The Muslim Link - March 9, 2012

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

More Masajid, More Conflicts Area Muslims Discuss Reasons For Increased Masjid In-Fighting

By Wafa Unus

Muslim Link Staff Reporter

The number of mosques in the United States increased from just over 1200 to approximately 2100 between 2000 and 2011, according to a recent study by a coalition of Muslim organizations and research institutions. The first part of the larger study was presented at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on February 29th.

In the Washington Metropolitan area many mosques, both old and new are facing increasing issues of in-fighting, scandal and

conflict and in some cases ending up in local court.

“Pretty much every masjid has faced this problem of some sort of conflict or tension,” said Islamic Center of Maryland Board of Trustee Member, Nadeem Ahmad.

“My experience is that most of these problems emerge when you really have not done a good job on putting the focus or a direction for that center or that community.”

Ahmad said that though the community members must play their part in the devel-

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Helping Provide Shelter: One Family at a Time | pg 4 Rebellious Muslimah, Running for US President | pg 5 A Personal Reflection on the Struggle with Cancer | pg 6 1500 Year Old Bible Confirms Name of Last Prophet | pg 12

NatIONAL: Atheist Group Target Muslims, Jews | pg 16

>> conflict Pg 10

Local MSAs Assume Monitoring By Law Enforcement

By Wafa Unus Muslim Link Staff Reporter

Local Muslim students fear that the news of the NYPD monitoring Muslim students in northeastern Universities will adversely impact attendance within Muslim Student Association chapters and undo years of efforts to develop trust

between the American Muslim community and law enforcement.

“It’s really frustrating to see Muslim students being singled out.

One of our goals as officers is to help Muslims on campus to associate with their religion and

>> MSA Pg 9

ISLAM: The Great Emptiness of the Soul | pg 20 CIVIL: Holder Defends Assasinations | pg 26 The Muslim Link

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

4 | COMMUNITY NEWS

Community News Helping to Provide Shelter: One Homeless Family at a Time

By Amina Cisse Muhammad and Shazia Ashraf

Muslim Link Contributing Writers

As guests enjoyed a scrumptious meal on President’s Day, February 20, 2012, Tanveer Mirza, board of trustees’ president of the Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help (FAITH) in Herndon, VA, began her luncheon presentation on “Children Living in Shelters” by posing the question, “Would anyone here like to live in a shelter?” She then followed up by asking if anyone would like to raise their children in a shelter. Of course, no one responded in the affirmative. Who would choose such circumstances for themselves and their families?

However, as the intake records of masjid zakah departments and Islamic social service providers across America show, this is the reality for a growing number of Muslim families who have lost their homes due to foreclosures or their inability to pay rent, or because they

are the unfortunate victims of domestic violence and are running for their safety.

Recent statistics on homelessness published on the website of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development indicate that the number of homeless individuals in America is declining while that for homeless families (which include an estimated 1.35 million children) is on the rise.

The ongoing effects of our economic recession have been cited as the cause of this increase HUD, July 2010]. And while there is no official data available on the incidence of homelessness within the American Muslim community, one of our community’s many non-profit organizations had this to say: You may have seen pictures of homeless people who live on the streets, but the thought may have never entered your mind that some of those homeless people could be Muslims, particularly Muslim women... There has been a noted increase in homelessness among Muslim women and their children in recent years due to the

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amount of American women converting to Islam and women being brought into the United States from overseas [renaissance. com/pk/aprnevi201.html] As part of its mission to provide humanitarian aid to needy individuals and families living in Northern Virginia, FAITH has been working tirelessly to tackle this crisis since it was founded in November 1999. Taking advantage of the fact that many local community members were off of work, the organization hosted a women’s luncheon on this past President’s Day to invite others to join them in their efforts.

After Sister Tanveer’s thought-provoking introduction, FAITH Executive Director Ambreen Ahmed shared some of the dilemmas that Muslim residents of one particular local shelter have encountered.

One of the most pressing is that, upon their admission to the shelter, they have to agree to attend weekly Bible classes.

Next, two of the attendees provided further detail on the plight of children whose families end up in shelters.

Social worker Azizah Abdullah discussed the fact that many of them are the products of single-parent homes, and they often draw the attention of Child Welfare Services because they are left alone while their mothers work. Consequently, to add to their families’ worries, they face being taken away and placed in foster care.

And since there are a limited number of Muslim foster parents in America, it is probable that these children will be placed in non-Muslim homes where they may be influenced to compromise or completely abandon their faith. She reminded the thirty or so women in the gathering of our duty as Muslims to protect these children who have become entangled in a system that is often unresponsive to their needs.

Sister Maheen Mirza, who works with an area social service agency, stressed the importance of our supporting FAITH’s various programs as a preventive measure to combat Muslim homelessness: “If we Shelter Pg 11

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

COMMUNITY NEWS

|5

Rebellious Muslimah, Running for President

By Wafa Unus

on her perspectives as a candidate.

Muslim Link Staff Reporter

Anisa Abd el Fattah, an African American Muslim convert and former board member of the Council on American Islamic Relations, is running for President of the United States of America, campaigning under what she calls the “Anisa Uprising.”

Nestled in the top left side of her campaign webpage reads a hadith: The Prophet Mohammed (Salallahu ‘alyhi wa sallam) was asked, “What is the best type of Jihad [struggle]?” His response: “Speaking truth before a tyrannical ruler.”

As an African American Muslim woman, Fattah is a representative of three distinct minorities often entered into the American political discourse. Though she hadn’t originally considered her triple-minority status a primary element in her decision to run for the nation’s highest office, her campaign manager, Paul Barrow, felt it was an opportunity to appeal to members of the often “disenfranchised” public.

“You are everything it that is kind of not popular right now so a lot of groups are going to be listening closely to hear what part of your campaign is going to speak to their unique perspectives,” Fattah recalled Barrow saying.

Her religion will likely be a large point of discussion throughout her campaign.

However, she insisted, it has no bearing

“Being a Muslim has an impact on me.

Islam has an impact on me. Islam has shaped me but Islam does not shape the perspective on the issues because I’m not in a Muslim country,” she said.

Fattah, who describes her campaign as a rebellion or an uprising and even a peaceful “intifada,” said she’s unconcerned by the choice of rhetoric in light of her background.

“Uprising and rebellion are very much a part of American speech and American history...These things have historical reference in United States,” said Fattah.

The primary focus of the Anisa Rebellion is the repeal of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“The whole idea that the government has the right to pass these laws that completely violated the Constitution...we want to know why?” said Fattah.

The situations involving Kashmir and Palestine are also high on Fattah’s agenda.

“We are not looking at the situation because it’s Israel or because its Kashmir, we are looking at international law. Why doesn’t international law apply to these situations?”

While both regions have large Muslim

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populations, Fattah said her stance on the issues has little to do with religion but rather a strong belief in the equality of law.

“We want to attack this idea that there is a chosen people who can live above the law,” she said.

Still, she admitted she feels as though Muslim countries are often subject to different rules.

“We want to know why the sovereignty of Muslim countries is never respected...

How come this is 2012 and we still have colonization and ethnic cleansing going on and no one wants to talk about it,” she said.

The issue of Muslims and law has become a common topic in recent political discourse. Whispers over the implementation of Shariah law in the United States has raised questions about the legitimacy of such concerns, one which many Muslim organizations have deemed an impossibility.

Newt Gingrich recently stated that he would support a Muslim candidate for president if the candidate were to “abandon Shariah law.”

Fattah said such comments were a “non issue.”

“As a candidate in the United States I do

not feel it is my duty or my obligation to impose Shariah law and in fact Islam would prohibit that,” she said.

Fattah has faced some public criticism in the past, some accusing her of having terrorist ties. While she vehemently denies any truth to those allegations she continues to assert her strong opinions on issues that gave birth to such allegations.

“I believe that Hamas has the right to exist,” said Fattah. “You can’t disarm one side while arming another side...

When you balance power you have peace. Balanced power is a deterrent to aggression.”

Fattah said her platform isn’t propped up on theories and hopes but rather solid ideas and a firm grasp on reality.

We are realists. We think that everyone in society has to work together. Our model is cooperation, not competition,” she said.

While many may question the ability for the “Anisa Rebellion” to make its way to the White House, Fattah is confident that her conviction will pave a new path to politics’ most prized position. She believes America is ready to rebel.

“The first thing people always ask me is ‘Are you serious?’ Yes I’m serious,” she said. “[Then they ask] ‘Do you think you can win?’ Yes I do.”

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

6 | COMMUNITY NEWS

Patient Patients and Caring for the Caregiver A Personal Reflection on the Struggle With Cancer

By Rashad Mulla

visit really close cancer-stricken family friends don’t give me anywhere near the insight and sensitivity that I have now. In particular, I’ve witnessed the stone cold resolve of my mother’s closest friend and my best friend’s mother, in person.

Of course, I wish hindsight could have come a little earlier, but this knowledge makes me appreciate both their strength and faith.

Muslim Link Staff Writer I sat amidst stacks of folders, binders and paper, having sifted through about five containers of food and the various juice boxes, the bottles of IBC root beer and anything else on the windowsill that visitors may have left as gifts. Getting tired of the uncomfortable silence in the room, I desperately searched through my mind for those elusive first words, the ones that wouldn’t sound depressing or hopeless.

I had an idea. Maybe I would talk about life, work, school, my family, my friends and anything or anyone else that would allow my conversation partner to hear a few new things about the world outside.

My mouth opened, and what came out was a slew of petty complaints about life’s usual hurdles. I complained about the number of terms I needed to memorize for an international economic policy course. I instantly realized how stupid I sounded, despite Ali Abdul-Mani staring back at me from his hospital bed, smiling, latching on to every word, the gears in his brain whirring as he prepared a composed response for my not-so-dire situation.

It’s no surprise that Abdul-Mani is more often than not the light that shines brightest in the various grim hospital and nursing home rooms he finds himself in these days due to his terminal cancer.

Despite the countless proclamations and diagnoses and updates of his deteriorating condition, all else ceases to matter for Abdul-Mani when I enter the room.

He talks, happily, about anything I could imagine bringing up. If I have an appointment in an hour, he would gladly talk about it for two hours, and I would gladly listen.

He asks about my mother, my father, my friends, and any of my old classmates he remembers. When I visited him a couple of years ago, he paused in the middle of questions to go through very serious and painful-looking spasms, then he kept talking as if nothing happened, harping on about my writing, my job search, my education, my family and

....

my everything else.

One year ago, when a friend of mine asked him how he was doing, he responded calmly.

“It’s a reality check when you’re on your back and you have time to think, reflect and read,” Abdul-Mani said at the time.

“No matter what happens, I’m content.”

Every time I’ve gone to visit him over the past couple of years, he has made it his mission to entertain everyone in his hospital room, despite his hugely varying levels of condition.

But he is in the midst of the fifth year of a battle that has kept him, for the most part, lying down on his back. Even if his words pierce through the gloomy vibe in the air, like they usually do, they don’t mask his pain anymore.

This is a struggle, but not only for him.

And that brings me to the second part of the story.

In some ways, it is very telling that, citing laziness and nothing else, I’ve only visited Ali Abdul-Mani twice in the last year – despite him practically being a member of my family. What should be a jarring truth for me, however, is that long before, during and after my few visits, a real struggle ensues. Eventually, even the largest hordes of Muslims coming to visit thin out, and the patient and the caregiver are faced with the cold, hard reality, which only they experience.

This is the struggle that ignorant, careless me and other visitors don’t get to see. It should make us appreciate the resolve of those we meet who find themselves in these tough situations.

“Most of the time in these situations, the patient is mad at life, mad at the situation and very frustrated,” said Andrew Putnam, director of the palliative care program at Georgetown University Hospital’s Lombardi Cancer Center. “You can’t really take that out on your doctors because you depend on them for care. So frequently, it’s the family members who take the brunt of those frustrations.”

Seeing families struggle with an illness like cancer makes me realize why there is seemingly endless reward in Islam for visiting those who are sick. Muslims fast and feel the hunger of those who don’t have food. They subtract from their own wealth to improve the lives of those less fortunate. They take time out of their day to schedule the five daily prayers. And much like any other good deed, visiting the sick comes with its own purpose.

A hadith, from at-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood: “When a Muslim visits his sick Muslim brother in the morning, seventy thousand angels make du’a (supplication) for his forgiveness until the evening.

And when he visits him the evening, seventy thousand angels make du’a for his forgiveness until the morning, and he will be granted for it a garden in Paradise.”

Of course, the few times I’ve gone to

“You never hear about a child going to a neighbor and taking out a hardship, and you never hear of a sick person going to a stranger and taking frustrations out on him or her,” said Jacquie Muhammad, my mother’s closest friend, her signature, “Child, please!” a constant throughout my 23 years. Her husband, Ismail, passed away three years ago from lung cancer after a three-month battle. “This is life. This is family. I expected to be my husband’s sounding board when he felt like he couldn’t take any more.”

Nzingha Kokayi, Abdul-Mani’s wife, or “Ummi” as we call her, has been embroiled in the five-year-long battle alongside her husband. Their journey together has taken them through various medical facilities in Silver Spring, Baltimore, Bethesda, Washington, and even Mexico. The care has sapped time and money, including a couple of fundraisers, and many a 24hour day.

On first glance, an outsider would get no indication of this struggle by talking to her. You would think Mittens the rebellious cat is the biggest of her worries. But Kokayi has gotten good at compartmentalizing.

“There have been a lot of hard days, and I have spent five years grieving. I worry about every phone call and every day that passes,” she said. “ But I have to always remind myself that this is a test. That’s what gets me through this, constantly remembering that this is a test. And I try to deal with this patiently so I can pass the test.”

Elissa McCrary of the American Cancer reflection Pg 7

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

COMMUNITY NEWS

|7

Supporters Raise Money for US Senate Hopeful to Meet with Abu Ali’s Latest Attempt at Justice Prince George’s County Muslims

By Muslim Link Contributing Writers In a room overflowing with supporters during the Freedom Dinner for incarcerated Northern Virginia youth Ahmed Abu Ali on Saturday, March 3, 2012, Mariam Abu Ali, shared a piece of wisdom from our beloved Prophet (peace reflection

>> continued from pg 6 Society believes that the proximity to the patient is the deciding factor in who gets to witness the most raw emotions.

“The caregiver is the closest, and that person is probably going to feel more frustration than others would, simple because of proximity and because they are with the patient 24/7 for what could be a very long time,” she said. “The caregiver just has to be patient and realize that this frustration and anger stems from the fact that the person is in pain, afraid, depressed, and all of the other things that come with a long-term, painful illness.”

