opinion is correct with the possibility
of being wrong and the
opinion of those that disagree
with me is wrong with the possibility
of being correct.” He also
stated, “There is no time that I engage
in debate with others without
praying that Allah will show
me the truth that comes from the
person in order that I may increase
in knowledge and benefit
from him.” Secondly a person
must learn from his or her own
mistakes, from his friends, brothers,
sisters, and even those who
have animosity toward him. All
of us must believe in these principles
of engaging in dialogue, that
dialogue and debate are for seeking
truth, not proving oneself to
be right. It is also very important
that if we see something we think
is wrong in one of our brothers
or sisters that we know, then we
should try our best, by whatever
means we have, to talk to them
privately before we critique them
publicly. Otherwise, the well
intended advice might be interpreted
as creating friction and
disunity among the Muslims. We
must deal with people for what
they do and what they say and try
to understand their context. Their
intentions are for Allah alone to
judge.
Living in the American context
it is also essential for us to
understand how to address the diversity
of opinions and approaches
of individuals and communities.
I would like to stress there
Oil
from pg 6
facilities appear unlikely. Luay
al-Khatteeb, visiting fellow at
the Brookings Doha Center, said
it would be hard for Sunni insurgents
to infiltrate the Shi’ite
south.
“They can send suicide
bombers with a one-way ticket,
but they do not have the hosts
compared to territories they control
in the west of Iraq,” he said.
Jabar al-Saadi, head of the
Basra provincial council’s security
committee, told Reuters Iraq
has tightened security and deployed
extra troops around southern
oil infrastructure.
LONG TERM INVEST-
MENT
There is the risk too that new
projects to boost Iraq’s oil production,
export and refining capacities
may be delayed for months
or years or canceled entirely, as
is a distinction between unity and
uniformity. We can and should
work towards unity without requiring
uniformity. Unity that
is established on respecting the
general principles and values that
come from our faith, and in those
tenets of the United States law
and Constitution that compliment
the principles and values of our
faith. This can make us stronger
in ouriman and more effective in
our civic responsibilities. Ensuring
that we do not force uniformity
allows us to combine the two
in ways most feasible for each individual.
Those that choose to exercise
their religious and civic responsibilities
may do so through
public peaceful protests and even
civil disobedience, while others
use means of constructive and sincere
engagement to dialogue with
elected officials, holding those
whose salaries come from our tax
dollars accountable for how they
serve our country. These two approaches
should be respected and
equally embraced in the Muslim
American community. In my
early years in the United States,
I studied the history of the Civil
Rights Movement and the various
approaches people used to move
the cause forward. All of these efforts
became a part of American
history. To understand the fruits
of engaging our government, and
to understand the interfaith effort
of ISNA, please refer to the links
included at the end of the article.
They will help clarify how ISNA
explains the concerns of the
Muslim American community to
elected officials. There are some
Americans that have Islamaphobic
mentalities - including some
members of Congress and other
powerful public figures; through
them millions of dollars are spent
isolating Muslims from the public
discourse, painting them as
disloyal citizens of the land that
is their home.
The absence of American
Muslims from the table of dialogue
only creates a vacuum that
would be filled by others, possibly
by these very individuals. Its not
foreign companies balk at taking
on further investment risks.
ExxonMobil has carried out
a “major evacuation” of staff
from Iraq while BP evacuated
20 percent of its staff, the head
of state-run South Oil Co said in
June.
Islamist militants have
launched a Twitter campaign
naming companies working in
Iraq such as ExxonMobil and
Royal Dutch Shell as “a legitimate
target for every Muslim.”
In May, the U.S. Embassy
and British officials warned their
citizens, particularly oil workers,
in Basra may be at risk of kidnapping
by militant groups.
“Oil production and exports
from Basra were not affected,
they are far away in the south.
But the question now is what will
happen next?” said a senior oil
executive still working in Iraq.
Baghdad had planned to
only about whom you dialogue
with but what you say when you
are with them. An individual who
understands the Seerah of Prophet
(peace be upon him) will see
that he (peace be upon him) dialogued
with many people including
those like Walid ibn Mughira,
who attacked him personally and
showed tremendous disrespect
to him (peace be upon him). The
Prophet (peace be upon him) let
him finish his speech, despite the
offensive content of it, and then
responded to him with calmness
and kindness. Dialogue does not
mean that you compromise your
principles in promoting justice
and fairness, it does means that
you try to understand where the
other side is coming from and try
to reach a common understanding
based on shared values. Our example
in dealing with others, as
in all things, is the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him).
You will find more about this in
a book written by Professor Tariq
Ramadan, Footsteps of the Prophet.
In regards to ISNA’s position,
ISNA is one of the founders
of the organization of National
Religious Campaign Against Torture
(NRCAT), an organization
that calls for ending torture by law
enforcement. Dr. Ingrid Mattson,
former President of ISNA, was
among the first Muslim leaders to
bring this issue to the forefront of
the minds of Muslim communities
in the US. Raising this issue
in the interfaith platform led to
President Obama issuing an executive
order to end torture by the
government. NRCAT is one of the
largest interfaith organizations
in America dealing with ending
torture. It is an alliance of good,
fighting for justice similar to the
alliance that the Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) was a
part of even prior to his prophethood.
