أَوَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَكَانُوا أَشَدَّ مِنْهُمْ قُوَّةً وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُعْجِزَهُ مِن شَيْءٍ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَلَا فِي الْأَرْضِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ عَلِيمًا قَدِيرًا
وَلَوْ يُؤَاخِذُ اللَّهُ النَّاسَ بِمَا كَسَبُوا مَا تَرَكَ عَلَى ظَهْرِهَا مِن دَابَّةٍ وَلَكِن يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى فَإِذَا جَاء أَجَلُهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِعِبَادِهِ بَصِيرًا
Have they not traveled in the land and seen how those in the past ended up, even though they had been more powerful? God is not that nothing in the heavens or in the earth can escape Him. Indeed, He is all-Knowing and all-Powerful!
If God held people accountable as they deserve, that would not leave a single living creature in its wake; however, He lets them stay for a certain term. Then, when their term is up, it turns out that He has been ever-watchful of all mankind.
(35:44-45 … Al-Fatir)
God has blessed me recently to travel to the land of Moses, Jesus & Muhammad (peace and mercy be always with them) … where the revelations descended and the Prophets ascended.
The streets of Jerusalem and the alleys around Al-Aqsa were silently screaming in my ears as I walked the streets of Old Quarters of Jerusalem, a.k.a. Al-Quds …
There were, in my ears, the silent screams of one thousand years from the violent era of Crusaders [1099].
Their reign of terror ended with Salahuddin Ayyoub, a.k.a. Saladin. During his reign & thereafter for seven hundred sixty one years, the people of Star, the Cross and the Crescent lived as neighbors in relative peace.
It was thereafter in 1948 that the Palestinians were humiliatingly displaced from their homes & farms; dispossessed of their belongings & property, and deprived of a living with honor and dignity.
It is these sixty years of continued occupation that we now call the Naqba, that I went to commemorate and also to witness the wrongs in our midst, in 2008!
Brothers & Sisters ... the verse I recited refers to “travel & witnessing the past” … in it are lessons for mankind, only if they wish to learn.
‘Power & Authority’ is an ‘Amanah’ (trust) that God bestows upon those whomever He chooses.
Wise are those who receive this honor in the selfless service of the humanity.
Those who are unwise rely on ‘power’ alone, only to realize in time that their term was, but for a limited time and their tyranny of oppression will be held against them in the eternal life Hereafter.
The Occupation of Palestinian land and its people by Israel is abhorrently immoral and illegal by any and all standards.
Whether it is the East Jerusalem or the West Bank, the oppression and occupation is vividly blatant & calling upon all people of faiths and conscience to end it.
I had the painful privilege to travel through a great deal of the Occupied West Bank such as the cities of Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron & also part of Israel, such as the cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa & Nazareth …
I met restaurant waiters & bus drivers, professors & students, young & old, rich & poor, men & women, religious & secular & their cry and call is one … “Occupation Must End.”
In the city of Bethlehem, the city of birth of Jesus (may peace be always with him), I met an elected official of the city, where, in spite of a Muslim majority, the Mayor of the City is always a Christian and their City Council has always a Christian majority … clearly demonstrating that people of faiths can live side by side, in peace, with mutual respect, and as equal citizens and loving neighbors.
Contrary to Bethlehem … … in Hebron, the City of Prophet Ibrahim (the father of all – may peace be always with him), where a New York born Baruch Goldstein had killed Muslim worshippers in Masjid al-Khaleel during the Fajr prayers in the Ramadan of 1994 … continues to remain under siege by the Occupying forces of Israel & the Jewish Settlers …
In Hebron, I met and patiently listened to, a New Jersey born David Wilder (a Settler), now an Israeli Citizen (under the Israeli Law of Return) …
– who consciously chooses not to even recognize the term “Palestinian or Palestine”
– who believes that the Jewish land has in fact been stolen by Arabs for thousands of years,
– who claims that without this land, there can be no faith Judaism,
– David has the right of carrying a loaded weapon to protect less than five hundred settlers in the settlement (Kiryat Arba) while tens of thousands of Palestinians can neither walk free in the streets nor can open their stores to earn a livelihood, and …
– He & others can return from any part of the world and claim Israeli citizenship and receive full services but a Palestinian born in Hebron or Ramallah or any other occupied city, now living anywhere or in Southern California, cannot return to his homeland, if & when he/she so chooses.
Brothers & Sisters, God is indeed most just … and will hold everyone accountable to what they do and what they don’t … what they say and what they don’t and of course when they are unjust and violate the sanctity of life, dignity and honor.
We know that God alone can render ultimate justice and He tests us by giving us time to prove ourselves worthy of his grace & mercy.
As Quran is emphatically clear … that “if we were to be held accountable (fully) then not one of us would pass His test & indeed He is letting one group over the other stay in control & power for a certain term. And that term will be up sooner or later.”
There is much to say of the persecuted lands and the people of Palestine. About them and in their suffering is a heart wrenching story.
There is a wall that is continually being built, anywhere from 5 to upto 28 feet tall (with barbed wire), tearing apart families, businesses and lives.