“It is a difficult situation and probably one that everyone, caregiver and patient alike, faces when they have an illness like cancer to deal with.”

All this being said, a tiny part of the bitter heart inside me sizzles with anger when I see cancer patients mistreating their closest relatives. To a certain extent, I’ve always believed that human beings, even when fully healthy and spry, take out their frustrations on those closest to them, because they know they’ll be forgiven in the end.

But then, Jacquie Muhammad tells me to put myself in her husband’s shoes.

“Imagine knowing that you have cancer in your brain, and in your lungs. It’s scary,” she said. “Everyone wants to go to Jannah (heaven) but no one wants to die to get there. When someone is sick, they’re going to a place they know nothing about. They think they’re leaving and going somewhere else, and you’re staying here. They don’t know how death is going to feel, and they’re scared. That’s how I analyzed my situation with my husband.”

and blessings be upon him): “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not oppress him, nor does he fail him. If anyone fulfills his brother’s needs, Allah will fulfill his needs; if one relieves a justice Pg 23

Then I come to understand some of Kokayi’s coping mechanisms, and why she goes about her business with the end goal of not frustrating her husband.

“I try not to bring things up that cause him any sort of stress or aggravation and if I see that anything I’m doing is making anything worse or making him more agitated, I stop,” she said. “And on the reverse, if he does or says things that cause me any sort of agitation or stress, and I can’t change the conversation topic to a more pleasant one, I remove myself from the situation. When I call back or come back I act as if what made me angry never occurred.”

Of course, I look at this hardship and realize that the caregivers are who they are for a reason.

Another hadith, from Sahih Muslim: “The one who visits the sick is like a person who is in a fruit garden of Paradise until he returns.”

But simply put, the caregivers need some care themselves. Often times, it is one person who acts as the lifeline for a cancer patient. The caregiver takes care of food, medicine, clothing, bathing, transportation, house cleaning, visitation scheduling, finances, and a whole host of other issues, not to mention serving as the point person for any additional news a doctor brings to the table, or even their own workload.

“All of this work costs caregivers time and money. There may also be a cost to the caregiver’s health and well-being, but often the caregiver just keeps doing what needs to be done and may suffer in silence,” reads an American Cancer Society document entitled, “What You Need to Know as a Cancer Caregiver.”

“You may be glad to put the well-being of the person with cancer above your own well- being. And your love for this person may give you the energy and drive you

By Muslim Link Staff

and move into national politics.

Maryland State Senator Anthony Muse (D) for District 26 will be meeting with his Prince George’s County Muslim constituents in a town hall style meeting later this month, hoping to gain their support in his campaign to unseat Congressional Senator Ben Cardin

Muse, whose background as an active pastor and theology teacher puts him firmly on the side against Gay marriage and

need to help them through this difficult time. Still, no matter how you feel about it, caregiving is a hard job! And many caregivers are there for their loved one 24 hours a day for months or even years.”

McCrary recommends that caregivers be proactive in seeking help if they need it.

“The caregiver is giving his or her all, and losing sleep and neglecting his or her own health, so of course the frustration will come out,” she said. “So outlets for caregivers are important. Someone like a doctor, a social worker, someone from his or her religious faith. These are all very helpful.”

But in the end, everyone has to remember that the cancer could be the cause of all of these behavioral changes. Then, of course, there are the genuine flashes of character, which stand out as the most vivid memories of my visits.

It is because of Ali Abdul-Mani that I discovered IBC and Dominion root beer, which are a million times better than anything in a can. Once, when I told him that his wife bought those for him, he gave me a look, shrugged his shoulders as best as he could, and said, “Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah).”

“I’m in the best position I could possibly be in,” he said, one year ago. “I’ve lived a good life, I have good kids, and I love Islam. People I haven’t seen in 41 years have come to visit me. I’m grateful, and that’s just where I’m at.”

Jacquie Muhammad said her husband consoled her when he was given the bad news that he had cancer.

“Hey, Jacquie,” she recalled him as saying.

“I can’t complain because Allah has been good to me. That means you pick yourself up, because I’m the one that’s sick and I have to roll with it. So you pick yourself

senate Pg 33

up and roll with me.”

These stories underlie one of Dr. Putnam’s opinions: That no matter how dire the situation, family looks to family for comfort.

“When someone is dying, it is common for people to not know what to say or do, and to move further away and not come and see them as often,” he said. “What families should understand is that just being there is very important. Just your physical presence can be very comforting and important to the patient.”

Today, despite the many years and many doctors who have seen him over the years, Abdul-Mani’s cancer has once again been ruled terminal, according to the staff at both the Bethesda Health and Rehabilitation Center and Suburban Hospital, where he is shuttling back and forth these days.

When I called him this week, I couldn’t believe he even picked up the phone. A recent stroke has made it hard for him to speak, and he is in some more obvious pain.

But in the short minute I spoke to him, he was as fun, caring, talkative and yes, attentive as always. He asked me to tell his wife they were transferring him back to Bethesda Health and Rehab in a few minutes.

One more hadith, from at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Maajah: “When you visit a sick person, speak in a reassuring way to him. Saying this will not delay what is predestined, but it will certainly make him feel happy.”

During my very few visits to him, he put his enormous stress aside and seemed as if he was striving to exemplify that hadith, but in reverse.

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012 msa

>> continued from pg 1 feel welcome and comfortable to every MSA event. With such news lingering in the media, Muslim students become frightened and we see that these brothers and sisters are pushed away from MSA events out of fear of being spied on, followed, harassed, or even arrested based on false charges,” said Haris Ali, George Mason University’s MSA Vice President.

Ali said he wasn’t surprised by the monitoring of Muslim students by the NYPD and believes that similar operations are taking place not only across the United States but internationally as well.

“I was not surprised that it was happening. according to my personal assumption, it’s most likely happening in nearly every state in the U.S, in Canada, and all across Europe,” he said.

In 2009 a report by the Virginia Fusion Center, an intelligence clearinghouse of the Virginia State Police, leaked on the monitoring of the Virginia Commonwealth University MSA. “There are indications the Virginia Commonwealth University chapter of the Muslim Student Association is a front organization for the [Muslim Brotherhood] and is possibly involved with terrorism financing and recruitment,” stated the report.

Following the release of the report the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union expressed its criticism of the analysis saying that the Fusion Centers encourage “overzealous police intelligence activities.”

Ali has been expecting similar monitoring of the GMU MSA to come to light since the 2009 report.

“I’m pretty sure that GMU is under scrutiny as well so I was not surprised at all. It was expected all along,” said Ali. The NYPD monitored Muslim Students Associations in universities across the northwest. Although no arrests were made as a result of the monitoring, the NYPD cited 12 cases of former MSA members who were arrested on terrorism charges as the primary reason for the inquisition.

|9

COMMUNITY NEWS Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, CAIR expressed its concern over reports by the Associated Press (AP) that revealed the funding source of the NYPD surveillance.

“Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance,” reported AP. CAIR released a letter to the Obama Administration calling for an investigation into the NYPD surveillance of the Muslim community and its funding.

“Widespread warrant-less surveillance of minority populations, which we rightly condemn when it is conducted by authoritarian regimes, should not be facilitated using taxpayer funds,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper in the letter. “Your administration should end all support for the unconstitutional profiling of American Muslims by the NYPD or any other law enforcement agency.”

Cries of injustice and questions over the legality of the surveillance have been widespread. However, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has repeatedly denied foul play, calling the monitoring “legal,” “appropriate,” and “constitutional.”

[The general reaction of MSA members and officers is] ashamed, discouraged, betrayed, and offended. The general understanding of most citizens is that the police are here to protect us, not to spy on and suspect us. Therefore, most members of the MSA feel betrayed and deeply concerned about the matter,” he said.

Saud Inam a recent graduate of George Washington University, said that though the revelation of the monitoring of Muslim Students may have moved the Muslim community’s relationship with law enforcement back, he hopes this will be an opportunity for growth and a push for accountability.

“I feel this is an opportunity for the Muslim community to start positive dialogue with others about their faith and also hold the government and law enforcement accountable through dialogue and democratic means,” he said. “We have seen the positive results of engagement by the American Muslim community with the FBI as thousands of anti-Muslim/Islam material was reviewed and removed from training material...”

In September of last year news broke on

FBI training material that stated “mainstream” American Muslims to be likely terrorist sympathizers. The material also stated that the Prophet Muhammad [Salallahu ‘alyhi wa sallam] was a “cult leader.”

FBI Director Robert Mueller called the training material “inappropriate offensive content,” in a testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in early October. “Our outreach over the years has been very successful I think in bridging the relationships with the Muslim-American community, and this is I think something that’s unfortunate and we’ve addressed it,” Mueller said.

As public pressure mounts and Muslim civil rights organizations call for answers on the monitoring of Muslim students, some feel as though the issue far exceeds an issue of rights of the Muslim community alone.

“As Americans we should speak up and protect all regardless of faith, ethnicity or race and hold our government and law enforcement accountable and keep our students safe from illegal monitoring and law enforcement practices,” said Inam.

Though Ali is concerned about the ramifications of such surveillance on MSAs locally and across the country, he understands the actions of the officers and points to the media, not the police, as the primary transgressor.

“I personally believe that it was not right to single out a group of students to spy on based on their religion. However, I understand their decision. Everyone is human and everyone is equally prone to being brainwashed by the media. These poor officers have no choice but to obey their authorities and these authorities are suspecting Muslim students based on the Islamophobia instilled in them by the media. Therefore, I understand reasoning behind this bias and discrimination, but do not support it,” said Ali. As for the response of the Muslim students at George Mason University, Ali said that fear is not the issue, rather a sense of betrayal by a system that is supposed to be protecting them, not spying on them.

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

10 | COMMUNITY NEWS conflict

>> continued from pg 1 opment and success of the masjid, it is primarily the responsibility of the leadership to create opportunity for community involvement and encourage trust through transparency.

“It is a responsibility and in a way a double responsibility on the administration.

You have got to make sure that you keep people involved. Unless they see that the process is transparent, that they are being listened to, they won’t engage and they will feel like they are being disenfranchised and they will move away,” said Ahmad.

While Ahmad places much of the responsibility on the shoulders of the masjid management, former president of a Maryland mosque, Maher Kharma said masjid leadership is sometimes overly scrutinized by the community.

As a former member of leadership himself, Kharma faced personal scrutiny.

Though he doesn’t believe leadership is perfect, he views masjid conflicts as mul-

tifaceted, involving not only the performance of the management of the masjid, but the expectations that the community members have of the management.

“When you don’t have people who understand what leadership is about you end up having these conflicts,” said Kharma.

Both Ahmad and Kharma pointed to issues of clarity in a masjid’s direction as the primary source of conflict. For Kharma, the lack of focus he experienced was a result of an altruistic approach to masjid development.

“Most of our organizations are founded on good intentions and rarely people think there will be conflict so there will often be no structure, no constitution, no bylaws,” he said.

As the number of masjids in suburban areas has increased sixteen percent since 2000 they have begun to evolve beyond the functions of daily prayers, religious holidays and occasional classes and into full fledged community centers with full time schools and daily activities, Kharma believes more focus needs to be paid on the importance of developed structures

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and a general understanding of the role of the contemporary American masjid. “[We need to] apply the Quranic model in establishing solid structure in our operations at the masjids and create practical contemporary constitutions that would serve the time and age and generations that we are serving. That would be the most important thing so that we can really respond to peoples needs,” said Kharma.

While Ahmad agrees that a masjid should be run under guiding Islamic principle, he is weary of using certain terminology in the arbitration of masjid conflicts.

“Unfortunately the perspective of handling things ‘Islamically’ has become a tool for intimidation. Any little thing you say or do can be ‘unIslamic.’ What I have learned is that I have always stayed away from telling someone its ‘unislamic.’ It just rubs people in the wrong way no matter way, whether you are right or wrong,” said Ahmad.

The challenges associated with the use of such general terminology may be associated with the growing diversification of the American Muslim mosque, with only three percent of mosques catering to a single ethnic group.

charge pay no heed to any suggestions.

So there is a strong sense of frustration, helplessness and defeatism,” said Khatib.

Ahmad also warned against the divide between those in leadership positions and the community they lead.

“To the leadership I would say, definitely hold a high standard but do not sit on pedestal, do not elevate yourself and become unapproachable. Please, for heaven sake, avoid going into needless arguments and schemes. Exercise patience and judgement. Use all the same qualities you bring to your workplace as a professional. What is different about here?” said Ahmad.

With an array of issues varying from conflicts based on cultural misunderstandings to accusation of financial fraud ending up in courtrooms local Muslim communities are struggling to keep up with the demands of the growing community and the expectations of the modern American masjid.

“I don’t see how we can completely avoid conflicts. We must understand that conflicts and disagreements are part of our history. I think that they can be beneficial depending on how they are handled,” said Ahmad.

Rules of arbitration in Islamic tradition are often points of contention themselves where heavily diversified communities find themselves at odds of understanding thus redefining the role of American based religious authorities such as the Fiqh Council of North America. While the Council is unable to arbitrate individual issues it provides calculations for moonsightings and generalized fatwas on issues that often sources of disagreement in local communities. While the majority, fifty-six percent, of mosque leaders “adopt a flexible approach” when interpreting the Qu’ran and Sunnah, a large minority does not beg the question of how one might define such an approach across the many variables that exist in the increasingly ethnically and generationally diverse American Muslim community.

Salim Khatib of Catonsville, Maryland, experienced conflict that he said greatly impacted his attendance at the masjid he attended since 1985 and even purchased a home nearby.

Khatib hopes that the future of the American Muslim mosque will be able to move past conflict by learning to better use available resources rather than fighting over who will use them.

“Jumuah khutba and all other activities are all geared toward raising money.

People that I knew for many years have left in droves. There is no real feeling of brotherhood and camaraderie. The same group of people take turns in being leaders and keep the rest of us at bay as silent spectators. During meetings people are allowed to speak openly but those in

“Instead of wasting energy and resources in being at loggerheads with one another, it makes much more sense to learn the fundamentals of Islam and listen to youth and scholars who do not give themselves airs and have valuable knowledge of Is-

Differing cultural backgrounds, religious viewpoints of a variety of practiced madhabs and varying opinions on the traditional role of the masjid and its purpose for the community compound the already complex concerns of the rapidly growing American Muslim community.

conflict II Pg 11

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012 shelter

>> continued from pg 4

as Muslims honor our obligation to pay zakat and sadaqa, the needs of the less fortunate can be met. Cutting the problem off at its roots by helping families stay in their homes in the first place is the best solution.”

