2 Egyptian Border Guards Are Killed by Israeli Troops

By GREG MYRE

June 3, 2006

The New York Times

JERUSALEM, June 2 — Israeli soldiers on Friday shot and killed two members of the Egyptian security forces who crossed the remote desert border from Egypt to Israel, officials of both countries said.

The shooting came two days before a planned meeting in Egypt between Israel's new prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. While the two nations differed on the details of the shooting, there were no immediate signs that it would disrupt the talks.

According to the Israeli military, three armed men came through a hole in the border fence and fired on Israeli troops at around 6 a.m. The Israelis returned fire, killing two, while the third man escaped. The military said automatic rifles and communications equipment were found on the bodies of the two dead men, who were wearing Egyptian uniforms.

But officials in Egypt said the border policemen had accidentally strayed across the border. Essam el-Sheik, the head of the Egyptian police in the area, said the Israeli troops fired first, according to The Associated Press.

Friday's shooting took place near Mount Sagi in Israel, across from the Egyptian border town of Bir el-Main. In a photograph released by the Israeli military, tarpaulins covered what the military said were the bodies of the two Egyptians. While there are no fences along many parts of the lengthy border, the photograph does show a fence at the top of a rocky hill in the background. The photo shows the fence being examined by more than a dozen Israeli soldiers.

"It was not an accident that they came across the border," said Capt. Noa Meir, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military. "We are very surprised by this incident because we have very good relations with Egypt."

Israel's defense minister, Amir Peretz, ordered the military to cooperate with Egypt in a joint investigation of the shooting.

Mr. Olmert and Mr. Mubarak plan to meet Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik. Mr. Mubarak is seeking to mediate between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and is looking to arrange a three-way meeting in the near future that would include the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty more than a quarter-century ago, and they have a generally cooperative relationship along their border. Smuggling is common, however; Israeli troops killed an Egyptian smuggler along the frontier earlier this week, Israeli officials said.

In the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, said the salaries of some government workers would be paid on Saturday or Sunday. This would be the first time the Hamas-led government has been able to pay wages since coming to power in March.

As announced earlier this week, the Palestinian Authority plans to pay about 40,000 of its workers who make $330 a month or less. Those workers, the lowest paid of the 165,000 people employed by the Palestinian Authority, would receive one month's salary, Palestinian officials said. It was not clear when the higher-paid workers would receive paychecks. Speaking at a Gaza City mosque, Mr. Haniya said the money had been raised by "internal revenue collection."

European countries, the United States and Israel all regard Hamas as a terrorist organization and have cut off money that was going to the Palestinian Authority. The authority has been raising about $30 million a month in internal revenues in recent years, but that accounts for only about a quarter of its monthly payroll.

"Some people told the Americans to withhold money from the Palestinian people and to impose a siege on the Palestinian government, thinking that the government would collapse in two or three months," Mr. Haniya said. "With God on our side and with faith in our people, the legitimate and elected government will not collapse."

Links:

Dead border police were dragged to Israeli territory: Egypt press


Note:

Just a little bit of information, the Israeli's that are stationed by the boarder with Egypt has a long history of murdering Egyptian security forces and one thing Israel is always good at is their reasoning or excuses for their actions.

The best one I heard was a year or two ago, when two Egyptian policemen was murdered on the boarder from Israel and the best excuse Israel gave was they was having military maneuvers and their firings went astray and these two men was killed; not that they was directly shot. It is common knowledge or I should say rather a very bad joke that every time and Israeli murders some one they always got an excuse (lie) waiting in the wings hoping to cover their behinds.

The Art of Genocide

This is Sharon.. Those are Zionists


"I don't know something called International Principles"

* "I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian Child will be born in this area"

* "The Palestinian Woman and Child is more dangerous than the Man, Because the Palestinian Child existence refers that Generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger"

* "I vow that if I was just an Israeli Civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him"

* "With One hit I've killed 750 Palestinians ( in Rafah, 1956)"

* "I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic Girls as The Palestinian Woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and Nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do"

Those Quotes were told by Sharon to the General Ouze Merham after committing massacres at Rafah and Khan Yunis in 1956.

They interviewed him because of the death of some Zionist soldiers while they were committing the massacres.

Haditha in View

Emad Hajjaj, Al-Ghad Newspaper, Amman, Jordan

Stop Bush!

Stop Bush! President Bush visits Brussels, 20 Febuary 2005

I was surprised when I saw this.

Western View of the News

Israel envoy condemns Canadian boycott

By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer

June 2,2006

Yahoo News

TORONTO -Israel's ambassador to Canada on Friday joined national Jewish groups and politicians in condemning a decision by a branch of the country's largest public employees' union to support boycotting Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

The Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees convention voted June 27 to support a campaign to boycott the Jewish state until it "recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination" and grants Palestinian refugees the right of return to Israel.

The Ontario branch represents nearly half of the 450,000 union members working nationwide in health care, education, social services, universities, transportation and other sectors.

Under the resolution approved by delegates, the Ontario branch will develop an education campaign about the issue, including Canada's political and economic support for Israeli policies.

Israeli Ambassador Alan Baker wrote in an editorial in the National Post on Friday that many union members were questioning why the group "is so unwisely injecting itself, its good name and the goodwill of its members in such a partisan and openly hostile manner into Middle East politics."

Britain's largest college teachers' union voted Monday to consider boycotting Israeli academics over what members termed "apartheid" policies and discrimination against Palestinians.

The boycott movement has outraged Jewish leaders, who say the strategy is anti-Semitic and fails to recognize Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist attacks by Palestinian extremists.

"Boycott, divestment and sanction worked to end apartheid in South Africa," said Katherine Nastovski, chairwoman of the Ontario branch's international solidarity committee. "We believe the same strategy will work to enforce the rights of Palestinian people, including the right of refugees to return to their homes and properties."

Leaders of B'nai Brith Canada, the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center called the vote outrageous, saying Jewish and non-Jewish union members had contacted them to complain they felt betrayed.