There are check-points, where each day thousands of Palestinians’ basic human dignity is stripped bare …
Neither students nor teachers can reach their classrooms - with certainty each day
Neither doctors can render nor patients can receive medical care when needed …
Neither a son can visit his mother nor a wife can visit her beloved, at will …
But, at will, the American made Israeli bulldozers can raze orchards full of olive and fig trees and demolish homes while the inhabitants are sleeping or barely awake …
In the midst of seemingly perpetual fog and gloom, I find hope … reflecting the Quranic principle …
وَلاَ تَهِنُوا وَلاَ تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
“Neither despair nor grieve - for if you are true believers, you will eventually be relieved.” (3:139)
I find hope …
In the owner of that restaurant in the outskirts of Jerusalem … who offered baklawa to our group members of various faiths & said - "sweets are on-house, although we live in bitterness."
I find hope …
In Bassam Aramin, who co-founded Combatants for Peace (along with Israeli refuseniks), whose ten year old daughter, Abir, was killed by a teenage IDF soldier (January 16, 2007). A grieving but patient father, Bassam, is calling for “justice” and not for “revenge.”
I find hope …
In Emad, a father of four, from the village of B’lin, who is leading a weekly vigil, against the apartheid wall that divides his village in two parts … his part with nothing and the part on the other side, now stolen by the Israeli Military, full of olive trees and fertile land.
I find hope …
In Daoud & his family who suffer but refuse to leave their farmland (Daher’s Vineyard) in spite of being land-locked (by settlers and roadblocks) & tempting offers from ‘anonymous buyers’ offering blank checks. Instead they host people of all faiths & nations in their symbolic tent-of-nations and extend their warmth, hospitality and love to all.
And, then you’ve the concerned Jewish mothers in the southern outskirts of Haifa, whose movement calls for “civil-izing” and not “militar-izing” the society and educate and empower their sons not to join military …
And, I have also witnessed people of Judaic faith, my friends … accompanying me in the travels, courageous enough to stand by me when I was questioned of my origins and ethnicity (by the Israeli security), and who were also brave enough to visit the refugee camps and hold the hands of a Palestinian grandmother and say sorry for what had happened to her and her grandchildren.
Such is the courage, that my dear brothers and sisters, I house my hope in, for a better tomorrow.
But before I and you, hope for a better tomorrow, we ought to also recommit ourselves of our duty … “to be a firm witness for justice even if it be against ourselves.”
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُونُواْ قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَاء لِلّهِ وَلَوْ عَلَى أَنفُسِكُمْ
We also must remember the Prophetic legacy … “that, when you see wrong, right it with your hand, or speak against it or at least feel it in your heart – indeed that’ll be the weakest of your faith.”
Let us pray that we become of those who stand firmly for justice and are resolved against any form of injustice anywhere, against anyone by anyone.
Let us pray that we eagerly lend our ears to the silent cries of the ancient al-Aqsa, the alleys of Ramallah, the corners of Hebron and the circles of Nablus.
Let us pray that the grandmothers and grandfathers, orphans and widows, be embraced by all of us, as people who deserve dignity and honor and who are no less or more, than any other people, and that we all, one day can enjoy the fragrance of olives and the shade of a fig tree sitting with a person of any faith or color, enjoying the beauty of God’s creation with respect of all.
It is indeed, my dear brothers and sisters that we learn when we travel and explore the lands & the seas that God created and God owns … there is nothing hidden from him, neither in the depths of the oceans nor in the heights of skies … all is known to Him and we seek refuge in Him and ask him to bless us with courage, patience and perseverance to work for justice and peace for all people, everywhere, and in particular in Palestine. Amen.
Monday, June 30, 2008
A response to Los Angeles Mayor's visit to Israel
Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you
Shakeel Syed
In my recent travels to the cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Haifa, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and my meeting with peasants and politicians, cab drivers and academics, occupiers and occupied, victims and victimizers, refugees and settlers, people of Abrahamic faiths and agnostics, I did learn one simple reality … “Ending Israeli occupation of Palestinians and their land is a mandatory prerequisite to any form of peace.”
Having missed the opportunity to accompany the Mayor Villaraigosa, who had so graciously invited me to visit Israel with him, I thought I might write about some questions I would have liked to have asked some of the leaders whom the mayor wanted us to meet.
Mr. Prime Minister Olmert: Will Palestinians ever be free of Israeli occupation in their lands? Do you believe the 500 miles long apartheid wall that separates families from their loved ones and farmer from their lands is helpful for peace? Why do you allow Jewish-only illegal settlements to continue to usurp Palestinian land? Can you please explain your policy of demolishing homes and uprooting orchards? Do you agree with UN monitors who say there are 607 road blocks (as of April 2008) in the Occupied Territories? Is it true that your prisons have held more than 5,000 Palestinians who have been jailed without charges for years?
Mr. Shimon Peres: As a Nobel Peace Prize owner do you think Israeli’s nuclear arsenal is helpful or harmful to the regional and to world peace? The oft repeated claim that Israel is a role model for democracy in Middle East is , I believe, like looking to South Africa for racial equality and justice. Do you agree with this, Mr. Peres? Is it true that the Zionist aspiration is to keep usurping “maximum land” (for Jews) with “minimum people” (Palestinians)?