FAITH’s fundraising coordinator, Sister Somayyah Ghariani, followed up by outlining the organization’s five program areas: assistance to victims of domestic violence, its shelter and self-sufficiency program, rental and emergency financial assistance, its food pantry, and its thrift store. One of its current projects is the recruitment of assistant fundraisers to help publicize FAITH’s mission throughout the community. She appealed to the group to come on board in whatever manner that they possibly could – for example, by sponsoring a similar luncheon in their homes or simply collecting donations from family, friends and colleagues on behalf of FAITH. Folders containing literature about FAITH’s efforts to address the problem of homelessness as well as other ills that plague our community, pledge forms, and stamped addressed envelopes were distributed.

The presentation ended by Sister Somayyah’s reading of these words of inspiration that were shared by a member of the audience: conflict II

>> continued from pg 11 lam and the contemporary world,” he said.

Ahmad understands the plight of the community faced with looming conflict but urges members to hold on through the storm.

“For the community, even with all the heartburn and disenfranchisement that they feel, do not give up on being engaged. We have all types of heartburns and complaints at our workplace but we try to manage because there is some benefit to us. We need to bring something of a similar mindset,” said Ahmad.

COMMUNITY NEWS | 11 A woman walked along the beach, throwing starfish that had been stranded by the outgoing tide back into the ocean. There were hundreds of them to return to the water and, obviously, she couldn’t begin to accomplish that task.

A cynical man came along and asked in a most arrogant manner, “What possible difference do you think you can make for all those starfish?” The woman stooped down, picked up another and, as she tossed it into the water, she replied in a quiet, confident tone, “For this one, it makes all the difference in the world.”

The luncheon attendees were then free to mingle with one another, partake in henna tattoos, and shop amongst a number of exquisite clothing items from FAITH’s “boutique.”

Center St., Suite 2, Herndon, VA 20170 -----------------------------------------------To volunteer your time and/or expertise, please contact FAITH’s volunteer coordinator, Sr. Zohra Mir, at zohramir@ yahoo.com or call her at 703-656-5898.

For more information on FAITH, please write to info@faithus.org or call FAITH at 571-323-2198. To play a role in the fight against homelessness and/or support FAITH’s programs, please make your taxexempt donation online at www.faithus. org, or mail your check to: FAITH, 795

“Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous; those who spend (freely) whether in prosperity or in adversity, who restrain anger, and pardon (all) men, for Allah loves those who do good.” Holy Qur’an, Surat Al-Imran (3), Ayat 133-134.

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12 | WORLD PRESS

World Press

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

Poverty, Global Trade Justice, and the Roots of Terrorism To combat terrorism, we should address the root causes of poverty, says former “economic hit man” John Perkins

By John Perkins [The following is adapted from Hoodwinked: An Economic Hitman Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them. Random House, 2009] “Navy Seal snipers rescued an American cargo ship captain unharmed and killed three Somali pirates in a daring operation in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, ending a five-day standoff between United States naval forces and a small band of brigands in a covered orange lifeboat off the Horn of Africa.”

The New York Times published that article in April 2009. The very words “pirates,” “daring operation,” “standoff,”

and “brigands” were typical of the U.S. media; they made it sound as though white-hatted cowboys had ridden to the rescue of a town besieged by Billy the Kid and his gang. Having lived in that part of the world as an economic hit man, I knew there was another side to what had happened. I wondered why no one was asking about the causes of piracy.

I recalled my visits with the Bugi people when I was sent to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in the early 1970s. The Bugi had been infamous pirates since the time of the East India companies in the 1600s and 1700s. Their ferocity inspired returning European sailors to discipline their disobedient children with threats that “the bugiman will get you.” In the

1970s, we feared that they would attack our oil tankers as they passed through the vital Strait of Malacca.

I sat with one of their elders on the Sulawesi shore one afternoon. We watched his people build a sailing galleon, known as a prahu, much as they had for centuries. Like a gigantic beached whale, it was high and dry, propped upright by rows of gnarled stakes that resembled roots sprouting from its hull. Dozens of men hustled about it, working with adzes, hatchets, and hand drills. I expressed the concerns of my government to him, intimating that we would retaliate if the oil lanes were threatened.

The old man glared at me. “We were not pirates in the old days,” he said, his

bushy white hair bobbing indignantly.

“We only fought to defend our lands against Europeans who came to steal our spices. If we attack your ships today, it is because they take the trade away from us; your ‘stink ships’ foul our waters with oil, destroying our fish and starving our children.” Then he shrugged. “Now, we’re at a loss.” His smile was disarming. “How can a handful of people in wooden sailing ships fight off America’s submarines, airplanes, bombs, and missiles?”

A few days after the rescue, the Times ran an editorial entitled “Fighting Piracy in Somalia” that concluded:

terrorism Pg 14

Vatican Requests Access to 1500 Year Old Bible Discovered In Turkey Final Prophet Mentioned By Name

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER February 24, 2012

A secret Bible in which Jesus is believed to predict the coming of the Prophet Muhammad to Earth has sparked serious interest from the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI is claimed to want to see the 1,500-year-old book, which many say is the Gospel of Barnabas, that has been hidden by the Turkish state for the last 12 years.

The £14million handwritten gold lettered tome, penned in Jesus’ native Aramaic language, is said to contain his early teachings and a prediction of the Prophet’s coming.

The leather-bound text, written on animal hide, was discovered by Turkish police during an anti-smuggling operation in 2000.

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It was closely guarded until 2010, when it was finally handed over to the Ankara Ethnography Museum, and will soon be put back on public display following a minor restoration.

A photocopy of a single page from the handwritten ancient manuscript is thought to be worth £1.5million.

Turkish culture and tourism minister Ertugrul Gunay said the book could be an authentic version of the Gospel, which was suppressed by the Christian Church for its strong parallels with the Islamic view of Jesus.

He also said the Vatican had made an official request to see the scripture - a controversial text which Muslims claim is an addition to the original gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

In line with Islamic belief, the Gospel treats Jesus as a human being and not a God. It rejects the ideas of the Holy Trinity and the Crucifixion and reveals that Jesus predicted the coming of the Prophet Muhammad.

In one version of the gospel, he is said to have told a priest: ‘How shall the Messiah be called? Muhammad is his blessed name’. And in another Jesus denied being the Messiah, claiming that he or she would be Ishmaelite, the term used for an Arab.

Despite the interest in the newly re-discovered book, some believe it is a fake and only dates back to the 16th century.

The oldest copies of the book date back to that time, and are written in Spanish and Italian.

Protestant pastor İhsan Özbek said it was unlikely to be authentic. This is because

St Barnabas lived in the first century and was one of the Apostles of Jesus, in contrast to this version which is said to come from the fifth or sixth century. He told the Today Zaman newspaper: ‘The copy in Ankara might have been written by one of the followers of St Barnabas.

Since there is around 500 years in between St Barnabas and the writing of the Bible copy, Muslims may be disappointed to see that this copy does not include things they would like to see. It might have no relation with the content of the Gospel of Barnabas.’

Theology professor Ömer Faruk Harman said a scientific scan of the bible may be the only way to reveal how old it really is.

bible Pg 23

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

14 | CONTINUED terrorism

>> continued from pg 12

“Yet left to its own devices, Somalia can only become more noxious, spreading violence to its East African neighbors, breeding more extremism and making shipping through the Gulf of Aden ever more dangerous and costly. Various approaches are being discussed, such as working through Somalia’s powerful clans to reconstitute first local and then regional and national institutions. These must be urgently explored.”

Nowhere did the Times—or any of the other media outlets that I read, heard, or saw—attempt to analyze the roots of the problem in Somalia. Debates abounded about whether to arm ships’ crews and send more Navy vessels to the region.

There was that vague reference to reconstituting regional and national institutions, but what exactly did the author mean by that? Institutions that would truly help, like free hospitals, schools, and soup kitchens? Or local militias, prisons, and Gestapo-style police forces?

The pirates were fishermen whose livelihoods had been destroyed. They were fathers whose children were hungry.

Ending piracy would require helping them live sustainable, dignified lives.

Could journalists not understand this?

Had none of them visited the slums of Mogadishu?

Finally, NPR’s Morning Edition on May 6 aired a report from Gwen Thompkins; she interviewed a pirate who went by the name Abshir Abdullahi Abdi. “We understand what we’re doing is wrong,” Abdi explained. “But hunger is more important than any other thing.”

Thompkins commented, “Fishing villages in the area have been devastated by illegal trawlers and waste dumping from industrialized nations. Coral reefs are reportedly dead. Lobster and tuna have vanished. Malnutrition is high.”

You might think we would have learned from Vietnam, Iraq, the “Black Hawk down” incident in Somalia back in 1993, and other such forays, that military responses seldom discourage insurgencies. In fact, they often do the opposite; foreign intervention is likely to infuriate local populations, motivate them to support the rebels, and result in an escalation of resistance activities. That was the

....

way it happened during the American Revolution, Latin America’s wars for independence from Spain, and in colonial Africa, Indochina, Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and so many other places.

Blaming pirates and other desperate people for our problems is a distraction we cannot afford if we truly want to find a solution to the crises confronting us.

These incidents are symptoms of our failed economic model. They are to our society the equivalent of a heart attack to an individual. We send in Navy Seals to rescue the hostages, as we would hire doctors to perform a coronary artery bypass. But it is essential to admit that both are reactions to an underlying problem.

The patient needs to address the reasons his or her heart failed in the first place, such as smoking, diet, and lack of exercise. The same is true for piracy and all forms of terrorism.

Our children’s futures are interlocked with the futures of children born in the fishing villages of Somalia, the mountains of Burma (Myanmar), and the jungles of Colombia. When we forget that fact, when we see those children as remote, as somehow disconnected from our lives, as merely the offspring of pirates, guerrillas, or drug runners, we point the gun at our own progeny as well as at the desperate fathers and mothers in lands that seem so far away but in reality are our next door neighbors.

Every time I read about the actions we take to protect ourselves from so-called terrorists, I have to wonder at the narrowmindedness of our strategy. Although I have met such people in Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, and Nicaragua, I have never met one who wanted to take up a gun. I know there are crazed men and women who kill because they cannot stop themselves, serial killers, and mass-murderers. I am certain that members of Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other such groups are driven by fanaticism, but such extremists are able to recruit sizable numbers of followers only from populations that feel oppressed or destitute. The “terrorists” I have found in Andean caves and desert villages are people whose families were forced off their farms by oil companies, hydroelectric dams, or “free trade” agreements, whose children are starving, and who want nothing more than to return to their families with food, seeds, and deeds to lands they can cultivate.

In Mexico, many of the guerrillas and narcotraffickers once owned farms where they grew corn. They lost their livelihoods when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) gave subsidized U.S. producers an unfair price advantage. Here is how the Organic Consumers Organization, a nonprofit that represents more than 850,000 members, subscribers, and volunteers, describes it: “Since NAFTA came into effect on January 1, 1994, U.S. corn exports to Mexico have almost doubled to some 6 million metric tons in 2002. NAFTA eliminated quotas limiting corn imports . . . but allowed U.S. subsidy programs to remain in place—promoting dumping of corn into Mexico by U.S. agribusiness at below the cost of production. . . . The price paid to farmers in Mexico for corn fell by over 70 percent. . .”

The passage above exposes the dark side of “free trade” policies. U.S. presidents and our Congress have implemented regulations that prohibited other countries from imposing tariffs on U.S. goods or subsidizing locally grown produce that might compete with our agribusinesses while permitting us to maintain our own import barriers and subsidies, thus giving U.S. corporations an unfair advantage. “Free trade” is a euphemism; it prohibits others from enjoying the benefits offered to the multinationals. It does not, however, regulate against the pollution that is melting glaciers, the land grabs, and the sweatshops.

Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, a Nicaraguan priest who ministered to Sandinista guerrillas and is now president of the U.N. General Assembly, has a firsthand appreciation for such euphemisms and the power of words used to sway public perceptions. “Terrorism is not really an ‘ism,’ ” he told me. “There’s no connection between the Sandinistas who fought the Contras and Al Qaeda, or between Colombia’s FARC and fishermen turned pirates in Africa and Asia.

Yet they are all called ‘terrorists.’ That’s just a convenient way for your government to convince the world that there is another enemy ‘ism’ out there, like communism used to be. It diverts attention from the very real problems.”

Our narrow-minded attitudes and the policies that result from them foment vi-

olence, rebellions, and wars. In the long run, almost no one benefits from attacking the people we label as “terrorists.”

With one glaring exception: the corporatocracy.

Those who own and run the companies that build ships, missiles, and armored vehicles; make guns, uniforms, and bulletproof vests; distribute food, soft drinks, and ammunition; provide insurance, medicines, and toilet paper; construct ports, airstrips, and housing; and reconstruct devastated villages, factories, schools, and hospitals—they, and only they, are the big winners.

The rest of us are hoodwinked by that one, loaded word: terrorist.

The current economic collapse has awakened us to the importance of regulating and reining in the people who control the businesses that benefit from the misuse of words like terrorism and who perpetrate other scams. We recognize today that white-collared executives are not a special, incorruptible breed. Like the rest of us, they require rules. Yet it is not enough for us to reestablish regulations that separate investment banks from commercial banks and insurance companies, reinstate anti-usury laws, and impose guidelines to ensure that consumers are not burdened by credit they cannot afford. We cannot simply return to solutions that worked before. Only by adopting new strategies that promote global environmental and social responsibility will we safeguard the future.

-----------------------------------------------John Perkins, who will be the guest speaker at this year’s Muslim Link Annual Fundraising Event on April 14, 2012, adapted this excerpt of Hoodwinked: An Economic Hitman Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded— and What We Need to Do to Remake Them for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions.

John is also the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and other books.

[Source: Yes! Magazine, 11/13/2009] In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

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16 | NATIONAL NEWS

National News

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

Atheist Group Targets Muslims, Jews With ‘Myth’ Billboards In Arabic And Hebrew

By Dan Merica

them and they don’t have to live that way if they don’t want to.”

(CNN) – The billboard wars between atheists and believers have raged for years now, especially around New York City, and a national atheist group is poised to take the battle a step further with billboards in Muslim and Jewish enclaves bearing messages in Arabic and Hebrew.

CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories

American Atheists, a national organization, will unveil the billboards Monday on Broadway in heavily Muslim Paterson, New Jersey and in a heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood, immediately after the Williamsburg Bridge.

Atheists have long pointed to surveys that suggest atheists and agnostics make up between 3% and 4% of the U.S. population. That number increases when Americans unaffiliated with any religion are included. The Pew Center’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey found that 16% are unaffiliated, though only a fraction of those are avowed atheists and agnostics.