Frank Dimant, vice president of B'nai Brith Canada, called the vote a blatant attempt "to advance a clearly politicized anti-Israel agenda that is inconsistent with the union's core mandate of serving its members."

Islamic Army in Iraq attacks Humvee with anti-tank grenades

Video

June 01, 2006

The Islamic Army in Iraq attacked a Humvee Thursday morning in an area just north of Baghdad. The attack was carried out with two, Russian made RKG-3 anti-tank hand grenades according to a statement by the resistance group. The use of hand grenades to strike coalition vehicles as an resistance tactic appears to be increasing in Iraq. On May 20, we reported an almost identical attack by the same resistance group, also using hand grenades. It is not known if any casualties resulted from this incident.

Troops cleared in Iraqi deaths in Ishaqi

A video grab from television footage taken on March 15, 2006
shows the funueral for people who died during a U.S. raid on
Ishaqi, north of Baghdad. A U.S. military probe has exonerated
U.S. troops in the deaths of Iraqi civilians in Ishaqi north of
Baghdad in March, finding American forces followed standard
procedures and committed no misconduct, defense officials said
on Friday. (Reuters TV/Reuters)

By Will Dunham

June 2, 2006

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military probe has exonerated U.S. troops in the deaths of Iraqi civilians in the town of Ishaqi in March, finding American forces followed standard procedures and committed no misconduct, defense officials said on Friday.

The Ishaqi incident was one of a handful involving civilian deaths being investigated by the U.S. military, including the deaths of 24 civilians in the town of Haditha last November.

Police in Ishaqi, 60 miles north of Baghdad, have said six adults and five children were shot dead in a U.S. military raid on a home on March 15.

The U.S. military maintains there were four dead in the incident, including a guerrilla, two women and a child, and said they died after troops were fired upon from the house as they arrived to arrest an al Qaeda suspect.

The defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an investigation found no wrongdoing by U.S. forces.

The officials said a military fact-finding inquiry determined that U.S. forces followed proper procedures and that the civilian deaths were unintentional.

In the Haditha case, which some commentators are comparing to the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, the military is investigating civilian deaths in the town west of Baghdad on November 19.

The military is investigating whether U.S. Marines went on a rampage after a comrade was killed by an insurgent roadside bomb and shot dead two dozen civilians, including women and children. U.S. defense officials have said Marines could face charges including murder.

A military spokesman announced the investigation into the Ishaqi incident on March 21.

NIGHTTIME RAID

U.S. officials described a nighttime raid aimed at finding a specific guerrilla, who then fled the building but was later caught. Another guerrilla who fired from the building was killed in the raid, they said.

"When the assault force arrived, they took fire," said one official. The U.S. troops then pulled back and called in air support from an AC-130 gunship, and U.S. forces then fired on the house, the official said.

No further investigation of the incident is planned by the U.S. military, the official said.

Police in Ishaqi have offered a different account. Police said five children, four women and two men were shot dead by troops in a house that was then blown up.

They said all the victims were shot in the head, and that the bodies, with hands bound, were dumped in one room before the house was destroyed. Television footage showed the bodies in a morgue. Their wounds were not clear, although one infant had a gaping head wound.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said he is losing patience with reports of U.S. troops killing civilians. Many Iraqis believe unjustified killings by U.S. troops are common, but few have been confirmed by official investigations.

The White House said on Friday it shares Maliki's concerns about civilian deaths in Iraq, allegedly by U.S. Marines, and emphasized Washington wants to work with him.

Maliki said on Friday the Iraqi government will demand the United States share files from the investigation of the killings in Haditha. On Thursday, he decried the deaths as "a terrible crime where women and children were eliminated."

The U.S. military on Thursday directed troops in Iraq to undergo new training on the need to follow legal, moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.

U.S./ Israeli Soldier

He was apart of the scandal at Abu Ghraib, need more be said?

Remembering Mohammad Al-Durra

Video

Muhammed al-Durrah (Arabic:محمد الدرة) was a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy reported to have been killed by gunfire on September 30, 2000 at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. A French television crew (France 2) near Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip filmed the boy clutching his father as his father tried to shield him from bullets. Broadcast around the world, this event caused outrage against Israel, which was assumed to be responsible. Shortly thereafter, a number of controversies arose made about the incident, including the source of the bullets and the authenticity of the tape. Controversy persists to this day.

Incident, as initially reported

Muhammad al-Durrah left home that morning to accompany his father, Jamal al-Durrah, on a day's outing to shop for a car. On the return trip home, the father and son crossed a main street in the Bureij refugee camp when heavy shooting broke out between Palestinian militiamen and an Israel Defense Force (IDF) outpost near Netzarim junction. Muhammad and Jamal al-Durrah sought sanctuary in vain between a concrete cylinder and a low cinderblock wall as bullets rained down around them for about 45 minutes, of which 27 minutes were filmed.

"He stayed close to me, clutching me from my back while I was trying to keep him away from the bullets," said his father. "But one bullet hit him in the leg. I started screaming and crying, hoping that the bullets would stop, but to no avail."

Edited television footage showed Jamal al-Durrah waving desperately, shouting, "Don't shoot!" but Muhammad was eventually hit by four bullets and collapsed in his father's arms. Jamal al-Durrah was also shot and suffered critical injuries but survived after receiving emergency surgery in Jordan. He suffered a permanently paralyzed right arm.

"It is the worst nightmare of my life... My son was terrified, he pleaded with me: 'For the love of God protect me, Baba (Dad).' "I will never forget these words."

An ambulance driver who tried to reach the trapped pair was reported shot and killed. A second ambulance driver was reported wounded. Read more...