Ms. Tzipi Livni: Just as the law-of-return grants automatic Israeli citizenship to Jews born anywhere in the world, is it too utopian for more than a million Palestinian refugees to have the right-to-return to their homeland? Can I please get a line item breakdown of the annual $3 billion plus US aid, which includes my tax dollars to your country?
Mr. Uri Lupolianski: I, a Muslim from America was able to argue my way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque on a Friday, but I witnessed many native Jerusalemites denied the right to pray – why? Do you know the number of checkpoints and special permits a Palestinian needs to travel for medical care between Ramallah and Jerusalem?
While I am happy to wait for the answers from Israeli leaders, I would like my mayor to consider the following while signing agreements with the Ben Gurion Airport Security and the International (Israeli) Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
How would Los Angelinos feel if they were interrogated for carrying United Nations material (explaining the consequences of Israeli occupation) as I was leaving Ben Gurion Airport last week?
How could the Los Angeles Police Department benefit from the Israeli Police and Military who indiscriminately shoots children and fires teargas during peaceful protests, such as in the village of B’lin each Friday? I am now an owner of few of these empty teargas shells, perhaps bought by Israel with your and my tax dollars.
I urge my Mayor to add the besieged Gaza to his itinerary while touring Sderot and visit with the starving mothers of Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military.
I await my mayor’s return so that I could give him a T-shirt with the slogan “Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you,” that I bought for him from a store in the old quarters of Jerusalem last week.
(This op-ed was submitted to but not accepted by LA Times. I am also aware of another activist writing her response that LA Times chose not to publish it.)
Shakeel Syed
In my recent travels to the cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Haifa, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and my meeting with peasants and politicians, cab drivers and academics, occupiers and occupied, victims and victimizers, refugees and settlers, people of Abrahamic faiths and agnostics, I did learn one simple reality … “Ending Israeli occupation of Palestinians and their land is a mandatory prerequisite to any form of peace.”
Having missed the opportunity to accompany the Mayor Villaraigosa, who had so graciously invited me to visit Israel with him, I thought I might write about some questions I would have liked to have asked some of the leaders whom the mayor wanted us to meet.
Mr. Prime Minister Olmert: Will Palestinians ever be free of Israeli occupation in their lands? Do you believe the 500 miles long apartheid wall that separates families from their loved ones and farmer from their lands is helpful for peace? Why do you allow Jewish-only illegal settlements to continue to usurp Palestinian land? Can you please explain your policy of demolishing homes and uprooting orchards? Do you agree with UN monitors who say there are 607 road blocks (as of April 2008) in the Occupied Territories? Is it true that your prisons have held more than 5,000 Palestinians who have been jailed without charges for years?
Mr. Shimon Peres: As a Nobel Peace Prize owner do you think Israeli’s nuclear arsenal is helpful or harmful to the regional and to world peace? The oft repeated claim that Israel is a role model for democracy in Middle East is , I believe, like looking to South Africa for racial equality and justice. Do you agree with this, Mr. Peres? Is it true that the Zionist aspiration is to keep usurping “maximum land” (for Jews) with “minimum people” (Palestinians)?
Ms. Tzipi Livni: Just as the law-of-return grants automatic Israeli citizenship to Jews born anywhere in the world, is it too utopian for more than a million Palestinian refugees to have the right-to-return to their homeland? Can I please get a line item breakdown of the annual $3 billion plus US aid, which includes my tax dollars to your country?
Mr. Uri Lupolianski: I, a Muslim from America was able to argue my way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque on a Friday, but I witnessed many native Jerusalemites denied the right to pray – why? Do you know the number of checkpoints and special permits a Palestinian needs to travel for medical care between Ramallah and Jerusalem?
While I am happy to wait for the answers from Israeli leaders, I would like my mayor to consider the following while signing agreements with the Ben Gurion Airport Security and the International (Israeli) Institute for Counter-Terrorism.
How would Los Angelinos feel if they were interrogated for carrying United Nations material (explaining the consequences of Israeli occupation) as I was leaving Ben Gurion Airport last week?
How could the Los Angeles Police Department benefit from the Israeli Police and Military who indiscriminately shoots children and fires teargas during peaceful protests, such as in the village of B’lin each Friday? I am now an owner of few of these empty teargas shells, perhaps bought by Israel with your and my tax dollars.
I urge my Mayor to add the besieged Gaza to his itinerary while touring Sderot and visit with the starving mothers of Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military.
I await my mayor’s return so that I could give him a T-shirt with the slogan “Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you,” that I bought for him from a store in the old quarters of Jerusalem last week.
(This op-ed was submitted to but not accepted by LA Times. I am also aware of another activist writing her response that LA Times chose not to publish it.)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
O' For The Day - That Is Dying!
For the day that is dying!
(Dedicated to a fierce fighter for justice – dearest Huwaidaa Arraf)
I thought I was indulging in a tour … and lost myself
At home I was ignorant and unknown
When I left home, my courage spread far & wide
The pious & the agnostics laid their merit at my feet.
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine is like a warehouse filled with rare merchandise,
That draws people from all “three quarters,”
Now its richness is gone, it has no worth.
O’ for the day that is dying!