March 1, 2012, CNN

“You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice,” the billboards say. The Patterson version is in English and Arabic, and the Brooklyn one in English and Hebrew. To the right of the text on the Arabic sign is the word for God, Allah. To the right of the text on the Hebrew sign is the word for God, Yahweh.

Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said the signs are intended to reach atheists in the Muslim and Jewish enclaves who may feel isolated because they are surrounded by believers.

“Those communities are designed to keep atheists in the ranks,” he says. “If there are atheists in those communities, we are reaching out to them. We are letting them know that we see them, we acknowledge

Silverman says the signs advertise the American Atheists’ upcoming convention and an atheist rally, called the Reason Rally, in Washington next month.

Mohamed Elfilali, executive director of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, laughed when he learned the Arabic billboard would go up in the same town as his office. He says he’s surprised that someone is spending money on such a sign.

“It is not the first and won’t be the last time people have said things about God or religion,” Elfilali says. “I respect people’s opinion about God; obviously they are entitled to it. I don’t think God is a myth, but that doesn’t exclude people to have a different opinion.”

But Elfilali bemoaned the billboards as another example of a hyper-polarized world.

Silverman acknowledges that the pair of new billboards will likely cause a stir.

“Sadly, there is a need to polarize society as opposed to build bridges,” he says.

“That is the century that we live in. It is very polarized, very politicized.”

“People are going to be upset,” he says.

“That is not our concern.”

Rabbi Serge Lippe of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue had a similar response.

“We are not trying to inflame anything,” he continued. “We are trying to advertise our existence to atheist in those communities.

The objective is not to inflame but rather to advertise the atheist movement in the Muslim and Jewish community.”

“The great thing about America is we are marketplace for ideas,” he says.

“People put up awful, inappropriate billboards expressing their ideas and that is embraced.”

The billboards will be up for one month and cost American Atheists, based in New Jersey, less than $15,000 each, according to Silverman.

But Lippe acknowledged that there are a lot of agnostic and atheist Jews.

A recent Gallup survey found 53% of Jews identified as nonreligious. Among American Jews, 17% identified as very religious and 30% identified as moderately

religious.

“When you have two Jews in the room, you have three opinions,” joked Lippe.

American Atheists have used the word “myth” to describe religion and God on billboards before. Last November, the organization went up with a billboard immediately before the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln tunnel that showed the three wise men heading to Bethlehem and stated “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.”

At the time, the American Atheists said the billboard was to encourage Atheists to come out of the closet with their beliefs and to dispel the myth that Christianity owns the solstice season.

The Christmas billboard led to a “counter punch” by the Catholic League, a New York-based Catholic advocacy group.

The Catholic League put up a competing billboard that said, “You Know It’s Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus.”

Silverman says his group’s billboard campaigns will continue long into the future.

“There will be more billboards,” Silverman says. “We are not going to be limiting to Muslims and Jews, we are going to be putting up multiple billboards in multiple communities in order to get atheists to come out of the closet.”

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18 | NATIONAL NEWS

Muslims Rally In Support Of NYPD Surveillance Tactics, Say Police ‘not Trying To Hurt Us’

By Associated Press, March 5, 2012

even by city officials as “over the top.”

NEW YORK — Qazi Qayyoom, an imam in Queens, says he believes the New York Police Department is keeping his community safe, and if that means some Muslims are monitored, so be it.

“The few misguided individuals that showed up in support of the NYPD today do not speak on behalf of Muslim communities,” said Amna Akbar, a lawyer with the City University of New York School of Law’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility program. “Through know your rights workshops, rallies at Foley Square and Wall Street and calls for federal, state and city investigations, Muslim communities have been loud and clear that the NYPD’s surveillance policies are unwarranted, dangerous and divisive.”

“The police, they come to us and say, ‘Is everything OK? How can we help you?” he said Monday. “They are not trying to hurt us. For this, I want to say thank you and tell them I support them.”

Qayyoom and about three dozen other people on Monday attended the first rally held by Muslims in support of the NYPD following a series of Associated Press stories detailing the police department’s secret surveillance of mosques, Muslimowned businesses and college campuses across the Northeast since Muslim extremists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing thousands of people.

The rally, held by the American Islamic Leadership Coalition outside police headquarters in downtown Manhattan, illustrated a division even among the faith’s adherents about how far authorities should go in seeking to protect the nation’s largest city from terrorists. Other Muslim groups were quick to say the coalition didn’t represent their views.

Among the speakers was Dr. Zudhi Jasser, the narrator of “The Third Jihad,” a documentary about the dangers of radical Islam that the NYPD showed in the lobby of a police training area and has since disavowed.

“We are not here to criticize the NYPD but rather thank them for monitoring extremists, a job that Muslims should be doing,” Jasser said.

Jasser and others, including activist Manda Zand Ervin, said that the danger is clearly coming from within the Muslim community and that it’s up to other Muslims to help law enforcement stop the threat. They said Muslims do not want to give up civil rights and are

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behind transparency in police work but it is wrong to suggest that all Muslims are somehow afraid of the NYPD, the nation’s biggest police department.

“In no way do we want to be spied on,” Jasser said. “But this is not about spying.

This is about monitoring and public programs.”

The NYPD didn’t comment Monday.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said he is doing everything within the law to protect the city from another terrorist attack. The department is bound under federal guidelines, known the Handschu guidelines, on how it can do certain investigations, and Kelly said the department’s efforts follow them.

“Anyone who intimates that it is unlawful for the police department to search online, visit public places or map neighborhoods has either not read, misunderstood or intentionally obfuscated the meaning of the Handschu guidelines,” Kelly said at a weekend breakfast.

Kelly planned to meet with Muslim leaders on Tuesday, said Sheik Moussa Drammeh, who received an invitation by phone. Drammeh, founder of the Islamic

Leadership School in the Bronx, said he wasn’t sure what the meeting would be about.

Omar T. Mohammedi, president of the Association of Muslim American Lawyers and a non-salaried commissioner on the city’s Commission on Human Rights, said he was invited to the meeting but decided not to go.

Mohammedi, who was not speaking on behalf of the commission, said he did not know the meeting’s agenda or purpose.

Several other Muslim leaders were invited, but it was unclear how many would attend. The police department on Monday didn’t comment on the meeting.

Linda Sarsour, a member of the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition, said she objected to the idea held by some speakers Monday that Muslims opposed to police surveillance were “radical.”

“Muslim Americans are simply saying we’re concerned, we’re asking questions of our government, our law enforcement, and now we’re being labeled as radical Islamists,” she said. “We’re simply exercising our rights.”

Far uptown from police headquarters, a line of yellow cabs was parked outside the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, where many of the men who stopped to pray Monday were taxi drivers.

Janitor Yasin Mansoer said the NYPD surveillance of Muslims is “terrible.”

“It’s totally wrong,” he said. “I know there’s a security situation in this country, but you can’t suspect everybody.”

The police department has been criticized by many civil rights groups and politicians who say its surveillance efforts go too far.

Several other rallies have been held in the past months by other Muslim groups that drew hundreds of people to protest the NYPD’s tactics. Each side says it’s not being accurately represented by the other.

Some politicians have lauded the police department’s efforts, while others have demonized them. U.S. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a resolute supporter of the NYPD, said the NYPD deserved a medal and other police departments should mimic its counterterror efforts.

Critics of Monday’s rally pointed out that there were few people in attendance and that “The Third Jihad” had been described

nypd Pg 29

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

20 | ISLAM

Islam

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

By Abu Eesa Niamatullah

islammessage.com, 11/12/2010 With so much of our daily news digests dominated by the search for conflict resolution in the world’s military hot-spots and problem zones, one can often forget that despite the obvious starting point political solutions may offer to solving many of our big international issues, actually most of the real problems are found between ourselves at the personal level.

When we argue amongst ourselves and become divided as individuals, families, friends, neighbours and colleagues, we induce ourselves to pursue different interests and objects. Making peace on the other hand restores us back to a state of unity, giving us that single interest to build a healthy community upon, and indeed take that unity forward as a strong foundation to tackle the bigger wider issues. The alternative is untenable at every level, as God Almighty says in the Qur’ān: “…and do not quarrel among yourselves lest you lose heart and your momentum disappears.” (al-Anfāl, 46)

Those who can see the effects of disunity, argumentation and conflict upon others as well as importantly themselves in the general sense, have to act upon the moral and religious imperative of helping out whenever possible and as quickly as possible. History teaches us that the moments during which reconciliation and indeed reason prevail are far too short and fleeting amongst the chitter-chatter of our busy fast-paced lives. God Almighty brings our attention to this again when He says: “There is no good in much of their secret talk, except in the case of those who enjoin to charity, or what is good, or reconciliation between people. If anyone does that, seeking the pleasure of God, We will give him an immense reward.” (An-Nisā’, 114) Muslims above all others should recognise the sense of urgency on bringing peace between opposing parties, as God commands in the Qur’ān: “The Believers are but brothers, so make peace between your brothers and be conscious of God so that hopefully you will gain mercy.” (al-Hujurāt, 10)

Islamically speaking this means that whenever there is some kind of problem or enmity between two parties, you should try your best to resolve the issue and diffuse the situation of what is causing the difficulties in the first place. And whenever the magnitude from a sin point of view is greater with respect to the enmity between the two parties such as between a father and son, or between two blood brothers or between husband and wife, then the urgency and importance to resolve the problem becomes more emphasised respectively.

One should never lose sight of how excellent an act conflict resolution is – Christian tradition calls such Peacemakers the “children of God” which is a term of respect in their theology as one is doing the work of the Divine when bringing people together. In Islam, the sentiment is the same but rather our recompense is an “immense reward” and as narrated from the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) that the one that brings about reconciliation is “giving in charity” every day by doing the work of the Divine.

Indeed in Islam, despite lying and deception being completely impermissible, it is

still allowed for a Peacemaker to stretch the truth slightly – let’s call it a “white lie” for argument’s sake – if it will bring people together. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) mentioned in a narration collected by Imām al-Bukhārī and Imām Muslim, “The one who reconciles between the people is not to be considered a liar.” (Bukhārī, 2692) In the version collected by Imām Muslim, the narrator Umm Kulthūm added, “I have not heard him grant a concession in anything with respect to how the people talk (i.e. lie) except in three: war, reconciling between people and what a husband says to his wife and a wife says to her husband.” (Muslim, 2605) So when we approach some folks who have had an argument, not only should we appreciate that there really is a real impasse here where each party is unhappy, feels they have been wronged and/or are not getting their full rights, but we must appreciate also that a worked solution has to get over other personal issues as well. We might be able to negotiate a “settlement” but how are we going to get the people to actually negotiate blessed Pg 22

The Great Emptiness of the Soul

By Abu Muntasir M. Manwar Ali

Surely, before that, they indulged in ease and plenty. [Sūrah al-Wāqi’ah (56): 45] Engrossed in the pursuit of our desires we keep ourselves back from reflecting upon the state of our souls. Scholars have always taught and lived by the truth that love of this world is the source of all error. `Umar (radī Allahu ‘anhu) thought about the following words in the noble Qur’ān: Fair in the eyes of men are the love of things they covet. Women and sons; heaped up hoards of gold and silver; Horses branded (for blood and excellence) and (wealth of) cattle, And well-tilled land. Such are the

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possessions of the life of this world; But the best (thing) to return to is in the presence of Allāh. [Sūrah Āl-I-Imrān (3): 14] `Umar (radī Allahu ‘anhu) then responded, “O Allāh! We cannot but be happy with those things which You (yourself) have made fair in our eyes. (So) O Allāh! I request You to give me power to spend all those things in the right way.”

We have the great gift of intellect and plainly some of us never lack in our will power to rake in all sorts of gains we wish to gather in this world. However, let us try to imagine for a moment all the gaps we have in our lives.

We have gaps in empathy, understanding of realities, compassion, courage, knowledge, and self-reliance to gaps in gratitude,

charity, justice, inventiveness, appreciation and being resourceful. Put all these gaps together and they form a great void indeed.

With our faith and the knowledge we have of it, especially with regards to the life story and practices of the last Messenger of Allāh, MuHammad (sallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam), we have little trouble in recognising this void as nothing else but a great emptiness of the soul. Being able to impose my intellect and will; my mind; on that great emptiness, so that it can take shape and leave a beautiful trace in time, forever to my credit, is what true devotion, learning and service to humanity is all about.

This is the Sunnah that can neither be expressed in a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ nor set down as a dry list of rules. It is the

comprehensive Sunnah of worshipping Allāh in sincerity and love. It is as much to do with removing the sins in our lives as to fill that emptiness within. It is a way to behave with our hearts, minds and bodies; so that God is witnessed in truth in our being who we are. At its core is TawHīd and purification of the heart. The pure heart fills the emptiness of the soul and makes it peaceful and sound. That is the goal of faith and the result is not union with Allāh but nearness to Him in this life and then a vision of Him in the Hereafter in Paradise.

This is the reason why it is so very hard, perhaps impossible, to understand with acceptance, the constraints and motives of those who confuse, or hinder, or put to trial others about Islam when we all need to come

soul Pg 23

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

ISLAM

Salaah times for March 9th - March 22nd, 2012 If a person had a stream outside his door and he bathed in it fi ve times a day, do you think he would have any fi lth left on him?” The people said, “No filth would remain on him whatsoever.”

The Prophet (peace be upon him) then said, “That is like the fi ve daily prayers: Allah wipes away the sins by them.”

---Hadith in Sahih al Bukhari and Muslim

Prayer times generated from www.islamicfinder.com for the WASHINGTON, DC area.

blessed

>> continued from pg 20 first if they are so angry at one another?

Here then, we realise that there are usually a few crucial obstacles to peacemaking from the two parties themselves: anger, pride, greed, envy and ambition.

I would put forward that once you can get over the tangible anger and calm the rhetoric as the Peacemaker because pride from each person is not allowing themselves to move forward, then we can work on the other three.

Now, nothing starts to soothe anger like praise and love, so here is where the Prophetic narration comes to play: we might go to X and say, “Hey, you do know that Y really regrets how this all turned out, right? You know he loves you and thinks the world of you – he just told me that, and I know I shouldn’t be telling you this really but I had to.”

Practically speaking, this acts like a fire extinguisher. X immediately thinks, “But I love him too! Why am I allowing my anger to get in the way when he wants to move forward?”

Anger is something which increases when opposed by an equal force, but diminishes rapidly when the other side retreats. Think of road rage as an example: someone does something really stupid on the road and makes you mad, but then suddenly they lift their hand up in immediate apology.