To the soul of the child martyr, Mohammed Al Durra

by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Pressed back, without supporter
A child defenceless, confronting aggression

Hiding, the bullets of tyrants
Have no mercy for a child, so young

Seeking shelter, slaughter him the criminals
Savages, whose tyranny never waned

Oh Mohammed, in Paradise of the eternal
Oh Mohammed, your voice reverberates throughout

Oh Mohammed, with you, the God of the Worlds
Whose mercy enfolds you forever

Oh Mohammed, who saw you grieved
And all, if we could, would sacrifice

A thousand million, the Muslims
All for you, Mohammed, fathers

Alas, where is the peace of the just?
The peace you seek is futile

Lost it, without doubt, the usurpers
When allowed their hatred to renew

And boiled the blood of Arabs, East and West
When Sharon visited the mosque

Oh Arabs, comrades for years
Bury that which passed, as became

Our greatest concern, to defend against aggressors
Who against Al Aqsa their aggression began

My nation, would that you unite
In lines, terrified then the enemies

Follow Zayed, the leader of the wise
Who called for unity and initiated

Oh Saladin, oh the greatest conquerors
Oh Omar, oh the dignified and the generous

The state of the nation allures the greedy
We seek naught but unity to satisfy

"We, the Jewish People,Control America"

A Hebrew Israeli radio station, Kol Yisrael, on October 3rd reported that during an argument in an Israeli cabinet meeting, Shimon Peres warned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that unless he would heed American requests for a cease fire with the Palestinians, he could cause America to turn against Israel. In a fit of anger, Sharon responded to Peres:

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it."

As of September 17, 2004:

Around 75,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the US war and occupation of IRAQ

More than 3000 Palestinians (mostly women and children) have been murdered by the terrorist Israeli Amry.

More than 1500 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel

Israel is receiving more than $5 billion of American Tax Payer aid every year.

The Muslims in Their Mutual Love...

The Muslims in their mutual love, kindness and compassion, are like the human body where when of its parts is in agony the entire body feels the pain both in sleeplessness and fever. [Bukhari & Muslim]

"There is only one necessity: the truth.

Thus there is only one force: the law."

Victor Hugo

Wife and Children Injured at Home From Bombing

Iraqi police look through the shattered window
of a car demolished by a bomb in eastern Baghdad
on Friday, may 19. The bombing took place outside
the house of an Iraqi police officer; the officer was
not at home at the time, but his wife and children
were injured when the explosion set the house ablaze.

Rumsfeld to tell Asian nations: don't leave US out

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a news
conference at the Asia Security Summit in Singapore,
June 2, 2006. (Tim Chong/Reuters)

By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent

Jun 2, 2006

Yahoo News

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will urge Asian nations at a security meeting in Singapore to resist attempts to exclude the United States from regional groupings.

As the U.S. defense chief arrived in the city-state on Friday for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, an aide said Rumsfeld would laud the inclusiveness of the forum in a region that has seen moves over the past year to leave Washington out in the cold.

"There are some efforts and systems that leave us out, and we obviously favor institutions that are inclusive rather than exclusive," said a senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Rumsfeld later told reporters that the "United States is very much a Pacific nation" and that he would meet as many as nine Asian defense chiefs in bilateral talks at the forum and would then travel to Vietnam and Indonesia.

Washington was uncomfortable with moves last year that pointedly excluded the Americans, including the holding of an East Asia Summit of leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with China, Japan and South Korea.

We were a little bit nervous, but a lot of other countries were nervous about it, as well -- friends of ours," the official said of the December summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

But he added: "The event came and went without doing great harm."

U.S. hackles were also raised when the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which also includes Russia and Central Asian states, lobbied to push U.S. forces out of Afghanistan and Central Asia.

"The Russians and Chinese seem to be putting pressure on these guys, and that's something we're concerned about," the official said, referring to Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian states where the U.S. military has bases or access to facilities.

ASIA'S STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

The Chinese and Russians also did not invite U.S. observers to watch large joint war games held in China last summer.

Rumsfeld's address to the weekend forum sponsored by London's International Institute of Strategic Studies "makes a positive point about inclusiveness and it doesn't criticize anybody," the official said.

"We're not beating people over the head on this," he said.

At the same forum last year, Rumsfeld pointedly raised concerns about China's rapidly growing military spending, drawing an angry response from Beijing.

He repeated that refrain when he visited China last October and urged his hosts to be more transparent about their arms budget and strategic intentions, themes driven home in major Pentagon policy papers on China in recent years.

The Rumsfeld aide said that this year, however, "We don't expect to be belaboring the military power question."

Pentagon officials will head to Beijing next week for consultative defense talks with the Chinese, one fruit of Rumsfeld's trip last year, he said.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said Rumsfeld's third appearance at the Shangri-La forum underscored the strategic importance of Asia and close U.S. bilateral ties with countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam.

The aide said Rumsfeld's message to Asian counterparts would be: "While we're busy in the Middle East, we have not forgotten that there are other strategically important things going on."

The Zionist

The Zionist Allies and Behavior

Education - Knowledge but not Wisdom

Education is a preparation for life but unfortunately today’s education system is designed to equip one with ways and means to ‘survive’ but not to ‘live’.

Present education gives us knowledge but not wisdom. Modern education lays great stress on the sharpening of the mind and can certainly help people to become clever.

Cleverness is not an attribute of the Wise but unfortunately in this materialistic age a clever person alone is regarded as great and accorded much respect. Cleverness would definitely help a person to be shrewd in worldly matters and achieve great success in this world. However, this is no blessing. A clever person is restless, does not enjoy peace and often goes through mental conflicts. He is a slave of his nafs (ego), which casts a veil over his eyes.

A true education system is one that teaches you about living along with techniques for survival. The word education means to draw that is already there within us like limitless joy, love, bliss, happiness, contentment etc. One should be equipped to deal with one’s fear, conflict, tension, stress jealousy and hurt.

Islam has a best holistic education system offered by the Creator from taking the humanity out from darkness to light and to lift the veil of ignorance.

Every individual and the families are going through lots of pain. The present married couples prefer to have pets as companions than to have children. One of the parents on the wedding of his daughter on offering congratulations, he remarks ‘one headache is over’. Today parents feel immense pressure from their siblings. Tense, fear and worries have gripped every one and this has led to lots of internal diseases like BP, HP, diabetics, gastric, heart ailments etc. all are self caused.

The Prophet (Pbuh) was sent as a Mercy for mankind and he was sent to perfect the characters of human beings. Allah says in the Qur’an that He sent the Prophet to purify, to teach and show wisdom.