Its people were of high standing,
Now they are made to feel the lowest of the low,
O’ for the day that is dying!
The Israeli is happy, he owns the aeroplane and the Uzi,
The Zionist is gratified, he controls the trade & tyranny,
Palestinians are but empty drums, subsisting on God’s grace,
For them is a pile of biscuit crumbs & lemonade bitter,
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine, I see is a supremely beautiful woman,
Almost impersonal and above all human desires,
It’s feminine beauty of river & valley & graceful trees,
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine, I see is a masculine magical beauty,
Of hard mountains and precipices,
The rugged peaks & the cruel deserts
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine has a thousand faces, sometimes smiling,
Many times sad and full of sorrow,
Watching this magical spectacle, I feel faint,
It seems dreamlike and unreal,
Like the hopes and desires that fills us wholesome,
But seldom finds fulfilled
O’ Palestine – you are the face of the beloved
That I see in a dream that
Keeps fading away when I am wakened,
O’ for the day that is dying!
….
O’ for the day that is dying!
We, the people of the Stars & the Stripes
How dare we slumber in the shade of complacence
Leading lives as frivolous as the fallen petals
While our fellow man has no dwelling –
Save the saddles of camels and the bellies of the valleys
Blood has been spilled all around the three quarters
Beautiful young dames have been shamed, and
The angelic innocence of children has been robbed
Dignity of the wrinkled man, and
Honor of the wailing woman
The crying church,
The moaning mosque, and
The wailing wall … calling on you,
The man of slumber in the stars, and
The woman of colors in the stripes
O’ for the day that has not “yet” died!
Shakeel Syed – Jerusalem – June 6
(Dedicated to a fierce fighter for justice – dearest Huwaidaa Arraf)
I thought I was indulging in a tour … and lost myself
At home I was ignorant and unknown
When I left home, my courage spread far & wide
The pious & the agnostics laid their merit at my feet.
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine is like a warehouse filled with rare merchandise,
That draws people from all “three quarters,”
Now its richness is gone, it has no worth.
O’ for the day that is dying!
Its people were of high standing,
Now they are made to feel the lowest of the low,
O’ for the day that is dying!
The Israeli is happy, he owns the aeroplane and the Uzi,
The Zionist is gratified, he controls the trade & tyranny,
Palestinians are but empty drums, subsisting on God’s grace,
For them is a pile of biscuit crumbs & lemonade bitter,
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine, I see is a supremely beautiful woman,
Almost impersonal and above all human desires,
It’s feminine beauty of river & valley & graceful trees,
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine, I see is a masculine magical beauty,
Of hard mountains and precipices,
The rugged peaks & the cruel deserts
O’ for the day that is dying!
Palestine has a thousand faces, sometimes smiling,
Many times sad and full of sorrow,
Watching this magical spectacle, I feel faint,
It seems dreamlike and unreal,
Like the hopes and desires that fills us wholesome,
But seldom finds fulfilled
O’ Palestine – you are the face of the beloved
That I see in a dream that
Keeps fading away when I am wakened,
O’ for the day that is dying!
….
O’ for the day that is dying!
We, the people of the Stars & the Stripes
How dare we slumber in the shade of complacence
Leading lives as frivolous as the fallen petals
While our fellow man has no dwelling –
Save the saddles of camels and the bellies of the valleys
Blood has been spilled all around the three quarters
Beautiful young dames have been shamed, and
The angelic innocence of children has been robbed
Dignity of the wrinkled man, and
Honor of the wailing woman
The crying church,
The moaning mosque, and
The wailing wall … calling on you,
The man of slumber in the stars, and
The woman of colors in the stripes
O’ for the day that has not “yet” died!
Shakeel Syed – Jerusalem – June 6
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Echoes of the Past
Echoes of the PastThursday, May 29
Silent screaming streets of Jerusalem violently echoed the past of the Star, Cross and the Crescent. This is the first time I ever stepped on these holy lands of the Prophets and their people. Accompanying me, are young and old, men and women, and the followers of human conscience and of Abrahamic faiths. We are an Interfaith group visiting the Holy Lands for self discovery and learning of the past in the present.
1099 was the year Crusaders reigned.
1187 Saladin (Salah al-Din) reclaimed.
1948 the Jewish State came into being.
Empires are generally rooted in religion. Dominions can only be secured by victory. And victory is always on the side of those who are committed to the unity of purpose.
Self-proclaimed atheists, Moshe Dayan and Ben Gurion had ample unity of purpose in the creation of a Jewish State. After all, they knew of the sufferings of European Jewry, the pogroms in Tsarist Russia and the slaughter houses of Auschwitz. Their hearts were united and coordinated, with the help of God of David and Solomon, Jacob and Isaac.
A thousand years of religio-secular cycle of death, displacement and despair, I thought, as I walked the streets of Jerusalem.
A T-Shirt slogan stared me in the eye. “Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you.” Yes, it was displayed in a shop in the Muslim quarters of Jerusalem.
Ah, the great Untouchable! A nascent country that regularly invades neighboring States, routinely defies UN resolutions, occupies land, treats its people inhumanely and possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons, enough to light up the entire region, once and for all.