Instinctively your anger level crashes and

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you approach near-calm. On the other hand, if that other driver starts to shout and swear back, then you are more than likely to go even more insane with rage. Or at least that’s what I do.

So as the Peacemaker you then go back to the other party Y and say the exact same thing you claimed that Y was saying about X and then once Y realises that the feelings are being reciprocated, we’ve started to get over the first two hurdles of anger and pride. And you’ve done so not necessarily by lying because as Muslims we mustn’t go straight to completely untrue statements but rather the stretching of the truth: of course they regret being in acrimony because every Muslim should regret that whether they realise it or not, and of course they love each other, and sure, they might not have told you right then but you can add silently to yourself in brackets, “He loves you and he just told me that as well (about 2 years ago).” Sure, it’s sly but it’s not the worst thing in the world you could have said as per the Prophetic narration above, hence we call it a “white lie”. In the Sharī‘ah, this is called tawriyah and not kadhib (outright lying).

So the anger is dealt with but now both X and Y need to be spoken to so that the conditions are created for a chance meeting to set reconciliation in motion hopefully with an apology to one another. Apologies will flow once anger is gone, reason is realised, and light can be seen at the end of the long, dark tunnel. No-one wants to remain in the dark and if an apology - that amazing super glue of life which can just about repair anything – is going to bring us back to light, then people will go for it. We just need to remove all further obstacles.

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1:17 1:17 1:17 1:16 1:16 1:16 1:16 1:15

What needs to be said? We need to remind each party that the remaining major threats of envy, ambition and greed will not help in finding a workable solution to the problem.

Reconciliation or islāh is only needed because two parties want their full rights or complete justice. Unfortunately, justice isn’t going to solve this problem – there will have to be some kind of sacrifice from both parties to reach something agreeable. You cannot be greedy here and want your full right even though this might not technically be greed because your rightful share is what you deserve, but we’re not going to get what we deserve today.

relationship reason to love each other more.

Hence, bringing people out of anger and unreasonable behaviour with gentle advice and reminding will make them aware of the fallacy of such thoughts and obstacles as mentioned above.

And then for the final act: somehow get the now prepped and advised X and Y in the same room by “coincidence” or “chance”, and now that anger has gone, pride is absent (because no-one had to lose face and show “weakness” in making the “call for peace”), you’ll hopefully see the start of what all good people just want to do: live in peace.

And you certainly shouldn’t be taking advantage of the situation due to your ambition and be wanting even more than you started off with. You’re here not to profit from your relationship but to ensure that each party is living smoothly and in peace with what they have. Trying to get more at the expense of the other is naturally going to cause argumentation, and living in a time when the days are too short even for love, how can there be enough time for argumentation!?

One of the truly amazing things about this process is that even after a few minutes if both parties realise that they never spoke to you as the Peacemaker about the other in a loving way etc and it was all one big trick, it won’t damage the peace, because that’s the way people are. Deep down we long for normality and we are well able to laugh off other peoples’ devious attempts to bring us back to that normality and realise the harm that we were causing each other. People are just grateful that they can civilly talk again!

As for envy, then this is just silly talk from people who are losing their minds in the midst of madness. And you need to frankly remind them of that. Envy is a disease where one wishes harm for the other party as opposed to being impressed and happy for the good position of the other person and then trying one’s best to achieve the same without any decrease for the other.

And people in general don’t wish harm for others, and even more so from those who have a territorial or national or family or

So the religious imperative is clear and no Muslim should need any further reminding of the excellence and virtue of sacrificing their time to achieve such a noble objective.

But the question still remains, what are some of the factors and tips to keep in mind to help us both personally avoid such scenarios and indeed help others to help themselves out of conflict at a more emotional level?

May God Almighty give us all the will and patience to continue to bring peace. Āmīn.

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012 soul

>> continued from pg 20 closer to Allāh. This is the reason why it is so difficult, perhaps impossible, to understand with acceptance, the constraints and motives of those who do not inspire sacrifice or striving or sincerity for Allāh when all of us do need to come closer to Allāh.

From whom and from what do I learn to fill the unqualified nothingness of the emptiness of the soul unless it is from the selfless life of the Messenger of Allāh (zallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) and the words of Allāh’s revelation? From whom and from what do I learn to fill the unqualified nothingness of the emptiness of the soul so that I can have the honour and eternal credit from Allāh to become blessed to be a witness to Him in unbounded happiness in Paradise?

Maybe identification and solidarity are related, but they are certainly not the same thing. I identify with the Messenger of Allāh (sallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) but how much solidarity do I really have with him? Solidarity with him in what? Really? soul

>> continued from pg 7

Muslim of his troubles, Allah will relieve his troubles on the Day of Resurrection.”

Ahmed Abu Ali is our American Muslim brother who still spends everyday unjustly locked up in perpetual solitary confinement. Over one hundred community members came together to support Ahmed’s struggle for freedom, and return him to his rightful place in our community.

The evening began with a short v i d e o ( h t t p : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=5S4PwvhgHZ4), explaining what happened to Ahmed, starting in 2003, when at 22 years old, he was arrested, tortured, and held in prison for 2 years with no charges against him.

After the film was screened, Ahmed’s sister, Mariam, shared her experiences about how the detention and persecution of Ahmed has tormented her family, and bible

>> continued from pg 12

WHO WAS ST BARNABAS? Born in Cyprus as Joseph, Barnabas

CONTINUED | 23 How? Who and what helps me to build that solidarity? Who and what deludes me away or holds me back? Should I not understand that? My life, my health, my wealth, my knowledge – do they not determine my being busy, my company with others, my priorities, my enjoyments and efforts, my helpfulness and generosity, my learning, my desires, my ambitions and goals? And I have to answer for them all.

No doubt most of us are readily able to feel sympathy with these words for victims of the emptiness of the soul, but how far does that bring us to a moral understanding of this tragedy? This is and has been the moral need for all time – to truly understand the tragedy of being an intelligent person gifted with faith and mind, yet neglect the emptiness of the soul. Maybe we see this as less than a tragedy? Al-Hasan al-Basrī had once said, “The World is nothing but the present hour you are in, and it has deceived you away from Paradise and has induced you towards the Fire!”

We can do what we mostly do at times of moral need – remain as bystanders.

Or we could stop cheating ourselves and

set a disturbing precedent for our entire American Muslim community. Referring to the recent passage into law of the National Defense Authorization Act, Mariam explained, “When this happened to Ahmed it was against the law. His case was an anomaly. Now it has been codified into law.”

Ali Sadiqi, one of Ahmed Abu Ali’s attorneys, explained the dangerous precedent that Ahmed’s case set that tortured confessions obtained during proxy detention detention can be used to convict Americans in US courts.

He spoke about the many illegal and unconstitutional violations throughout the proceedings, which under any other circumstances would have resulted in a mistrial. He also mentioned the Special Administrative Measures (SAMs), which Ahmed is currently subject to, making it illegal for his immediate family and attorneys to share details about his condition, case, or overall well-being.

This gag order hides the plight of Ahmed from the eyes of the public, keeping was an Early Christian later named an apostle. His story appears in the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul mentions him in some of his epistles. The date, place, and circumstances of his death are historically unverifiable. But Christian tradition

understand that a vacant space cannot be filled with more emptiness, only made larger.

Say: Shall We inform you of the greatest losers in (their) deeds? (These are) they whose labour is lost in this world’s life and they think that they are acquiring good by their works. [Sūrah al-Kahf (18): 103-104] Anas b. Mālik (radī Allāhu ‘anhu) said that the Messenger of Allāh (sallallāhu `alayhi wa-sallam) said, “A disbeliever will be brought on the Day of Judgement and asked, “Suppose you had as much gold as to fill the earth, would you offer it to ransom yourself?” He will reply, “Yes”. Then he will be told, “You were asked for something easier than that!” [Al-Bukhari] Try to identify with the bystanders who are victims of the great emptiness of the soul. When we identify with the victims, we believe we see ourselves. If we are not looking away, and we have honesty in our hearts and sincerity towards others, we will forsake solidarity with the bystanders and instead fill that void with true devotion, learning and service to humanity, for the sake Allāh; for us and for them. It would then

the government’s mistreatments secret.

Sadiqi explained that the defense team is working to seek justice for Ahmed through the petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which he hopes will result in a grant of a new trial--Ahmed’s last chance at justice after nearly nine years of unjust imprisonment. Sadiqi emphasized that a victory for Ahmed will be a victory for all Americans.

Other speakers from the night emphasized our moral responsibility in this struggle to stand up and speak for Ahmed, especially during this time in which he is prohibited under SAMs from speaking for himself.

They encouraged those in attendance to spread the word and encourage friends who weren’t able to make it to donate so that Ahmed’s attorneys can launch a defense strong enough to achieve success by the will of God. Throughout the evening, the sense of solidarity to come together in these difficult times resonated of struggles and victories from the past. Faced with a challenge that we did not sign up for, states that he was martyred at Salamis, Cyprus. He is traditionally identified as the founder of the Cypriot Church, with his feast day on June 11.

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be a life of sacrifice, striving and sincerity with what Allāh has given each one of us, and even that would be merely a small token of gratitude.

And if you would count Allāh’s favours, you will not be able to number them; most surely Allāh is Forgiving, Merciful. [Sūrah an-Nahl (16): 18] Ibn Jarīr at-Tabarī explained this to mean that Allāh forgives even as we fail to thank Him properly, thus we should be repentant, obedient and strive to do that which pleases Him. Let us help one another to follow this small advice.

Spend in His way from what Allāh gave us and do not seek to fill that emptiness of the soul with deeds that others pay you to do!

Alif, Lām, Mīm. This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear Allāh; Who believe in the Unseen, are steadfast in prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them; [Sūrah al-Baqarah (2): 1-3] -- Source: http://www.jimas.org/

today, we American Muslims are on the frontlines struggling to restore the rights promised in the United States Constitution. Everyone understood that now it is Ahmed, but it could have been anyone else; and if we do not stand up for ourselves no one else will. The struggle has been difficult, and it will not get easier in silence. The best encouragement to continue comes from the Holy Quran, a clip shared on Saturday of a beautiful recitation (http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=cQfw0bkEvrc&context=C3cd935 5ADOEgsToPDskJojU2nz6sTPo6ZW2F iKdM_) from Ahmed himself, back from when he had a voice: “And We will surely test you until We make evident those who strive among you [for the cause of Allah ] and the patient, and We will test your affairs. … So do not weaken … Allah is with you and will never deprive you of [the reward of] your deeds” (47:31-8).

To learn more about Ahmed Abu Ali’s case, visit www.freeahmed.com or search for “ahmed abu ali” (using the exact phrase) on www.muslimlinkpaper.com.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

24 | UNCOVERED: Finding the Stories That Matter

What Is An Economic Hitman?

In

2003, I departed Quito [Ecuador] in a Subaru Outback and headed for Shell on a mission that was like no other I had ever accepted. I was hoping to end a war I had helped create. As is the

case with so many things we EHMs [Economic Hit Men] must take responsibility for, it is a war that is virtually unknown anywhere outside the country where it is fought. I was on my way to meet with the Shuars, the Kichwas, and their neighbors the Achuars, the Zaparos, and the Shiwiars—tribes determined to prevent our oil companies from destroying their homes, families, and lands, even if it means they must die in the process. For them, this is a war about the survival of their children and cultures, while for us it is about power, money, and natural resources. It is one part of the struggle for world domination and the dream of a few greedy men, global empire.

That is what we EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks. Like

foto by Peter Thomson

We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks.

our counterparts in the Mafia, EHMs provide favors. These take the form of loans to develop infrastructure — electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco.

principal plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money—and another country is added to our global empire.

Despite the fact that the money is returned almost immediately to corporations that are members of the corporatocracy (the creditor), the recipient country is required to pay it all back,

---------------------------------------Excerpt from New York Times Bestseller “Confessions of An Economic Hitman” by John Perkins

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From Baltimore to Northern Virginia, we’ve reported on the challenges and the victories, the growth and the growing pains of our masajid and organizations. During these times when the Muslim community is under the glare of an intense, motionless spotlight, it helps to know there is at least one media organizations that has you covered.

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UNCOVERED: Finding the Stories That Matter | 25

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UNCOVERED Finding the stories that matter featuriNg

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S. national or its part, diplomatic this indiin a Pakiposition to

her one of nd repatrielongs, or martyrdom her faith, pen. Take

Holder: Not ‘assasination’ To Target Americans In Terror Hunt

By Terry Frieden

who is actively engaged in planning to kill Americans, would be lawful,” he said.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday defended the targeted killing of U.S. citizens abroad who are suspected of plotting to kill Americans, rejecting critics’ arguments that those strikes amount to assassinations.

The attorney general’s speech to an audience at the Northwestern University Law School in Chicago marked his most expansive comments on the subject of deadly attacks against Americans since his lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel wrote a still-secret opinion declaring such lethal attacks are legal and justifiable.

CNN, March 5, 2012

While not referring directly to the government’s drone attack on U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen last year, Holder was unflinching in providing publicly for the first time the Justice Department’s legal justification for using lethal force, saying attacks like the strike that killed al-Awlaki fell within “our laws and values.”

“Let me be clear: An operation using lethal force in a foreign country, targeted against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qaeda or associated force, and

But he said three conditions must exist. The U.S. government must have determined that the individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against America; capture of the suspect is not feasible; and the operation would be conducted within the principles of the law of war.

Holder argued that al Qaeda has the ability to spring surprise attacks and is considered to be continuously planning against to attack on America. Therefore,

the law allows for striking even before the “precise time, place, and manner of an attack becomes clear.”

“Such a requirement would create an unacceptably high risk that our efforts would fail, and that Americans would be killed,” he said.

Holder rejected the charge that the deadly operations violate the government’s ban on assassinations and dismissed the notion the strikes fit the definition of assassination at all.

“Some have called such operations ‘assassinations.’ They are not, and the use of that loaded term is misplaced,” he said.

“Assassination are unlawful killings,” while killings under the conditions he outlined would be lawful.

Holder also took issue with those who have charged the government agencies must get

permission from a federal court before taking action against an al Qaeda target.

“This is simply not accurate,” Holder said. “Due process and judicial process are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.”

Al-Awlaki and another American, Samir Khan, were killed in September when a drone operated jointly by the CIA and a military unit destroyed a vehicle in which the men were riding in Yemen. Al-Awlaki, who U.S. intelligence officials have said was an operational planner for attacks, was the target of that strike.

Khan was traveling with al-Awlaki and was not specifically targeted. target Pg 30

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Other Voices

The Peace Thru Justice Foundation

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Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Other Voices

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

26 | CIVIL RIGHTS

nnot sleep

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

 O ther Voices

Compiled by The Peace Thru Justice Foundation and Families United for Justice in America Foreword by

Dr. Tarek Mehanna

....