We as the torch bearers of Peace for humanity has to shun our mental block and present Islam as a way of life to peace and spiritual success in both the worlds.

Today Islam has turned into ritualistic religion only performing certain rituals to possess Paradise after death. In nowhere we could smell and see application of Islam in our day-to-day life. If Islam was alive in the hearts of Muslims, its for sure, success will be under their feet, this is the promise Allah makes and Allah promises truth.

Let us awake! Allah will question us, as a witness over mankind for not taking on responsibility in fulfilling the covenant of Allah.

America Sinks To All Time Low

Dixie Chicks are No. 1


John Nichols

Jun 1, 2006

The Nation -- Cultural conservatives, who have been busy of late trying to claim that the rebellious songs of The Who are other rock groups are really right-wing anthems, have misread America's tastes in a major way when it comes to the Dixie Chicks.

Conservative politicians, pundits and political writers -- from Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston to Media Research Council president L. Brent Bozell and bloggers by the dozen -- couldn't wait to trash Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison for releasing a new album that refused to make nice with President Bush and the thought police who screech "shut up and sing" every time a musician expresses an opinion.

The Dixie Chicks have for the past three years taken more hits than any other musicians because, ten days before Bush ordered the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Maines told a cheering crowd at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire theater: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

For the "crime" of prematurely voicing a sentiment that is now close to universal in the US--with more than two-thirds of Americans expressing disapproval of Bush--the Dixie Chicks were hit with a full-frontal assault by right-wing media. Talk radio and television labeled them the Ditzy Chicks and their popular songs suddenly were yanked from country-music playlists. Boycotts were announced.

The word "traitor" was tossed around as if Maines and her mates had been conspiring with Osama bin Laden -- as opposed to expressing appropriate concern about a president who was about to take actions that would significantly increase the appeal of al-Qaeda internationally. Bush even weighed in, declaring that, "I ... don't really care what the Dixie Chicks said." That was mild compared with the nightly blisterings from Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

It was clear that a neoconservative blood oath had been sworn against the most successful female group not just in the history of country music, but of all musical genres--having sold more than 30 million albums and CDs prior at the time the assault began.

Conservatives may not keep all their promises, but they kept this one. With the approach of the late May release date for Taking The Long Way, the group's first album since Maines spoke up in London, the trashing began. At an Academy of Country Music awards ceremony in March, singer Reba McEntire read a scripted line about how she could host the event because, "[If] the Dixie Chicks can sing with their foot in their mouth, then I can do anything!" Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of the right-wing ranters picked up the chorus and, by the time of the CDs finally hit the stores the official line was that the Chicks were finished as major stars. Country fans would abandon them. Country radio would not play unapologetic tracks such as the single "Not Ready to Make Nice." Congressman Kingston --who, it should be said, maintains the most entertaining offical blog of anyone in Washington--used his "Jack's Blog" to muse that Maines and her compatriots made a big mistake when they started talking politics.

Er, maybe not...

Taking the Long Way has shot to Number 1 on Billboard's country music chart and the overall Billboard 200 chart. In its first full week of availability, the latest release from the Dixie Chicks sold 526, 000 units. That's a way better entry into the charts than the latest release from Toby Keith, the country star who has been lionized by conservatives for his bombastic songs and his rhetoric cheapshots at the Chicks. Keith's White Trash With Money mustered sales of 330,000 in its first week.

Indeed, Taking the Long Way had the second-best first-week sales of any album on the country charts this year.

In the autobiographical single that references the controversy, "Not Ready to Make Nice," Maines in unapologetic. "I'm not ready to make nice," she sings. "I'm not ready to back down."
The Dixie Chicks answer the cultural conservatives on "Not Ready to Make Nice," when Maines sings that she: "Can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should." America is echoing that sentiment, rejecting the right's "shut-up-and-sing" assault with a warm embrace of an album that has them singing and speaking up.

Islamophobia Hampers U.S. Travel

Terror Fears Hamper U.S. Muslims' Travel


"If I was a crazy Muslim fundamentalist, this is not the disguise I would go with," says Azhar Usman, who performed recently in Carrollton, Tex. But what is funny on stage hurts the comedian in real life.

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
June 1, 2006

The new York Times


SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 — Azhar Usman, a burly American-born Muslim with a heavy black beard, says he elicits an almost universal reaction when he boards an airplane at any United States airport: conversations stop in midsentence and the look in the eyes of his fellow passengers says, "We're all going to die!"

For Ahmed Ahmed, a comedian, it is even worse. His double-barreled name matches an occasional alias used by a henchman of Osama bin Laden. "It's a bad time to be named Ahmed right now," he riffs in his stand-up routine, before describing being hauled through the Las Vegas airport in handcuffs.

Taleb Salhab and his wife say they too were dragged away in handcuffs at the border crossing in Port Huron, Mich., as their two preschool daughters wailed in the back seat of their car. The Salhabs were discharged after four hours of questioning, with no explanation from customs officers.

Getting through United States airports and border crossings has grown more difficult for everyone since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. But Muslim Americans say they are having a harder time than most, sometimes facing an intimidating maze of barriers, if not outright discrimination. Advocacy groups have taken to labeling their predicament "traveling while Muslim," and accuse the government of ignoring a serious erosion of civil rights. Next month, the American Civil Liberties Union will go back to court to broaden a suit on behalf of Muslims and Arab-Americans who are demanding the United States government come up with a better system for screening travelers.

The delays, humiliation and periodic roughing up have prompted some American Muslims to avoid traveling as much as possible. Some even skip meeting anyone at the airport for fear of a nasty encounter with a law-enforcement officer. Those who do venture forth say they are always nervous.

"I find myself enunciating English like never before, totally over-enunciating just because I want the guy to know that I am an American," says Maz Jobrani, an Iranian-born, Berkeley-educated actor. "Middle Easterners are just as scared of Al Qaeda as everybody else, but we also have to be worried about being profiled as Al Qaeda. It's a double whammy."