A twenty plus year old bright Irish lady volunteering at a women’s empowerment center summed up well. “North Ireland and South Africa combined is Palestine, with no hope.”
An Arab restaurant owner after catering lunch to our Interfaith group offering baklawa said it differently, “sweets on-house, although we live in bitterness.”
“Abir was barely ten when she was killed by a teenage IDF soldier (January 16, 2007), who perhaps saw her as a terrorist target.” These were the words of her father, Bassam Aramin, co-founder of Combatants for Peace. Kids killing kids!
From Ben Gurion to Yasser Arafat, from Ehud Olmert to Mahmoud Abbas, the Priests, the Rabbis and the Muftis – all need to lend a moment to the Taoist scripture.
“How did the great rivers and seas get their kingship over the hundred lesser streams?
Through the merit of being lower than they: that was how they got their kingship.
Therefore the sage (the leaders and the politicians) in order to be above the people,
must speak as though he were lower than they.
In order to guide them, he must put himself behind them.
Thus when he is above, the people have no burden, when he is ahead, they feel no hurt.”
The silent cries of the ancient Jerusalem are just as loud in the alleys of Ramallah, the corners of Hebron and the circles of Nablus, as it is in the malls of New York, the cafes of Rio de Janeiro and the streets of Mozambique.
Choice is ours – either we can be deafeningly loud or screamingly silent, merely calling for or fiercely working for peace. Else, the echoes of the past will continue to haunt us in the future as it is the case in the present in the silent screaming streets of ancient Jerusalem.
Silent screaming streets of Jerusalem violently echoed the past of the Star, Cross and the Crescent. This is the first time I ever stepped on these holy lands of the Prophets and their people. Accompanying me, are young and old, men and women, and the followers of human conscience and of Abrahamic faiths. We are an Interfaith group visiting the Holy Lands for self discovery and learning of the past in the present.
1099 was the year Crusaders reigned.
1187 Saladin (Salah al-Din) reclaimed.
1948 the Jewish State came into being.
Empires are generally rooted in religion. Dominions can only be secured by victory. And victory is always on the side of those who are committed to the unity of purpose.
Self-proclaimed atheists, Moshe Dayan and Ben Gurion had ample unity of purpose in the creation of a Jewish State. After all, they knew of the sufferings of European Jewry, the pogroms in Tsarist Russia and the slaughter houses of Auschwitz. Their hearts were united and coordinated, with the help of God of David and Solomon, Jacob and Isaac.
A thousand years of religio-secular cycle of death, displacement and despair, I thought, as I walked the streets of Jerusalem.
A T-Shirt slogan stared me in the eye. “Don’t worry America, Israel is behind you.” Yes, it was displayed in a shop in the Muslim quarters of Jerusalem.
Ah, the great Untouchable! A nascent country that regularly invades neighboring States, routinely defies UN resolutions, occupies land, treats its people inhumanely and possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons, enough to light up the entire region, once and for all.
A twenty plus year old bright Irish lady volunteering at a women’s empowerment center summed up well. “North Ireland and South Africa combined is Palestine, with no hope.”
An Arab restaurant owner after catering lunch to our Interfaith group offering baklawa said it differently, “sweets on-house, although we live in bitterness.”
“Abir was barely ten when she was killed by a teenage IDF soldier (January 16, 2007), who perhaps saw her as a terrorist target.” These were the words of her father, Bassam Aramin, co-founder of Combatants for Peace. Kids killing kids!
From Ben Gurion to Yasser Arafat, from Ehud Olmert to Mahmoud Abbas, the Priests, the Rabbis and the Muftis – all need to lend a moment to the Taoist scripture.
“How did the great rivers and seas get their kingship over the hundred lesser streams?
Through the merit of being lower than they: that was how they got their kingship.
Therefore the sage (the leaders and the politicians) in order to be above the people,
must speak as though he were lower than they.
In order to guide them, he must put himself behind them.
Thus when he is above, the people have no burden, when he is ahead, they feel no hurt.”
The silent cries of the ancient Jerusalem are just as loud in the alleys of Ramallah, the corners of Hebron and the circles of Nablus, as it is in the malls of New York, the cafes of Rio de Janeiro and the streets of Mozambique.
Choice is ours – either we can be deafeningly loud or screamingly silent, merely calling for or fiercely working for peace. Else, the echoes of the past will continue to haunt us in the future as it is the case in the present in the silent screaming streets of ancient Jerusalem.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
My Journey to Al-Aqsa
Sat - May 24, 2008 - AM ... Phew ... did away with packing ... with the help of my youngest daughter Aasiya, the namesake of Moses's caretaker, I am ready to take off to the land of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon all of them). Here I come, O land of the Prophets & the people of my Book!
Never before, I was called upon by so many friends and family cautioning me what to be aware of and what to refrain from. Strange, that everyone is so concerned!
Never before, my son, Mujahid sent me off with a river of tears. Upon asking, he replied with childish innocence that he may not see me again! He went on to say, I knew well when you traveled to Europe, China, Central Asia, India and among so many other places that you WILL be back but Palestine ... "don't they kill people there," he asked. I couldn't help but add few tears to his river & hugged & hugged even tighter and in silence, I prayed for a time (hopefully in my lifetime) when a kid in Los Angeles don't have to be so afraid to travel to Palestine & experience the land of the Prophets and their legacies.