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a Pakistani woman who entered the U.S. as a 18 year old aspiring student and committed Muslim in 1990. She graduated from MIT and Brandeis University (with honors), and started a family in the United States. By March 2003, she and her family became engulfed in a living nightmare that continues to this day.

A book titled WANTED WOMEN, Faith, Lies & The War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui, by a well-connected “journalist” by the name of Deborah Scroggins (published by Harper Collins), was recently released to approving reviews. The book is 468 pages in length, not including the extensive notes at the end. Despite its impressive appearance, however, Wanted Women is clearly a piece of anti-Muslim propaganda that elevates

Ayaan Hirsi, and demonizes Aafia Siddiqui. (Buyer Beware!)

The book is described as “A riveting look at militant Islam, Muslim women’s rights, and the war on terror – brought into focus through two lives on opposite sides: activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali and religious extremist Aafia Siddiqui.”

The final statement in Wanted Women (page 468) reads as follows: Ayaan and Aafia both proved to be powerfully polarizing: as such, they became useful to the real drivers of conflict in their countries, whether the ISI and the Islamists in Pakistan or anti-Muslim pundits and politicians in the United States and Holland.

That is not to say they are equivalent figures, morally or otherwise. They are not. Ayaan, as her friend Herman

Philipse pointed out long ago, “fights with words,” whereas the evidence leads me to conclude that Aafia was almost certainly plotting murder during her missing years and perhaps prepared to further a biological or chemical attack on the United States on a scale to rival that of 9/11. For all its faults, the system that Ayaan espouses [western secular civilization] provides for the happiness and freedom of hundreds of millions of people. Aafia’s apocalyptic visions, by contrast, can only bring destruction.

That concluding paragraph encapsulates the worth (or lack thereof) of this malicious piece of propaganda, clearly designed to further demonize and isolate Aafia Siddiqui, and the belief system that she holds dear, and voices Pg 27

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

voices

>> continued from pg 26 to put a stamp of approval on what the U.S. government (with the assistance of Pakistan) has done to her.

Most of “Wanted Women” is on Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, and, despite its size, Scroggins does no better than the U.S. government did (during the trial) in providing the “evidence” that she claims to base her bigoted conclusions on. Needless to say, Aafia’s supporters saw the need to respond with a far more accurate release of their own.

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Other Voices is a 110 page booklet compiled by The Peace Thru Justice Foundation and Families United for Justice in America. It comprises a factbased response to Wanted Women – through a series of unsolicited commentaries by Muslims and non-Muslims who have weighed in on this troubling case over the past four years. (These selected commentaries represent a small fraction of all that’s been written.)

Hena Zuberi and Bashir Hanif knew

COMMUNITY NEWS | 27

Aafia personally as students in Boston.

Writer Andy Purcell also has a personal connection with Aafia, and with Aafia’s family in the U.S. and abroad. John Floyd and Billy Sinclair are lawyers who have followed the case as objective fact-finders; as is also the case with Victoria Brittain, a British journalist who appears to have far more fact-finding integrity than Deborah Scroggins.

There is a provocative piece of commentary by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, and an equally provocative and challenging piece of commentary by the investigative journalist (and British Muslim) Yvonne Ridley. The book contains a very powerful comparative analysis by Aafia’s sister, Dr. Fowzia Siddiqui, on the treatment of Aafia - who was accused of shooting at U.S. personnel (following five years of secret imprisonment and torture in Afghanistan) – verses the treatment accorded Raymond Davis, who had deliberately shot and killed two Pakistani citizens in cold blood.

Mauri’ Saalakhan provides some valuable insights into the sentencing of Aafia; the WikiLeaks release on Aafia; and a comparative analysis on the prominent

cases of Amanda Knox, Casey Anthony, and Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. The powerful forward to the book (“The Aafia Siddiqui I Saw”) was authored by Dr. Tarek Mehanna, a newly minted Muslim political prisoner out of Boston. The book concludes with “An Open letter” to the U.S. Government.

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, Outreach Coordinator of the Canadian Council of Imams, wrote the following about the case of Aafia Siddiqui: “The kidnapping, torture and imprisonment of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a pious Muslim woman, is another dark stain on Western civilization. It can only begin to be cleansed by restoring her innocence, releasing her from prison, compensating her and re-uniting her family. Let people of conscience be united in the restoration of justice for all.”

Imam Zaid Shakir, a co-founder of Zaytuna Institute (and someone who knew Aafia personally when both resided in New England) stated: “Every person if conscious must raise their voice to condemn this outrageous travesty. Aafia’s real crime is being a practicing Muslim. Any of us could be in her place right now. If we do not raise our voices to make sure everyone in this country knows the magnitude of the injustice that has been done to her we will

all be vulnerable.”

It is hoped that the release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui: Other Voices will equip peace and justice-loving people, who have come to know about this troubling case via a well-orchestrated campaign of official and unofficial disinformation, with the clarity needed to make a more informed judgment on what The Guardian (of London) described as “one of the most vexed mysteries of the Bush-era ‘war on terror.’”

-----------------------------A book discussion and power point presentation will be conducted in the near future at the Prince Georges Muslim Association (PGMA) by El-Hajj Mauri’ Saalakhan, Director of Operations for The Peace Thru Justice Foundation.

Information on the exact date of this presentation will soon be forthcoming. A public mobilization is also being planned for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday, March 30, insha’Allah.

Source: March 6, 2012 Press Release by The Peace Thru Justice Foundation

....

28 | COMMUNITY NEWS

Request For Dua’s { To A llah We Be l o n g , an d t o Hi m i s Ou r R e tu r n }

“Everyone is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and good, and to Us you will be returned.” (Surah Al-Anbiya:35)” 3-3-12 It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Br. Adil Shaikh, son of Br. Salim Shaikh and nephew of Br. Abdul-Saeed Shaikh.

May Allah SWT forgive his sins, give his family patience and enter him into Jannat-ul-Firdaus. The Salat-ul-Janaza was on March 4, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Source: ISB) 2-27-12 The Board of Directors, Imam, Executive Director and the staff of Dar Al Hijrah and the muslim community in Northern Virginia extend its deepest condolences to our brother Omar Abu-Ali for the death of his brother Nasri Abu-Ali. My Allah grant him with Jannah, and give family patience.

(Source: Dar Al-Hijrah) 2-27-12 This is to inform you of the passing of our dear Bro. Hakim AlQawiyy. Please remember Bro. Hakim in your prayers. May Allah grant him the highest reward in the Jinnatul Firdows. (Source: M. Afifa) 2-24-12 It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Sister Bismillah Begum, mother of Br. Shahid Khan and mother-in-law of Dr. Anwar Khokhar. May Allah SWT forgive her sins, give her family patience and enter her into Jannat-ul-Firdaus. The Salat-ul-Janaza was on February 24, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Source: ISB) 2-24-12 Brother Fawwad Haider’s grandmother has passed away. Please make dua that Allah swt forgives her sins and elevates her to the highest station in Paradise. Ameen. (Source: K Sajjad) 2-23-12 Br. Ismael Kebbeh’s sister has passed away. May Allah (swt) in His infinite mercy forgive her shortcomings and enter her into Jannat ul Firdaus, Aameen. O Allah, forgives her and raise her rank among the rightly guided, be a successor to whom she has left behind, and forgive us and her. OLord of the worlds make spacious her grave and illuminate it for her.’Aameen (Source: ISG) 2-22-12 Br. Azzam Abdelkarim’s mother has passed away. May Allah (swt) in His infinite mercy forgive her shortcomings and enter her into Jannat ul Firdaus, Aameen. (Source: ICM) 2-17-12 It is with great sadness and heavy heart that we inform you of the passing of Brother Farouk Agrama, brother-in-law of DAT founder and member Board of Trustees, Brother Saeed Salah. We ask Allah (SWT) to shower him with His mercy, compassion and forgiveness, and to grant him the highest ranks in paradise, and give his family support and patience during these difficult times. (Source: DAT)

....

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

Upcoming Events In Your Area WhyIslam DC Dawah Workshop Sunday, March 11 2012, 10:30am - 4:30pm As every year, spring is a time for WhyIslam team to get ready for its summer campaign. During the summer time, WhyIslam DC participate in several local and county fairs and provide information about Islam. This workshop helps WhyIslam volunteers to learn effective way of providing information about Islam, how to answer common questions and how to avoid common pitfalls. Registration is $10 per person which includes lunch. Sisters can join this program also. Location: Al Fatih Academy, 12300 Pinecrest Road, Reston, Virginia 20191 Contact: For more information and to register online, go to www.icnadc.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------16th Annual Sisters Fashion Show and Luncheon Sunday, March 11 2012, 1:30pm - 6:30am International Sisters Network presents its 16th Annual Sisters Only Fashion Show and Luncheon. 1970s Vintage Couture.

Donations: $50, children under 12, $25. For more information, go to website http://internationalsisters.synthasite. com/ Location: Washington Naval Yard and Convention Center, 1454 Parsons Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20374 Contact: Sister Aisha Abdul-Mateen at 240.606.6122 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Central Virginia Qur’an Competition Saturday, March 17 2012, 9:00am - 2:00pm Seventh Annual Central Virginia Quran Competition. We are introducing a new feature to this year’s event. We would like to introduce to the community The First Quran Reading Contest! This is an exciting new opportunity for greater participation for the community. Guest Speaker: Haroon Baqai, principal of Al-Huda School and Hifzh Program. Valuable prizes. Halal Zabiha Meal will be served. Testing: March 17th, 2012. Registration Closes March 8th, 2012. To register, go to www.cvqc.org. Location: Islamic Center of Virginia 1241 Buford Road, Richmond, Virginia Contact: For questions, comments, and donations: contact 804-638-9446 or centralvaqcc@gmail.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ICCL Fundraiser - Build Your Palace in Jannah Sunday, March 25 2012, 5:00pm - 9:00pm The Islamic Community Center of Laurel invites you and your families to a Special Fundraiser “Build Your Palace in Jannah” “Whoever builds a mosque for the sake of Allah, Allah will reward that person with a palace in Paradise” Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM the BWI Marriott 1743 West Nursery Road Baltimore, MD 21090 $35 per person $50 at the door Limited Babysitting Available Free of Charge To purchase tickets, call or visit 7306 Contee Road Laurel, MD 20707 www.icclmd.org Tel: 301-317-4584 TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE NOW FOR PURCHASE! Location: BWI Marriott. Contact: 301-317-4584. Buy your tickets today!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Global Deaf Muslim Annual Fundraising Dinner Saturday, March 31 2012, 6:00pm - 10:00pm Please Join us for Global Deaf Muslim’s (GDM) Annual Fundraising Dinner. Reaching the financial goal for the Qur’an in American Sign Language (ASL). This is a follow up effort to raise funds for the Qur’an project that started last year.

Admission: $30 per person in advance, $35 per person at the door. To order tickets, please visit http://gdm-vafundraiser. eventbrite.com/. Come and support us!

Location: Herndon Community Center, 814 Ferndale Avenue, Herndon, VA 20170 Contact: Any questions or concerns, email: contact@globaldeafmuslim.org or visit our website: www.globaldeafmuslim. org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Al-Hijrah Annual Fundraiser T.E.A.M. Sunday, April 01 2012, 6:00pm - 10:00pm Dar Al-Hijrah cordially invites you to its annual fundraiser T.E.A.M. (Together..Everyone Achieves More). Speakers: Osama Abuirshaid and Sheikh Okasha Kameny. Special features: DAH Youth, WIA Students, Scouts. Children’s program free of charge (ages 1-12). Tickets: $45 individual, $80 couple. Buy tickets from the office, online or from the volunteers.

Location: Mark Center Hilton, 5000 Seminary Road, Alexandria, VA 22311 Contact: To sponsor a table or advertise, please contact Asra@Mirzapr.com or Dar Al-Hijrah 703-536-1030 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------NCPCF First Annual Banquet Sunday, April 15 2012, 5:00pm - 8:00pm National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) First Annual Banquet. Civil Freedoms in Jeopardy: Building a Coalition Together. Keynote Speaker: Glenn Greenwald, Independent Journalist and Civil Rights Litigator. Also Featuring: Ex-Gitmo Guard Tells All, Ex-Inmate Relates Suffering of Prisoners and Families. Registration at 5:00PM. Tickets: $40, $30 for students. Limited Babysitting Available. Dinner and Program will start promptly at 5:30PM. Location: The Waterford, 6715 Commerce Street, Springfield, VA 22150 Contact: For more information and ticket purchase, please call 855-248-3733 or email events@civilfreedoms.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MCC Extension Project Fundraiser Saturday, April 21 2012, 6:00pm - 9:00pm MCC Extension Project Fundraiser. Speaker: Imam Johari Abdul-Malik. Tickets: $50 (ages 12 years and older) Location: Muslim Community Center, Main Hall Contact: 301-384-3454, mccmd.org

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

COMMUNITY NEWS | 29

NYPD

>> continued from pg 18

“No one is doing more to stop terrorism than the NYPD,” said King, R-N.Y. “It’s the job of the police department not to pick up the bodies after the attack has been launched and carried out but to stop those attacks from happening.”

The NYPD’s efforts included operations in New Jersey’s largest city, Newark, where Democratic Mayor Cory Booker and his police director last month said the NYPD misled them, telling them only that it was going into the city as part of a terrorism investigation, not that their entire Muslim community was under scrutiny. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, has lambasted NYPD officials as being arrogant and unwilling to work with other law enforcement groups.

When asked about the criticism by Christie, King said he thought the problem could be resolved easily.

“All of us should be on the same team,” King said. “In virtually every instance, Commissioner Kelly had provided full information to New Jersey. I think this is a matter that can be resolved.”

Christie said King was just defending his “buddy,” the police commissioner.

“Someone should ask Congressman King if he opposes law enforcement agencies coordinating with each other,” Christie said.

King also criticized media reports, saying the AP and The New York Times were slanderous and failed to show both sides of the issue.

The AP said it was “proud” of its coverage of the NYPD spying story.

“The AP’s job is to provide information so that the public can judge its value and respond accordingly,” AP spokesman Paul Colford said. “That is how a democracy works.”

show there are many faces to the Muslim community. Mohammed Hai, a business owner from Long Island, said he wants everyone to know that the extremists don’t represent all Muslims.

The Times didn’t comment.

“We are the real Muslims,” he said. “We are peaceful people.”

At Monday’s rally in support of the NYPD, some people said they went to

Qayyoom, who’s from Bangladesh, said his friends and relatives aren’t bothered

by the NYPD’s tactics, especially because they were used to much worse in their native countries.