Many Muslim Americans fault the Department of Homeland Security and its various agencies, chiefly the Transportation Security Administration, as failing to develop an efficient system to screen travelers. In particular, they deplore the lack of a workable means for those on the federal watch list by mistake — or those whose names match that of someone on the list — to get themselves off.

Mr. Salhab, 36, says his family remains shaken by their treatment at the border. Officers, their hands on their guns, swarmed around his vehicle, barking at him to get out as alarm bells clanged, he said.

"If I had sneezed or looked the wrong way, who knows what would have happened," Mr. Salhab said in a telephone interview. "I feared for my life."

Now, he said, every time his daughter, 4, sees uniformed officers, she asks if they are going to take him away.

"What happened to me at the border is inexcusable," Mr. Salhab said.

A complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security in January got Mr. Salhab a form letter saying the government was looking into the situation. There has been no further response.

A number of American Muslims similarly upset by how federal agents treated them and their families are seeking relief through the courts. About eight men with Muslim or Arab roots are joining a suit already filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union branch in Illinois demanding that the government improve its treatment of returning American citizens.

But similar suits have made little headway. In general, the Constitution protects all Americans against unreasonable search and seizure. But much more aggressive searches have been deemed reasonable at airports and at the border than elsewhere. Just how elastic that standard can be is what the lawsuits are addressing.

The Department of Homeland Security denies engaging in racial profiling. Agents should not base their decisions on a face or a name, said Dan Sutherland, head of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. "They should look at behavior, concrete action, observable activities," he said.

Mr. Sutherland said the department was aware of some problems with the watch list, but he argued that many Muslim Americans traveled without encountering difficulties.
Still, traveling makes many Muslim Americans feel like second-class citizens. Mr. Ahmed, the comedian, often travels wearing a T-shirt that says "Got rights?"

"That's the whole question of my existence right now," he said. "Do we have rights? I'm a taxpayer and I'm an American, and I want to be treated like one." Read more...

Islam is a Code of Life

1. Spiritual LifeIslamic prescription:

Prayer, fasting, charity giving, pilgrimage, love for God and His Messenger, love for truth and humanity for the sake of God, hope and trust in God at all times and doing good for the sake of God.

2. Intellectual LifeIslamic prescription:

True knowledge based on clear proofs and indisputable evidence acquired by experience or experiment or by both. The Quran points to the rich sources of knowledge in the whole universe.Islam demands faith in God on the basis of knowledge and research and leaves wide open all fields of thought before the intellect to penetrate as far as it can reach.

3. Personal LifeIslamic prescription:

Purity and cleanliness, a healthy diet, proper clothing, proper behavior and good healthy sexual relations within marriage.

4. Family LifeIslamic prescription:

A family is a human social group whose members are bound together by the bond of blood ties and/or marital relationship and nothing else (adoption, mutual alliance, common law, trial marriage. . . . etc.)Marriage is a religious duty on all who are capable of meetings its responsibilities. Each member of the family has rights and obligations.

5. Social LifeIslamic prescription:

Man is ordained by God to extend his utmost help and kindness to other family members, relations, servants and neighbors. No superiority on account of class, color, origin or wealth.Humanity represents one family springing from one and the same father and mother. The unity of humanity is not only in its origin but also in its ultimate aims.

6. Economical LifeIslamic prescription:

Earning one's living through decent labor is not only a duty, but a great virtue as well. Earning is man's private possession. The individual is responsible for the prosperity of the state and the state is responsible for the security of the individual.The Islamic economic system is not based on arithmetical calculations alone but also on morals and principles.Man comes into this world empty-handed and departs empty-handed. The real owner of things is God alone. Man is simply a trustee.

7. Political LifeIslamic prescription:

The sovereignty in the Islamic State belongs to God; the people exercise it by trust from Him to enforce His laws.The ruler is only an acting executive chosen by the people to serve them according to God's law. The State is to administer justice and provide security for all citizens.Rulers and administrators must be chosen from the best qualified citizens. If an administration betrays the trust of God and the people, it has to be replaced.Non Muslims can administer their personal life of marriage, divorce, foods and inheritance according to the Islamic law or to their own religious teachings.They may pay Zakah (Islamic tax) or a different tax "Tributes" "Jizyah". They are entitled to full protection and security of the state including freedom of religion.

8. International LifeIslamic prescription:

Man has a common origin, human status and aim. Other people's interests and rights to life, honor and property are respected as long as the rights of Muslims are intact. Transgression is forbidden.War is only justified if the state security is endangered. During war destruction of crops, animals and homes, killing non-fighting women, children, and aged people are forbidden.

Summary:

Islam is a total submission to God and His laws.

Another Demolished Home by the Israeli's

Palestinians carry belongings after their house was demolished by
Israeli occupation authorities near the West Bank city of Hebron May 31, 2006. According to the Israeli authorities, the house was
demolished due to lack of permits.

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike protesting arbitrary punishments

Jun 1, 2006


Ramallah - Palestinian prisoners in Hawara jail, south of Nablus city, began on Wednesday an open ended hunger strike protesting the Israeli prisons authority's oppressive treatment of prisoners.

The Palestinian prisoner support society said that the strike followed the IPA's ban on a number of prisoners from getting outside their cells for the daily stroll at the pretext they brought food into their cells, which is prohibited.

It called on all human rights institutions to visit the prisoners in Israeli jails to intervene to end all forms of torture.

In the same context, an Israeli judge told Sheikh Saleh Al-Aruri, who has been under detention for 14 years, that he "should thank Israel for keeping him in jail or else his place would have been in the graveyard".

The judge turned down an appeal by the support society to release Aruri, 40, claiming that secret evidence against him necessitated his incarceration and he should serve till end of his current detention on 24/7/2006.

The judge said that evidence, which was never revealed, indicated that Aruri was one of the planners of Hamas military wing's armed operations.

Aruri was arrested in October 1992 and was sentenced to five years behind bars then served a year under security detention before serving another five years then was held under administrative detention, without trial or charge since then.