The whole purpose of my trip is just beginning to reveal itself. Very interesting, rather fascinating. I have no plans. Don't have the slightest idea who I may meet & where and who would help me discover myself and how. Join me, if you like, and come along. I will share with what I learn & together we'll let our children heal us!
Never before, I was called upon by so many friends and family cautioning me what to be aware of and what to refrain from. Strange, that everyone is so concerned!
Never before, my son, Mujahid sent me off with a river of tears. Upon asking, he replied with childish innocence that he may not see me again! He went on to say, I knew well when you traveled to Europe, China, Central Asia, India and among so many other places that you WILL be back but Palestine ... "don't they kill people there," he asked. I couldn't help but add few tears to his river & hugged & hugged even tighter and in silence, I prayed for a time (hopefully in my lifetime) when a kid in Los Angeles don't have to be so afraid to travel to Palestine & experience the land of the Prophets and their legacies.
The whole purpose of my trip is just beginning to reveal itself. Very interesting, rather fascinating. I have no plans. Don't have the slightest idea who I may meet & where and who would help me discover myself and how. Join me, if you like, and come along. I will share with what I learn & together we'll let our children heal us!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
A US Citizen of Jewish faith spied for Israel, an ardent ally?!
- LA times had a 500 word story in the inside pages
- NY Times forgot to cover this story ... ooops
- WP story is pasted below
This is NOT the first but the second known case of a Jewish-American (Jonathan Pollard) spying for Israel whom we call an ally of different proportions. In both cases, the spying was done by the State of Israel, for the State of Israel, using Jewish-American citizens!
Should the US call for a Jewish-Integration Program just as we ask of Mexican-Americans & Muslim-Americans to give up their Mexican-ness & Mulim-ness ...
Think for a moment if this were to have been a Muslim-American spying for a Muslim country, how the media & the government would have covered it ...
-------------------------------------------------------
Man, 84, Is Charged With Spying for Israel in 1980s
By Carrie JohnsonWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, April 23, 2008; A04
For more than two decades after he allegedly furnished an Israeli operative with secrets about U.S. nuclear initiatives and sensitive weapons programs, Ben-Ami Kadish lived unnoticed by law enforcement authorities in suburban New Jersey.
Until yesterday, that is, when Kadish, 84, was arrested at his home, taken to a federal courthouse in Manhattan and charged with four counts of conspiracy allegedly for serving as an foreign agent and allegedly for lying to the FBI about a recent telephone conversation he had with his alleged Israeli handler.
Kadish, a mechanical engineer, worked at the U.S. Army's research arsenal in Dover, N.J., in the early 1980s. He routinely checked classified documents out of a library there and passed them to an unnamed Israeli official who had provided a list of what he wanted, according to a four-count criminal complaint the FBI filed yesterday.
The official photographed pages related to nuclear weaponry, the F-15 fighter jet program and the U.S. Patriot missile defense system, according to an FBI affidavit on which the complaint is based.
Kadish's actions appear to have escaped detection for years even though his handler allegedly also collected classified information from Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst. Pollard is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Butner, N.C., after pleading guilty to an espionage-related crime in 1986.
"It's a fascinating case of another agent in place, another sleeper, with the very same handler," said Joseph E. diGenova, the former U.S. attorney in the District who prosecuted Pollard. "We always suspected there were other people. His tradecraft was apparently better than Pollard's."
DiGenova said the espionage, which the charging documents indicate ceased in 1985, doubtless have come to the government's attention because of wiretap evidence obtained by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan. FBI agents first interviewed Kadish last month about his activities at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal, where he worked between 1963 and 1990, according to the filing.
Kadish, a U.S. citizen who was born in Connecticut, told the agents that he "borrowed" classified documents at the urging of his handler, who encouraged him to help "protect Israel" by sharing papers that had a "direct correlation to Israel's security." He accepted only small gifts and occasional family dinners in exchange for his services, the FBI said.
Kadish told Special Agent Lance Ashworth that between August 1979 and July 1985, he provided the handler with 50 to 100 documents, according to the affidavit.
The handler is identified in the criminal complaint only as "co-conspirator 1," but he has been named in Israeli publications and by a former prosecutor as Yosef Yagur. He lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and worked as an adviser on science affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York.
Yagur left the United States in November 1985, shortly after Pollard was charged with espionage-related offenses, and has never returned.
The handler called Kadish's home at least 22 times between July and November 1985, according to an FBI account of the phone records. The two men have since allegedly maintained contact through periodic e-mail messages and phone calls. They met in Israel four years ago, but their dealings since 1985 have been "purely social," Kadish told investigators.
The handler and Kadish renewed their ties on March 20, according to the FBI affidavit, after federal agents interviewed Kadish for the first time. "Don't say anything," the handler allegedly said. "Let them say whatever they want. . . . What happened 25 years ago? You didn't remember anything."
The next day, FBI agents again questioned Kadish, who allegedly denied the call had taken place. His statements eventually became the basis for two criminal conspiracy charges that accuse him of hindering an investigation and of lying to law enforcement officials. He was also charged with conspiracy to serve as an Israeli agent and conspiracy to disclose documents related to U.S. defense programs.