“What we experience here,” he said, “is freedom.”

-----------------------------------------------Associated Press writers Karen Matthews and Tom McElroy in New York and Beth DeFalco in Trenton, N.J., contributed to

this report.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

....

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

30 | CIVIL RIGHTS target

>> continued from pg 26 Court documents show that Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the so-called “Underwear Bomber,” told U.S. authorities that alAwlaki had played a major role in the plot to blow up a commercial airliner en route to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. President Obama later said al-Awlaki had “directed the failed attempt.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the administration’s drone program on behalf of al-Awlaki’s father, said the speech was “a gesture towards additional transparency,” but continued to object to the legal rationale.

“Few things are as dangerous to American liberty as the proposition that the government should be able to kill citizens anywhere in the world on the basis of legal standards and evidence that are never submitted to a court, either before or after the fact,” Hina Shamsi, the director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said in an e-mailed statement.

“Anyone willing to trust President Obama with the power to secretly declare an American citizen an enemy of the state and order his extrajudicial killing should ask whether they would be willing to trust the next president with that dangerous power.”

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said Holder’s speech left questions unanswered.

“For example, the government should explain exactly how much evidence the President needs in order to decide that a particular American is part of a terrorist group,” Wyden said in a statement released on Monday. “It is also unclear to me whether individual Americans must be given the opportunity to surrender before lethal force is used against them. And I’m particularly concerned that the geographic boundaries of this authority have not been clearly laid out. Based on what I’ve heard so far, I can’t tell whether or not the Justice Department’s legal arguments would allow the President to order intelligence agencies to kill an American inside the United States.”

Holder also used the speech to defend the use of civilian courts to try terrorists, noting numerous successful prosecutions.

“The calls that I’ve heard to ban the use of civilian courts in prosecutions of terrorism-related activity are so baffling, and ultimately are so dangerous. These calls ignore reality,” Holder said. “If

....

hour of danger, we simply cannot afford to wait until deadly plans are carried out, and we will not.”

letters

And Holder indicated more targeted killings are possible.

He concluded, “This is an indicator of our times, not a departure from our laws and values.”

“When such individuals take up arms against this country, and join al Qaeda in plotting attacks designed to kill their fellow Americans, there may be only one realistic and appropriate response,” Holder said.

“We must take steps to stop them in full accordance with the Constitution. In this

-----------------------------------------------In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

myself according to the Islamic ruling?

The FBI has been doing my background check for the last 7 years, wasn’t that long enough? What was it that the officer was trying to extract from me after all the investigation done over the last 7 years?

heeded, they would significantly weaken in fact, they would cripple - our ability to incapacitate and punish those who attempt do us harm.”

>> continued from pg 26

Ummsalman Beltsville, Maryland

EDITOR’S DESK March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

Editor-in-Chief: Minhaj Hasan Office Manager: Stephanie Benmoha Layout & Design: Fadlullah Firman Staff Writers: Fatimah Waseem Wafa Unus Rashad Mulla Sharia Advisors: Sheikh Salah as-Sawi Imam Safi Khan The Muslim Link (TML) is published every other week on Fridays and distributed throughout the Washington, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia Metropolitan Areas. TML is a non-profit publication and is based at Dar-us-Salaam in College Park, Maryland, USA. Staff and contributors are not necessarily affiliated with Dar-us-Salaam.

The views expressed in The Muslim Link do not necessarily reflect those of Dar-us-Salaam or TML management or their underwriters. Dar-usSalaam and TML are not responsible for the accuracy of information presented by advertisers, or for the religious compliance of events, products, or services published in TML. This publication contains the names of ALLAH (Subhanahu wa ta’ala).

Please keep, recycle, or share it with others The Muslim Link 5301 Edgewood Road College Park, MD 20740 Phone : (301) 982-1020 Fax: (240) 209-0702 editor@muslimlinkpaper. com Advertising: 301-982-1020 or email us at office@ muslimlinkpaper.com The Muslim Link.

All Rights Reserved 2012

CIVIL RIGHTS

| 31

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR NOT THE MINARETS, PLEASE

[This letter is in response to the Muslim Link’s front page article from the Frebruary 24, 2012 issue, “Masjid Architects Say Design Should Reflect American Culture”] A few years ago during a visit to India, I found myself searching for a Masjid. As I drove through the city, it took me about ten minutes to locate a Masjid – May those who built that tall Minaret rest in paradise.

Domes and Minarets were originally invented for certain reasons such as amplifying sound. However, over the last fourteen hundred years, the Minaret became the emblem of Islam – a symbol of unity among Muslims whether in China, Russia or Africa. It shouldn’t surprise us if such a daring symbol that represents oneness of a people with different backgrounds might result in dislike among those who are not tolerant of Islam. In order to lessen the emotional pain of having to give up what we hold dear in return for being accepted by the majority, it is tempting to reduce a Minaret to basic functional needs that can be met otherwise. We know our cultural baggage has not been very helpful in strengthening our faith, perhaps if we threw the Minaret into that bag, it might be easier to get rid of and succumb to pressure? But there is a problem. There is no such thing as a Pakistani, Arabic or Chinese Minarets.

As a minority group living in the US, it’s clear that we are taking the brunt of the anger against Islam expressed in different ways. However, we can’t respond with appeasement and justify it as “Dawah” or submit to assimilation and give up our faith. The unprecedented nature of this endless and senseless demagoguery against Islam is expected to take a toll on

us. It is easier to react to all this negative impressions toward Islam by directing the blame at ourselves rather than standing up to the bullies. If we are taking the low road, we might as well start with the Hijab – that’s another symbol people don’t like.

Some “muslims” before us already took care of the “Niqab” and placed it into the casket labeling it as merely “cultural” under the cloak of integration. We can start with the Hijab, the Minaret, The Beard (or what’s left of it) and recreate a way of life that is more appeasing to the majority. Put a little American “Cultural” touch and you get yourself a Mosque that Rocks.

Or we can dare to be like the Tatar Muslim who persevered the tortures of communism and fascism for hundreds of years while living in the heart of Russia yet did not compromise. When they celebrated the one thousandth year of Muslim existence in today Russia, they could only express such a deeply felt innermost joy with an outermost beautiful Minaret. One that cries in the depths of the skies the perseverance that helped it overcome Fascism, Communism and Islamophobia. We must do the same.

Let’s build a Masjid so that one day, long after we are gone, a Muslim visiting Washington DC from another corner of the world sees our Minaret from a far distance, makes it to our Masjid and after having performed his prayer, proclaims “May those who built that tall Minaret rest in paradise”!

By Rustam Bake from Maryland.

--------------------------------------------------

Citizenship interview after 7 years!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah. After 7 years and a lot of follow-ups, finally on the 29th February, 2012, I was called for

my citizenship interview.

After the interview I had to give fingerprints for the third time! The interview went for over two hours, mostly focused about my religious practices and [questions exploring] whether I had any affiliation with any terrorist organizations; supported, assisted or donated any money to them, or any of the people I ever knew were indicted in terrorism. Also, I was asked: what kind of work did I do? So, when I told that my husband was a translator, who translated books from Arabic to English and I edited his translations, the focus was once again on the type of material we worked on; whether it was of extremist religious views etc! By the way, my husband is a reverted Caucasian American Muslim, and we are married for the last 30 years with seven grown up American children.

It will not be out of place to mention that before my interview, I happened to come across two women who had finished their interviews and were waiting for oathtaking. On my questioning – a natural concern --the women assured me that their interview was very easy and quick, and right away they were asked to decide if they wanted to take the oath the same day.

I guess I was the only one who was sent home without a clear answer, to wait for more time. It will not be as long as 7 years the interviewing officer promised me. In either case (grant or denial) I will be informed within a couple of months.

Looking at my case process and the length of the interview time, the question arises: why was I given different treatment than those who were either non-Muslims or secular Muslims? Is it because I am a practicing Muslim , or because I cover letters Pg 30

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32 | CIVIL RIGHTS

MASJID LISTING

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

Do you have additions, changes, or corrections to the event listings in the Muslim Link? Email us at events@muslimlinkpaper.com, or call us at 301-982-1020.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

--------------------------------------------------------------------------All Muslim Brothers Association 3900 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302 Tel: 703-647-0515 Jumma Prayer Only - 1:15 P.m --------------------------------------------------------------------------Icna VA Center: 2913 Woodlawn Trail, Alexandria, VA 22306.

Tel: 703-660-1255 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Idara Dawat-o-irshad: 4803 VAlley St, Alexandria, VA 22312 Tel: 703-256-8622 ww.irshad.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Mustafa Center: 6844 Braddock Rd., Annandale, VA 22003 Tel: 703-658-7134 www.mustafacenter.org E-mail: Mustafacenter@gmail.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Baitul Mukarram: 2116 S Nelson St., Arlington, VA, 22204, Tel: 703-778-1550 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Zakaria Islamic Academy: Galesbury Lane, Chantilly, VA 20151 Tel: 571-969-2123 www.ziacademy.org E-mail: Contact@ziacademy.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Badr Community Center Of Dumfries: 17794 Main Street, Dumfries, VA 22026 Tel: 703-585-1689/703-554-7983 www.bccd.org E-mail: Info@bccd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Ul-ghuraba (Masjid Ur Rahmah): 155 Baker St., Emporia, VA 23487 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Al Hijrah: 3159 Rowe St., Falls Church, VA 22044, Tel: 703-536-1030 www.hijrah.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of Northern VA Trust (Icnvt): 4420 Shirley Gate Road, Fairfax, VA, 22030 Tel: 703-591-0999 www.icnvt.org E-mail: Info@icnvt.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar Al-noor (Muslim Assoc. Of VA): 5404 Hoadly Rd., Manassas, VA 20112, Tel: 703-580-0808 Fax: 703-221-8513 www.daralnoor.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Manassas Mosque: 12950 Center Entrance Ct, Manassas, VA Tel: 703-257-5537 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of Virginia: 1241 Buford Rd.,

....

Richmond, VA 23235 Tel: 804-320-7333 www.icVA1.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Greater Richmond (Isgr): 6324 Rigsby Road, Richamond, VA 23226 Tel: 804-673-4177 www.isgr.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al Rahman: 1305 Hull St., Richmond, VA 23224 Tel: 804-232-7640 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjidullah Of Richmond: 211 North Ave., Richmond, VA 23222 Tel: 804-321-8864/804-647-4297 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar-ul Huda: 6666 Commerce St., Springfield, VA 22150, Tel: 703-922-0111 www.darulhuda.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Foundation of America: 6606 Electronic Drive, Springfield, VA 22151 Tel: 703-914-4982 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Noor: 8608 Pohick Rd, Springfield, VA 22153 Tel: 703-451-7615 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Adams Center: 46903 Sugarland Rd, Sterling,VA 20164, Tel: 703-433-1325 www.adamscenter.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Heritage Center (Ihc): 262 A-3 Cedar Ln., Vienna, VA 22180 Tel: 703-206-9056 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON D.C.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------First Hijra Muslim Comm. Center: 4324 Georgia Ave, NW Washington, D.C. 20011 www.firsthijrah.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Ivy City Masjid: 2001 Galludet St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20002 Tel: 202-529-3100 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-islam: 4603 Benning Rd., SE, Washington, D.C. 20019 E-mail: Imammusa@hotmail.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Muhammad: 1519 4th St. NW, Washington D.C. 20001 Tel: 202-483-8832 | www. masjidmuhammad.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Muslim Society Of Washington, D.c.

(MswDC): Howard Center, Room 805 (Above Hu Bookstore) Tel: 202-328-3236 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Islamic Center: 2551 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington D.C. 20008 Tel: 202-332-8343 www.theislamiccenter.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

MARYLAND

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Annapolis (Isa): 2635 Riva Rd. Suite 110, Annapolis, MD 21401 Tel: 410-266-6660 www.isamd.org Email: Info@islamannapolis.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Bait-Allah Masjid of Baltimore Inc 1935 Frederick Ave Baltimore, MD 21223 Imam’s cell: 571-721-9938 email: baitallahmasjid@yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Bilal Dawah Center, Inc: 1910 Frederick Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21223 Tel: 410-945-1515 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar ul Uloom: 6334 Dogwoood Rd, Baltimore, MD 21207, Tel: 410-493-0785 Email: Darululoommd@aol.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Ul-haq: 514 Islamic Way (Wilson St. ), Baltimore, MD 21217 Tel: 410-728-1363 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-mumineen: 2642 Harford Rd., Baltimore, MD 21218 Tel: 410-467-8798 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Jamaat Al-Muslimeen: 4624 York Rd., Baltimore, MD 21212 Tel: 443-622-2962 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-rahmah/isb: 6631 Johnnycake Rd., Baltimore, MD 21244 Tel: 410-747-4869 | www.isb.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid As Saffat: 1335 W. North Ave., Baltimore, MD 21217 Tel: 410-669-0655 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Easton 126 Port Street Unit # 1 Easton, MD 21601 Tel: 410-829 7924 islamicsocietyofeastonmd.yolasite.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Irhsca (Islamic Research And Hum. Services Center Of America): 1 Chambers Ave, Capitol Heights, MD Tel: 301-324-5040 www.irhsca.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Southern Pg County (Isspgc): P O Box 99, Clinton, MD 20735 5410 Indian Head Hwy, Oxon Hill, MD 20745 Tel: 240 603 4618

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar-us-Salaam: 5301 Edgewood Rd., College Park, MD 20740, Tel: 301-982-9848 www.duscommunity.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Zamzam 1510 Lynch Road, Dundalk, MD 21222 Tel: 410-284-2840 www.masjidzamzam.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------Dar al-Taqwa: 10740 Rte. 108, Ellicott City, MD 21042, Tel: 410-997-5711 www.taqwa.net --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-Hikmah: 11064 Livingston Road Unit L (101) Ft. Washington, MD 20744, Tel: 301 292-9009 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Frederick (Isf): 1250 Key Parkway, Frederick,md 21702 Tel: 301-682-6090 www.isfmd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of Maryland (Icm): 19411 Woodfield Rd. Gaithersburg,md 20879 Tel:301-840-9440 www.icomd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Makkah Learning Center (Mlc): 814 Brandy Farms Ln., Gambrills, MD 21054 Tel: 410-721-5880 www.isamd.org Email: Info@mlcmd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of Germantown (Isg): 19900 Brandermill Rd., Germantown, MD 20876 Tel: (240)-277-7758 www.isgtown.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Ibn Taymiyyah: 8000 Mlk Highway, Glenarden MD Tel: 301-461-9325 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society of Western Maryland: 2036 Day Rd., Hagerstown, MD 21740 Tel: 301-797-0922 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Southern Maryland Islamic Center (Smic): 1046 Solomons Island Rd, Huntingtown, MD, 20639 Tel: 410-535-0000 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Avondale Islamic Center: 4637 Eastern Ave., Hyattsville, MD, 20782 Tel: 301-779-9292 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Prince Georges Muslim Assoc.(Pgma): 9150 Lanham Severn Rd., Lanham, MD, 20706, Tel: 301-459-4942

www.pgmamd.org Imam’s Office: 301-459-1441 E-mail: Imam@pgmamd.org.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Turkish American Community Center 9704 Good Luck Rd, Lanham, MD 20706 Tel: 301-459-9589 www.taccenter.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------La Plata Masjid: 111 Howard Street, La Plata, MD 20646 Tel: 301-609-8769 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Com. Center Of Laurel (ICCL): 7306 Contee Rd., Laurel, MD 20707 Tel: 301-317-4584 www.icclmd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-Ghurabaa: 8220 Washington St., South Laurel, MD 20724.