INNOCENT PALESTINIAN CIVILIAN

Saturday June 07, 2003

We will Return

Abu Salma was born in 1907 in Haifa. He studied law and worked in Haifa until April 1948 when Israelis occupied the city. He then moved to Akka. Shortly he left Akka to Damascus. Abu Salma kept the keys to his house and office in Haifa hoping to return. He was a friend Ibrahim Tukan. Their love of poetry and Palestine built their friendship. Abu Salma wrote about his love and yearning to Palestine. He was awarded The Lotas International Reward for Literature in 1978 by The Association of Asian and African Writers. He was also given the title The Olive of Palestine. Abu Salma died in 1980.

Abdelkarim al-Karmi(Abu Salama)-1951

Beloved Palestine, how do I sleep
While the spectrum of torture is in my eyes
I purify the world with your name
And if your love did not tire me out,
I would've kept my feelings a secret
The caravans of days pass and talk about
The conspiracy of enemies and friends
Beloved Palestine! How do I live
Away from your plains and mounds?
The feet of mountains that are dyed with blood
Are calling meAnd on the horizon appears the dye
The weeping shores are calling me
And my weeping echoes in the ears of time
The escaping streams are calling me
They are becoming foreign in their land
Your orphan cities are calling meAnd your villages and domes
My friends ask me, "Will we meet again?"
"Will we return?"
Yes! We will kiss the bedewed soil
And the red desires are on our lips
Tomorrow, we will returnAnd the generations will hear
The sound of our footsteps
We will return along with the storms
Along with the lightening and meteors
Along with the hope and songs
Along with the flying eagle
Along with the dawn that smiles to the deserts
Along with the morning on the waves of the sea
Along with the bleeding flags
And along with the shining swords and spears

Latin America - The Path Away from U.S. Domination

30 May 2006,

Opinion: Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Council On Hemispheric Affairs
MONITORING POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC ISSUES AFFECTING THE
WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Tuesday, May 30, 2006

An Opinion Piece by COHA Director Larry Birns:

Washington rumbles with suppressed outrage over Latin America’s latest demonstrations of its sovereignty - Bolivia’s nationalization of its oil and natural gas reserves. At the same time, newly inaugurated president Evo Morales is a prime candidate to join Washington’s pantheon of Latin American bad boys, presently dominated by Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. Meanwhile, the region’s new populist leadership, also known as the “Pink Tide,” extends its colors across South America ready to leap to much of the rest of Latin America. The “pink tide,” consists of left-leaning South American governments seeking a third way to register their political legitimation to their citizens as well as to register their autonomy regarding such foreign policy issues as Iraq.

Meanwhile, Washington’s lame regional policy has spurred disbelief even among the hemisphere’s most ardent pro-U.S. governments. Some specialists maintain that while the region’s oncoming economic enfranchisement can be understood from a number of perspectives, perhaps the most forthcoming analysis places the roots of the new movement in the bedding soil of an egregiously failed Washington regional policy.

Throughout the Cold War’s gestation, Democratic as well as Republican presidents have not hesitated to call for U.S. intervention in Latin America however persistently malignant these events have turned out to be, ranging from coup-making in Guatemala and Chile, to the fostering of civil wars in Central America, most of these intrusions later proved to be irrelevant, or at least insufficient to protect genuine, even narrowly defined, U.S national interests. Most of all, they proved to be counter-productive or destructive. As a result, much of the region has become estranged from Washington’s leadership, a legacy now apparent in the difficulties currently being encountered by U.S. policymakers. No wonder that in polls undertaken throughout Latin America regarding the Iraq war, and in the strategy of the Bush administration, an average of 85% of respondents have said no to U.S. initiatives. Read more...

The Land of Crazy

The shame Of Kilo Company


An Iraqi journalism student took this
image of what appears to be a
morgue after the killings in Haditha.

By MICHAEL DUFFY

May 31, 2006

CNN

The outfit known as Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, wasn't new to Iraq last year when it moved into Haditha, a Euphrates River farming town about 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. Several members of the unit were on their second tour of Iraq; one was on his third. The men in Kilo Company were veterans of ferocious house-to-house fighting in Fallujah. Their combat experience seemed to prepare them for the ordeal of serving in an insurgent stronghold like Haditha, the kind of place where the enemy attacks U.S. troops from the cover of mosques, schools and homes and uses civilians as shields, complicating Marine engagement rules to shoot only when threatened. In Haditha, says a Marine who has been there twice, "you can't tell a bad guy until he shoots you."

But one morning last November, some members of Kilo Company apparently didn't attempt to distinguish between enemies and innocents. Instead, they seem to have gone on the worst rampage by U.S. service members in the Iraq war, killing as many as 24 civilians in cold blood. The details of what happened in Haditha were first disclosed in March by TIME's Tim McGirk and Aparisim Ghosh, and their reporting prompted the military to launch an inquiry into the civilian deaths. The darkest suspicions about the killings were confirmed last week, when members of Congress who were briefed on the two ongoing military investigations disclosed that at least some members of a Marine unit may soon be charged in connection with the deaths of the Iraqis -- and that the charges may include murder, which carries the death penalty. "This was a small number of Marines who fired directly on civilians and killed them," said Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican and former Marine who was briefed two weeks ago by Marine Corps officials. "This is going to be an ugly story."

With the U.S. struggling to hold on to public support for the war and no end to the insurgency in sight, the prospect of possible indictments has induced an aching dread among military and government officials. As the military launched another probe -- into the April 26 killing of an Iraqi civilian by Marines--General Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, headed to Iraq to address Marines on the growing crisis. Marine Corps public-affairs director Brigadier General Mary Ann Krusa-Dossin says the allegations "have caused serious concern at the highest levels" of the corps.

A military source in Iraq told TIME that investigators have obtained two sets of photos from Haditha. The first is after-action photos taken by the military as part of the routine procedure that follows any such event. Submitted in the official report on the fighting, the photos do not show any bodies. Investigators have also discovered a second, more damning set of photos, taken by Marines of the Kilo Company immediately after the shootings. The source says it isn't clear if these photos were held back from the after-action report or were personal snapshots taken by the Marines. The source says a Marine e-mailed at least one photo to a friend in the U.S.