A federal magistrate judge in New York released Kadish yesterday afternoon on a $300,000 personal recognizance bond secured by his home in Monroe Township, N.J. He was required to surrender his passport, and he will not be allowed to travel beyond New Jersey and New York.
Bruce Goldstein, a defense lawyer for Kadish, did not return calls. David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, said that "we were formally informed of the indictment by the relevant authorities," but declined to comment further.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042202590_pf.html
- NY Times forgot to cover this story ... ooops
- WP story is pasted below
This is NOT the first but the second known case of a Jewish-American (Jonathan Pollard) spying for Israel whom we call an ally of different proportions. In both cases, the spying was done by the State of Israel, for the State of Israel, using Jewish-American citizens!
Should the US call for a Jewish-Integration Program just as we ask of Mexican-Americans & Muslim-Americans to give up their Mexican-ness & Mulim-ness ...
Think for a moment if this were to have been a Muslim-American spying for a Muslim country, how the media & the government would have covered it ...
-------------------------------------------------------
Man, 84, Is Charged With Spying for Israel in 1980s
By Carrie JohnsonWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, April 23, 2008; A04
For more than two decades after he allegedly furnished an Israeli operative with secrets about U.S. nuclear initiatives and sensitive weapons programs, Ben-Ami Kadish lived unnoticed by law enforcement authorities in suburban New Jersey.
Until yesterday, that is, when Kadish, 84, was arrested at his home, taken to a federal courthouse in Manhattan and charged with four counts of conspiracy allegedly for serving as an foreign agent and allegedly for lying to the FBI about a recent telephone conversation he had with his alleged Israeli handler.
Kadish, a mechanical engineer, worked at the U.S. Army's research arsenal in Dover, N.J., in the early 1980s. He routinely checked classified documents out of a library there and passed them to an unnamed Israeli official who had provided a list of what he wanted, according to a four-count criminal complaint the FBI filed yesterday.
The official photographed pages related to nuclear weaponry, the F-15 fighter jet program and the U.S. Patriot missile defense system, according to an FBI affidavit on which the complaint is based.
Kadish's actions appear to have escaped detection for years even though his handler allegedly also collected classified information from Jonathan Pollard, a former Navy intelligence analyst. Pollard is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Butner, N.C., after pleading guilty to an espionage-related crime in 1986.
"It's a fascinating case of another agent in place, another sleeper, with the very same handler," said Joseph E. diGenova, the former U.S. attorney in the District who prosecuted Pollard. "We always suspected there were other people. His tradecraft was apparently better than Pollard's."
DiGenova said the espionage, which the charging documents indicate ceased in 1985, doubtless have come to the government's attention because of wiretap evidence obtained by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan. FBI agents first interviewed Kadish last month about his activities at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal, where he worked between 1963 and 1990, according to the filing.
Kadish, a U.S. citizen who was born in Connecticut, told the agents that he "borrowed" classified documents at the urging of his handler, who encouraged him to help "protect Israel" by sharing papers that had a "direct correlation to Israel's security." He accepted only small gifts and occasional family dinners in exchange for his services, the FBI said.
Kadish told Special Agent Lance Ashworth that between August 1979 and July 1985, he provided the handler with 50 to 100 documents, according to the affidavit.
The handler is identified in the criminal complaint only as "co-conspirator 1," but he has been named in Israeli publications and by a former prosecutor as Yosef Yagur. He lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and worked as an adviser on science affairs at the Israeli Consulate in New York.
Yagur left the United States in November 1985, shortly after Pollard was charged with espionage-related offenses, and has never returned.
The handler called Kadish's home at least 22 times between July and November 1985, according to an FBI account of the phone records. The two men have since allegedly maintained contact through periodic e-mail messages and phone calls. They met in Israel four years ago, but their dealings since 1985 have been "purely social," Kadish told investigators.
The handler and Kadish renewed their ties on March 20, according to the FBI affidavit, after federal agents interviewed Kadish for the first time. "Don't say anything," the handler allegedly said. "Let them say whatever they want. . . . What happened 25 years ago? You didn't remember anything."
The next day, FBI agents again questioned Kadish, who allegedly denied the call had taken place. His statements eventually became the basis for two criminal conspiracy charges that accuse him of hindering an investigation and of lying to law enforcement officials. He was also charged with conspiracy to serve as an Israeli agent and conspiracy to disclose documents related to U.S. defense programs.
A federal magistrate judge in New York released Kadish yesterday afternoon on a $300,000 personal recognizance bond secured by his home in Monroe Township, N.J. He was required to surrender his passport, and he will not be allowed to travel beyond New Jersey and New York.
Bruce Goldstein, a defense lawyer for Kadish, did not return calls. David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, said that "we were formally informed of the indictment by the relevant authorities," but declined to comment further.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/22/AR2008042202590_pf.html
Monday, April 21, 2008
CA Governor's selective representation
Governor of California's selective representation
The Governor's Cold Shoulder to MuslimsRebuffing California's Islamic leaders sends a message of intolerance.
By Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California.
August 25, 2006.