Tel: 301-604-3295 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Center Of Lexington Park 22583 Three Notch Road, Lexington Park, MD 20619 Tel: 240-538-7839 or 561-414-0994 www.iclpmd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Medina Center: 11600 Falls Road, Potomac MD 20854 www.medinacenter.net E-mail: Admin@medinacenter.net --------------------------------------------------------------------------Randallstown Islamic Center 9019 Marcella Ave. Randallstown, MD 21133 Tel: 410-971-4018 www.ricbaltimore.org E-mail: Info@ricbaltimore.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Islamic Society Of The Washington Area (Iswa): 2701 Briggs Chaney Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20904 Tel: 301-879-0930 www.iswamd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Muslim Community Center (MCC): 15200 New Hampshire Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20905 Tel: 301-384-3454 www.mccmd.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Imaam: (Jumuah Only) Jumuah: 12:50pm 3201 Randolph Rd, Wheaton, MD 20906 www.imaam.org Email: Fridayprayer@imaam.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid An-nur: 5418 Ebenezer Road, White Marsh, MD 21162 Tel: 410-663-9637 Fax: 410-663-9817 --------------------------------------------------------------------------Masjid Al-inshirah: 7832 Fairbrook Road, Windsor Mill, MD 21244 Tel: 410-298-2977

marketplace

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

The Muslim Link

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When you place a print ad with us in Main or Marketplace you can request a FREE coupon in each issue your ad runs.

For businesses not currently in the paper, coupons are just $10 each issue, paid in advance.

All coupons are one size (approximately half the size of an 1/8 page ad) and are text-only, no images.

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senate

>> continued from pg 7 against slots, said America needs to focus on the foreclosure crisis and jobs before involvement on the world stage.

In a short interview with the Muslim Link, Muse said his childhood growing up between foster homes and not knowing his biological parents forced him to overcome many challenges, and he wants to help others overcome their personal challenges.

“To whom much is given, much is required,” he said quoting a passage from the Bible.’

On gay marriage, Muse was frustrated with Maryland Governor O’Malley’s pushing

the issue.

“I don’t understand why the Governor has seen fit to make gay marriage the priority of this legislative session [while] we have joblessness and foreclosure.” He added that he will work through a referendum to repeal the gay marriage bill which was signed into state law last month, and he will work to take the topic of gay marriage out of public school curricula.

When asked about his stance on US involvement overseas, Muse gave very broad answers, saying America should focus on the problems “at home” and that wars have helped “break the budget”. He added that foreign involvement should be coordinated with NATO.

When the Muslim Link pointed out that Maryland’s two congressional senators are top recipients of lobbying money from pro-Israeli groups like AIPAC, and when the Muslim Link asked Muse how he would deal with those groups, he did not answer directly. Instead, he said it was wrong for Maryland’s two senators to take money from banking lobbies while the nation is reeling under a foreclosure crisis. He said he would not eschew campaign contributions from lobbyists, but that “we have to be careful about the money we take, and their will be [groups] I won’t take from.” He emphasized that his campaigns have also run with “grassroots funding” and that he has never “run a race with the support of the ‘machine’, including the democrat [party] machine.”

Muse said he has never traveled to Asia, Africa, or the Middle East.

When asked why Muslims should vote for him, Muse said one reason is that – as an African American – he understands the discrimination and harassment American Muslims are going through right now, and that he will stand against it. “I will be the voice for the voiceless. We are not being represented. You have to have a fighter who will fix the wrongs,” he said.

To attend the town hall meeting with Maryland Senator and US Senate hopeful Anthony Muse, visit www.pgcmcmd.org.

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

34 | NATIONAL NEWS

SISTERS

A Special Muslim Link Marketplace Section

Sisters

March 2008

M a r k e t p l a c e

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Interviews

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TRAVEL DINING OUT EVENTS & ACTIVITIES MONTHLY CHALLENGE

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Muslim women are at the forefront of our community, highly involved in activism while raising the next generation of leaders. But sometimes our sisters don’t get the special appreciation they deserve.

The Muslim Link’s special SISTERS Marketplace section seeks to change that.

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15 17 19 18

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April 20, 2012

Advertorials

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Muslim women, the SISTERS Marketplace section will be read by thousands of active Muslim women who often direct the purchasing power of the Muslim community.

Coming out May 4, 2012 In Shaa Allah, the SISTERS section will highlight female Muslim entrepreneurs and women owned businesses, and products and services geared towards our sisters. If you need business from Muslim women, you

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The Muslim Link is offering paid space for advertisements, advertorials, feature interviews, and product reviews.

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MP - ADVERTISEMENT | 35

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MP - ADVERTISEMENT | 39

PHD Salon Barber Shop Specializing in Natural Hair Care Braids, Twists, Locs, Press & Curl, Shampoo & Conditioner, Corn Rows, Weaves, Set-Roller Wrap, and much more...

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MP - ADVERTISEMENT | 43

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

44 |

Rahma International Store E-Quran Abayas Thoubs Hajj and Umrah Dua’s E-Device

We sell E-Qur’an Device with E-Pen Pointer for easy listening and learning, Hajj and Umrah Dua’s E-Device for easy memorisation, Islamic Clothing (men’s, women’s and children’s), Ihram’s for Hajj, Long shirts and skirts for women, Sleeves, Pashmina Shawls, Elegant African Lace Materials, Bakhoor/Incense/Churai, 21 karat Gold jewelry, Guaranteed Gold plated jewelry, Silver Jewelry and ankle rings, Men’s silver rings with real Stones, and Much MORE. You will be pleased with our Very Unique Quality Products. Come in and enjoy our Signature Hospitality, Insha’Allah, you will return. location: Islamic Society of Washington Area (ISWA) 2701 Briggs Chaney Road Silver Spring, MD 20905

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March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

MP - ADVERTISEMENT | 45

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46 | MP - Advertisement

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

Honey Heals Skin Disease and Hair Loss Every Muslim has read

that the Prophet Sallallahu ‘alyhi wa sallam told his ummah about the wonderful nature of honey.

In the Qur’an in Surah An-Nahl, Allah described honey as a “drink of varying color wherein is healing for men”.

Its no wonder that scientists are spending more and more resources examining, testing, and developing honey-based medical treatments.

As early as December 26, 2007, the Associated Press ran a story titled “Honey makes medical comeback”.

One company that has believed in the restorative power of honey for a long time is HoneyDerm, Inc., a Lansing, Michigan based company that spent years bringing the healing power of honey to people suffering from hair loss, dandruff, and skin disease.

Their most famous product line is Hairback Lotion and Hairtonix Shampoo, that “helps stimulate new hair growth and thicken existing hair”. Honeyderm, Inc also claims the products solve dandruff and scalp psoriasis.

The Muslim Link requested access to some of Honeyderm’s customers, and Brother Mahmoud from Honeyderm gladly offered us some phone numbers.

Brother Hasan, in his late 30’s is from Maryland and suffers from the common skin disease eczema. “I’ve had eczema

since high school, and it got worse as the years went on. I went to a dermatologist and he recommended a cortisone-type prescription cream.

It did stop the itch, but my skin was still dry and tight. I’ve tried lotions and shampoos from Aveeno, Lubiderm, Vaseline, and others.

Alhumdulillah, I found Honeyderm’s Dermatonic-P, and it is really, really a blessing for people with Eczema or other skin illnesses. I no longer wake up sweating at night! AllahuAkbar!.”

We called Abdurihman Khalil from Chicago. He did not know we were going to call. Abdurihman started losing his hair when he was about 28. He discovered the Hairback product line at a convention and decided to test its claims. “The hair loss stopped completely,” said Abdurihman. “It’s excellent, and I’ve been using it now for 6 years.”

We also called Brother Mustafa Al-Omary in Sterling Heights, Michigan. He decided to do something about his thinning hair at age 40 and tried the Hairback treatment. Asked how long it took for him to see results, he told us “Oh gosh, less than a month. My thin spots filled in within 3 months,.”

He said he would “absolutely” recommend the product to anyone.

“It’s not a fly-by-night product, its awesome,” said Mustafa.

We

also called Najeebudheen Appat, a 30-year old living in Los Angeles, CA. He’s had a severe dandruff

“Alhumdulillah, I found Honeyderm’s

Dermatonic-P, and it is really, really a blessing for people with Eczema or other skin illnesses.

I no longer wake up sweating at night!

Allahu-Akbar!.” -- Br.Hasan, Maryland problem for a long-time, and had been searching for a solution. “I tried so many different products like tonics and shampoos, I can’t even remember them all, until I found this product around 2002. My problem was solved completely, the entire thing is taken care of. I even called [Honeyderm] with the great feedback,” recalled Najeebudheen.

He told us that Allah creates shifa in many things, and Honeyderm’s products are a part of that. “For dandruff problems, this is the total solution,” he told us from his mobile phone.

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

On Honeyderm’s website, there are many more testimonials from Muslims and non-Muslims from around the nation and the world.

There is also a gallery of “before and after” pictures of both hair loss treatments as well as skin treatments. And best of all, for those of us who’ve “tried it all”, there is a full money back guarantee.

Allah said honey heals. The Prophet Sallallahu’alyhi wa sallam said honey heals. The people we called said honey heals. With a money back guarantee, there is absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain – your hair and skin!

BEFORE

AFTER

Honey-Based Healing for:

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HoneyDerm is very confident that its products will definitely help you. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the product, we offer you a full money back guarantee with the return of any remaining portion of the product in their original containers. See our website for time restrictions.

All products are 100% drug free and are not intended to change any of the body physiological functions or treat any disease or possess any drug claim.

....

March 9th 2012 - March 22nd 2012

MP - CLASSIFIED ADS | 47

Place a personal classified ad. Call us at 301-982-1020. Office@muslimlinkpaper.com We invite you to place a classified on the web FREE of charge at www.muslimlinkpaper.com. Classifieds in the print edition of the Muslim Link newspaper are only $1 for every 3 words. All classifieds run for 3 issues in the Marketplace section. Get started by emailing your exact text to office@muslimlinkpaper.com and then call in your credit card payment to 301-982-1020 or send a check or money order payable to: The Muslim Link, 5301 Edgewood Rd, College Park MD 20740.

EMPLOYMENT OPEN OFFICE MANAGER POSITION Open position for part/full time office assistant/manager for local Construction Management Company in Greenbelt, MD. Must have excellent communication and organizational skills, and be proficient in Microsoft Office Programs including Outlook, Word and Excel. Salary based on experience/capabilities, starting at $8$10/Hr. Email resumes to cmclp@mail. com.

For Sale SISTERS SWIMWEAR AVAILABLE Women Full Cover Swimwear on sale.

Sooq-Alpak. Contact 240-271-9552, msqhani@gmail.com go online to www. msqenterprises.com.

matrimonial MOROCCAN SISTER FOR MARRIAGE

36 yr old Sister in Morocco looking for Good Muslim man living in USA, homemaker, never married, will aid in translations if necessary, contact her Wali at mahdikm1@yahoo.com or 410-988-0705.

-----------------------------------------------PIOUS MUSLIMA SEEKING A HUSBAND A religious Muslima of Arab origin. 39 years old, olive-skinned, 5 ft, 128 lbs.

Never married, decent looking with a minor limp in lt leg wa-alhamdulillah.

Good character, educated, and hard working. Located in DC area. Seeking an unmarried religious Brother with a good character, who’s ready and capable to lead a family. Please direct serious inquires to supervised email: sakinah.seeker at yahoo dot com.

-----------------------------------------------MOROCCAN BROTHER FOR MARRIAGE Good Moroccan Muslim brother in Morocco seeking good American Muslima for marriage, please contact Sister Fatima for more info 410-988-0705 or fatima1984@live.com ------------------------------------------------

SEEKING DEVOTED MUSLIMAH

Incarcerated Sunni Muslim seeks devoted Muslimah with both real and outward beauty and the qualities stated in AlAhzab: 32-35 for marriage. Race and financial status not important. Send all inquires to: David Ginwright 228332 N.B.C.I. 14100 McMullen Hwy SW, Cumberland, MD 21502.

-----------------------------------------------SEEKING GOOD AMERICAN MUSLIM Good Moroccan Muslimah 34 years old looking for good American Muslim for marriage. Please contact 703-203-1639.

Rentals SEEKING ROOMMATE Sister to share a room in townhouse in Gaithersburg. $450. 301-213-3730.

-----------------------------------------------3 APARTMENTS AVAILABLE FOR RENT Efficiency $450/month, 1 BR $650/ month, 2 BR $650/month. In a farm area close to Germantown, Maryland. No bus service nearby. Good for retired person.

Please call 301-253-0648 or cell 301-9102240.

-----------------------------------------------5 BR FOR RENT Two separate units, upstair: 3 BR & 2 bath with 1 ensuit, eat in kitchen with a big lounge. Downstairs: 2 BR, 1.5 bath with a eat in kitchn and a spacious living room, Address: 4713 Quimby AV Beltsville, MD 20705. Rent $1900; Available from Feb.2012. Email: nazrul62@hotmail.com

Services HOME SERVICES Licensed contractor. Home Improvement work, interior/exterior painting, drywall install/repair, brick/concrete repair.

License #30385946 Estimates done.

Contact Br. Allen Scott at 410-467-1259 or 443-538-7643(cell) -----------------------------------------------LICENSED PLUMBER Reduce Major Plumbing Bills. Give TwirlA-Drain a call at 410-963-5807 for sewer and water pipe replacement underground.

Free estimates given, Michael D. Shahid.

------------------------------------------------

301-982-1020 Call

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