Almost as damaging as the alleged massacre may be evidence that the unit's members and their superiors conspired to cover it up. "There's no doubt that the Marines allegedly involved in doing this--they lied about it," says Kline. "They certainly tried to cover it up." Three Marine officers, including the company commander and battalion commander, have been relieved of duty in part for actions related to the deaths in Haditha. A lawmaker who has been briefed on the matter says the investigations may implicate other senior officers.

In hindsight, it seems remarkable that the Marines were able to conceal such a horrific event for so long. It began, as so many things in Iraq do, with an explosion. At about 7:15 in the morning on Nov. 19, a string of four humvees were on routine patrol in a residential area when a white taxicab approached from the opposite end of the street. The Marines made hand and arm signals for the taxi to stop. But as the taxi halted near the first humvee, a bomb under the fourth humvee exploded, killing its driver -- Lance Corporal Miguel (T.J.) Terrazas, 20, of El Paso, Texas -- wounding two of his comrades and shattering windows 150 yards away. Marines said the convoy almost immediately began to take fire from several houses on either side of the road. Locals dispute that, claiming the only firing after the explosion was done by the Marines. Suspecting that the four students in the taxi either triggered the bomb or were acting as spotters, the Marines ordered the men and the driver, who by then had exited the taxi, to lie on the ground. Instead, they ran, and the Marines shot and killed them.

The military's initial report stated that Terrazas and 15 civilians were killed in a roadside blast and that shortly afterward, the Marines came under attack and returned fire, killing eight insurgents. But as TIME reported in March on the basis of interviews with 28 individuals, including military officials, the families of the victims, human-rights investigators and local doctors, much of that account is dubious. Members of Congress, as well as military sources, have confirmed the critical details of TIME's initial report--that after gunning down the five fleeing the taxi, a few members of Kilo Company moved through four homes along nearby streets, killing 19 men, women and children. The Marines contend they took small-arms fire from at least one house, but as TIME's story detailed in March, only one of the 19 victims was found with a weapon.

The day after the killings, an Iraqi journalism student videotaped the scene at a local morgue and the homes where the shootings had occurred. "You could tell they were enraged," the student, Taher Thabet, said last week. "They not only killed people, they smashed furniture, tore down wall hangings, and when they took prisoners, they treated them very roughly. This was not a precise military operation." A delegation of angry village elders complained to senior Marines in Haditha about the killings but were rebuffed with the excuse that the raid had been a mistake. TIME learned about the Haditha action in January, when it obtained a copy of Thabet's videotape from an Iraqi human-rights group. But a Marine spokesman brushed off any inquiries. "To be honest," Marine Captain Jeff Pool e-mailed McGirk, "I cannot believe you're buying any of this. This falls into the same category of AQI (al-Qaeda in Iraq) propaganda." In late January, TIME gave a copy of the videotape to Colonel Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. After reviewing it, he recommended a formal investigation. The ensuing probe, conducted by a colonel, concluded that Marines, not a bomb, killed the civilians but that the deaths were the result of "collateral damage," not deliberate homicide. Nevertheless, after reviewing the initial probe, senior military officials launched a criminal investigation.

A military source in Iraq says the men of Kilo Company stuck by their story throughout the initial inquiry, but what they told the first military investigator raised suspicions. One of the most glaring discrepancies involved the shooting of the four students and the taxi driver. "They had no weapons, they didn't show hostile intent, so why shoot them?" the military source says. Khaled Raseef, a spokesman for the victims' relatives, says U.S. military investigators visited the alleged massacre sites 15 times and "asked detailed questions, examined each bullet hole and burn mark and took all sorts of measurements. In the end, they brought all the survivors to the homes and did a mock-up of the Marines' movements." As the detectives found contradictions in the Marines' account, "the official story fell apart and people started rolling on each other," says the military source.

Military sources told TIME that the first probe is focusing on the unit's leader, who was at the scene of virtually every shooting that day in Haditha. Pentagon officials say the sergeant has served more than seven years in the corps and was on his first Iraq tour. At least two other enlisted men may be directly involved, Pentagon officials say, and perhaps as many as nine others in the 13-man unit witnessed the shootings but neither attempted to step in nor reported them later.

Among the mysteries still unsolved is what caused such a catastrophic collapse in the Marines' discipline. U.S. troops are trained to make the deliberate distinction between friend and foe and are aware that the enemy has completely mixed into the civilian population. Marine Sergeant Eddie Wright, who lost both hands in a rocket-propelled-grenade attack in Fallujah two years ago, said it's natural "to want to kill the guys who killed your buddy." But, he adds, "you don't lash out at innocent people."

So why did some men in Kilo Company apparently snap? Perhaps because of the stress of fighting a violent and unpopular war -- or because their commanders failed them. Military psychiatrists who have studied what makes a soldier's moral compass go haywire in battle look first for a weak chain of command. That was a factor in the March 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, when U.S. soldiers, including members of an Army platoon led by Lieut. William Calley, killed some 500 Vietnamese. Says a retired Army Green Beret colonel who fought in Vietnam: "Somebody has failed to say, 'No, that's not right.'" No one, apparently, was delivering that message last November in Haditha.

Editorial:

The Land of Crazy

by Housewife4Palestine

“The men in Kilo Company were veterans of ferocious house-to-house fighting in Fallujah.” It is a little ironic that this same Kilo company was in Fallujah because many civilians in Iraq considered what happened their as a massacre. So these same men having done two and three tours in Iraq then out pop’s like a Jack in the Box a massacre in Haditha, should the people be surprised; to be honest no is my opinion on this.

From the beginning of the invasion was skeptical of America even going into Iraq and their reasoning was so flawed that anyone believing the reason for the invasion without complete information or what I could see as serious propaganda red tape made not only the situation in Iraq a major vision of pure insanity anymore then people in America who believe lies then have attacked and murdered Muslims in their American streets. And believe this is still going on and what I can see is progressively getting worse, is anyone safe any more?