EARLIER THIS MONTH, with war raging in the Middle East, I saw that my governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was meeting with rabbis and others who support Israel. As executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, a federation of more than 75 mosques and Muslim organizations serving half a million Muslims, I thought that such a high public official should also meet with members of my community.
I wrote to him on Aug. 7. I wanted to talk to the governor about three important points.
I wanted him to know that my community felt that the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians from the rockets of Hezbollah were painfully tragic, and just as tragic as the deaths of innocent Lebanese people and the destruction of their country's infrastructure by the Israeli bombing.
I wanted to ask him to listen to another, equally important side of the story.
And I wanted to urge him to remember that the governor should represent and listen to all the people of California.
After waiting for more than a week, and following up with at least 10 phone calls to the governor's office, I had gotten no response. I felt it was my duty and my right as a citizen to avail myself of a public forum to reach the governor. When a reporter from the L.A. Times called, I spoke with him and, on Aug. 16, The Times correctly reported my perspective: The fact that the governor had ignored my request to meet was disrespectful and insulting.
I believe what I did comes under the heading of Democracy 101. Politicians govern and win elections by responding to the populace. And when they do not, the populace has two remedies: the power of the vote and the power of public opinion.
Finally, when the governor agreed to meet with two Muslims, it was as individuals, not on behalf of any organization. He refused to meet with me. His communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, was forthright in a public statement: "We did not meet with Mr. Syed [because] it was inappropriate for the governor to meet with someone who uses the media to demand meetings and threaten political retaliation."
I think the governor's communications director needs work on his communication skills. What he calls demanding a meeting, I call paying attention to constituents; what he calls political retaliation, I call voting.
I think that deliberately avoiding a meeting with me solely because I made use of my 1st Amendment rights is simply un-American. This isn't a personal matter between me and the governor. It's about making sure that the half a million people I represent are heard in Sacramento.
Marginalizing Californians who are Muslims subtly reinforces anti-Muslim stereotypes, which all too often cast us as outsiders. This is not principled, it's not good politics and it's not good for the state.
In these volatile times, with attacks on Muslims and our mosques, we cannot afford to be ignored by our governor; we can't stand by when his actions deepen religious and cultural divisions. Californians are, by and large, decent and well-intentioned. They want to solve problems; they want to break down barriers.
Shouldn't their governor be helping them bring down the walls that separate us rather than building them higher?
Published as an Op-Ed in Los Angeles Times on Aug 25, 2006.
(http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-syed25aug25,0,2973237.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail)
The Governor's Cold Shoulder to MuslimsRebuffing California's Islamic leaders sends a message of intolerance.
By Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California.
August 25, 2006.
EARLIER THIS MONTH, with war raging in the Middle East, I saw that my governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was meeting with rabbis and others who support Israel. As executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, a federation of more than 75 mosques and Muslim organizations serving half a million Muslims, I thought that such a high public official should also meet with members of my community.
I wrote to him on Aug. 7. I wanted to talk to the governor about three important points.
I wanted him to know that my community felt that the deaths of innocent Israeli civilians from the rockets of Hezbollah were painfully tragic, and just as tragic as the deaths of innocent Lebanese people and the destruction of their country's infrastructure by the Israeli bombing.
I wanted to ask him to listen to another, equally important side of the story.
And I wanted to urge him to remember that the governor should represent and listen to all the people of California.
After waiting for more than a week, and following up with at least 10 phone calls to the governor's office, I had gotten no response. I felt it was my duty and my right as a citizen to avail myself of a public forum to reach the governor. When a reporter from the L.A. Times called, I spoke with him and, on Aug. 16, The Times correctly reported my perspective: The fact that the governor had ignored my request to meet was disrespectful and insulting.
I believe what I did comes under the heading of Democracy 101. Politicians govern and win elections by responding to the populace. And when they do not, the populace has two remedies: the power of the vote and the power of public opinion.
Finally, when the governor agreed to meet with two Muslims, it was as individuals, not on behalf of any organization. He refused to meet with me. His communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, was forthright in a public statement: "We did not meet with Mr. Syed [because] it was inappropriate for the governor to meet with someone who uses the media to demand meetings and threaten political retaliation."
I think the governor's communications director needs work on his communication skills. What he calls demanding a meeting, I call paying attention to constituents; what he calls political retaliation, I call voting.
I think that deliberately avoiding a meeting with me solely because I made use of my 1st Amendment rights is simply un-American. This isn't a personal matter between me and the governor. It's about making sure that the half a million people I represent are heard in Sacramento.
Marginalizing Californians who are Muslims subtly reinforces anti-Muslim stereotypes, which all too often cast us as outsiders. This is not principled, it's not good politics and it's not good for the state.
In these volatile times, with attacks on Muslims and our mosques, we cannot afford to be ignored by our governor; we can't stand by when his actions deepen religious and cultural divisions. Californians are, by and large, decent and well-intentioned. They want to solve problems; they want to break down barriers.
Shouldn't their governor be helping them bring down the walls that separate us rather than building them higher?
Published as an Op-Ed in Los Angeles Times on Aug 25, 2006.
(http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-syed25aug25,0,2973237.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail)
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