ISNA is a member of National
Interreligious Leadership
Initiative for Peace in the Middle
East (NILI), an interfaith organization
that deals with the Israel-
Palestine conflict. Their objective
build a strategic pipeline from its
Basra fields through Turkey and
Syria, and another one to Jordan.
Such projects are unlikely to materialize
any time soon.
“It would be difficult to convince
companies to take on new
projects and new engagements in
the south - I think most companies
are going to want to wait and
see, and probably for some time,”
said Gala Riani of security firm
Control Risks.
The International Energy
Agency (IEA) said last month
that prolonged sectarian bloodshed
may shake investor confidence
and set back longer-term
growth in Iraq.
Iraq’s actual output by 2020
also depends on global oil demand
and possible OPEC quota
restrictions - which Baghdad is
currently exempt from. (Editing
by William Hardy and Andrew
Torchia)
is to convey to the United States
leadership the strong concern of
the faith communities regarding
the ongoing conflict, to push for
a more active role on the national
level, and to establish a just and
lasting peace arrangement. Leaders
of NILI, have met many times
with secretaries of state and other
high officials to further this
cause. ISNA is also a founding
member of one of the largest interfaith
civil rights organizations
created to defend Muslim rights,
Shoulder to Shoulder, created
to protect rights of Muslim in
America and standing firmly with
partners of other faiths to speak
against bigotry in all of its forms.
In addition to these partnerships,
ISNA has issued many press releases
regarding the loss of civilian
lives in various parts of the
world. In recent months, much
emphasis has been put on addressing
the loss of life in Gaza,
Syria, and Iraq. ISNA leaders
have also taken many opportunities
in recent months to speak directly
with high level officials on
behalf of the American Muslim
community. Each time, whether
at the White House iftar or at
any other gathering, leaders take
great care to consider the interest
of the American Muslim community
and the context in which
they live. I participate in many
dialogues with the President of
the United States and many other
officials regarding healthcare,
combating gun violence and domestic
violence in America, as
well as bringing the perspective
and concerns of Muslims regarding
the many issues in the Middle
East and around the globe.
My Brothers and Sisters,
let me be open with you, I often
find many Muslim communities
are more concerned about international
issues than American
domestic issues. We have to connect
the international issues of
concern to the country in which
we live so that our fellow Americans
can see the impact of these
international issues on America
itself. If we desire for our point of
view to truly be heard, nationally
and internationally, we have to
engage our fellow American citizens
in general dialogue, and we
have to engage elected officials
from local representatives to the
President of the United States. I
have visited communities in Europe
and was shocked to see that
in some areas the Muslim community
has isolated themselves
from the larger community and
disconnected themselves from
the country which they are citizens
of. We cannot choose to isolate
ourselves; we cannot choose
to be silent. Wherever we live in
the world, those are the places we
call home, the places where our
children are raised and the places
where they will raise their own
families. Yet I have met many
people, even in the US, who follow
the political situations of their
countries of origin, but are oblivious
to the politics of the country
in which they live and work. Individuals
have great concerns
for the situations “back home”
but are not investing themselves
in the greater community here
athome where they are physically
present and where their children
are educated.
Similarly, I see many masajid
that are deeply engaged with
our public officials and work with
partners in the interfaith community.
However, there is still a gap
between what the community
feels and what the community
does. Many Muslims will pick up
the phone to call a friend and express
their displeasure with policies
they see, be that domestic
or foreign, but they do not pick
up the phone to call their local
representatives to express that
concern. They may email their
imams and Masajid Board members
preaching endlessly about
the importance of speaking up
against the injustices, but they do
not email the officials who made
the decisions. They may read articles
that upset them about issues
concerning the community but
they will not write a letter to the
editor. They may listen to a talk
radio show that disgraces Muslims
but they will not call in. My
Brothers and Sisters, we should
be grateful that we live in a world
where we are able to engage in
dialogue, vote, and lobby our
government. To be silent, to disengage,
would be to discard one
of the most powerful tools God
has given us with which we can
do good. I would like to say that
ISNA would like to be that platform
where we can agree to disagree
and to represent different
points of view, unity but not uniformity.
Many times I had heard
speakers at ISNA conventions
and conferences whose opinions
I disagreed with but who I had
encouraged to be invited back to
address the community because
we had to understand each others’
different points of view. At
the same time, we must be wise
in how we address these and how
we prioritize the issues being addressed.
We need to think about
what will impact our children and
the generations that follow.
Finally I would like to say,
ISNA is your organization. IS-
NA’s doors are wide open. You
can become a member today and
earn the right to vote people in or
out of the leadership. We hope
that you will join us to hear various
speakers, with a tremendous
wealth of knowledge and experience,
who have agreed to honor
us with their presence this year
and share with us the diversity of
opinion and practice in so many
aspects of our lives. I started this
article with a verse of the Qur’an
and I would like to end it with
this one,
“O ye who believe! Stand
out firmly for Allah, as witness to
fair dealing, and let not the hatred
of others to you make you swerve
to wrong and depart from justice.
Be just: that is next to piety: and
fear Allah. For Allah is well acquainted
with all that ye do.” 5:8

24 The Muslim Observer
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Volume 16, Issue 34; Aug 15 - 21, 2014