Then Mr. Bush sitting on the fence from what I can see towards bring the invading American troop’s home just shows that The Commander and Chief condones actually the murders going on by his military. From what I have seen from the inception of this military strike has been nothing but civilian deaths one after another day after day. And anyone hollering that everything is the insurgency’s fault has to rethink the situation because the resistance known to the American’s as the insurgency is nothing but armed men fighting an invading threat to their country.

I seen a video not long ago made by the American’s showing Iraqi men fighting the American’s and it was misunderstood why some of these men tried not to think about their wife’s and children at home because it was Shaytaan tempting them, this only goes to show that these men know they have to fight to save their country in their eyes and the same lives of their wives and children. Otherwise, they feel their back has been pushed against a wall. Then, what made it more ironic were the tears in some of the men’s eyes as they thought of their loved ones who they may never see again only because their lives and the lives of anyone in their country was more important. When is all the madness going to stop?

Proud to be Aussie

"Hello, is this the police?"

"Yes it is. How can we help you?"

"I'm calling to report about my neighbour, Wazza. He's hiding cocaine inside his firewood!"

"Thank you very much for the call."

The next day, police officers descend on Wazza's house in great numbers. They search the house and then go out to the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of firewood but they find no cocaine.

They swear at Wazza and leave.The phone rings at Wazza's house.

"Hey, Wazz. Did the cops come?"

"Yeah!"

"Did they chop up your firewood?"

"Yep."

"Happy Birthday, maaaaaaaaaate!"

What Have We forgotten?

Iraq Invasion Checklist

If someone wants to know what position he enjoys in the eyes of God, he has only to look at what place he gives to God in his heart and life. [Hakim]

Praying for the Peace of Iraq

Allah-Hu-Akbar!!

by Ammar Hammad

Allah hu akbar we scream,
Your occupation will soon be just a dream,
You think your bullets can give us serious pain,
Well if u do than think again,
Because the soldiers of allah are hear,
and in their hearts lies no fear,
your people people will soon suffer as well,
but much worse than we have because you're destiny iz hell,
we shall watch as your people take their last breath,
while our soldiers die a shaheeds death,
Sharon, what does it take for it to get through to your head,
our soldiers would prefer to be dead,
because when we blow ourselves up your people shall also
bleed,
but our people shall die the deaths of shaheeds,
ooh sharon if u only knew,
what were gonna do once we get our hands on u,
our weapon is much greater than guns and knives,
it iz people not scared to loose their lives.

"Her Brains Splattering on His Boots"

Susie Briones holds a picture of her son Lance
Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones, 21, on Monday,May 29, 2006
at her home in Hanford, Calif. Her son was one of two
Marines asked to photograph the corpses of men, women
and children after members of their unit allegedly killed
at least a dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians. The family claims
Briones was severely traumatized after the incident.
(AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)


An account from Haditha by a Marine photographer who is the first to speak out (and whose gory photographs were confiscated by the Marines):

Briones said he took pictures of at least 15 bodies before his camera batteries died. He said he then helped other Marines remove the bodies and place them in body bags. He said his worst moment, and one that haunts him to this day, was picking up the body of a young girl who was shot in the head.

"I held her out like this," he said, demonstrating with his arms extended, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

As he spoke, his mother, Susie Briones, 40, a Hanford community college teacher, who was sitting beside him at the kitchen table, silently wiped away tears.

Earlier she confided to a reporter that her son called frequently from Iraq after he experienced nightmares over the little girl.

"He called me many times," she said, "about carrying this little girl in his hands and her brains splattering on his boots. He'd say, 'Mom, I can't clean my boots. I can't clean my boots. I see her.' "

[Story link]

UK charity denies Israel claims

Ayaz Ali said there was no truth
to the allegations against him

A UK charity has denied any links to a Palestinian militant group after one of its workers was expelled from Israel.

31 May 2006

BBC News

Ayaz Ali, 36, from Birmingham-based Islamic Relief Worldwide, was held for three weeks in an Israeli prison before he was deported indefinitely.

Israel said Islamic Relief supported the Hamas infrastructure and Mr Ali had provided it with funds and assistance.

The charity said there was no evidence and it would make representations to Israel to refute the claims.

Hamas is the controversial ruling Palestinian party and is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the European Union.

But it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from military occupation.

In a statement, Islamic Relief said: "The allegations against Islamic Relief and Ayaz Ali are entirely unfounded."

The charity said Mr Ali had been a programme manager for its humanitarian projects in Gaza since December 2005.

A statement said: "His work is solely humanitarian and neither he nor Islamic Relief is involved in any political or politically-motivated activities in the Palestinian Territories."

A UK Foreign Office spokeswoman said Mr Ali had signed a bond undertaking not to return to Gaza or the West Bank when he was freed by a judge on Monday.

Mr Ali, who is originally from Bradford, returned to the UK on Tuesday.

He said "There is not a grain of truth in anything that Islamic Relief or I have been accused of by the Israeli authorities."

Islamic Relief president Dr Hany El Banna, OBE, said: "Any aid agency working in the region, particularly one with 'Islamic' in its title, undergoes regular scrutiny.

"We have been accused and cleared every time and will continue to do our duty to humanity."

Gaza rocket strikes near Israel minister's house

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz (R)
reviews an honour guard during a visit to
a military base in northern Israel May
30, 2006. Three rockets fired from the Gaza
Strip hit Israel on Wednesday, one striking
a house near that of Peretz, Israeli radio
and a witness said. (Haim Azoulay/Reuters)

May 31, 2006

Yahoo News

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Three rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit Israel on Wednesday, one striking a house near that of Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Israeli radio and a witness said.

The Israeli army confirmed two rockets had struck a home in Peretz's hometown of Sderot and another landed in a nearby township. There were no reported casualties.

An Israeli man from Sderot whose house was hit by a rocket told Army Radio he lived about 100 meters (yards) from Peretz.

The barrage came a day after Israeli soldiers shot dead three militants preparing to fire rockets in the Israeli army's first ground raid into Gaza since a pullout last year.

A Palestinian policeman was also killed by the troops in the Israeli raid marking a new military response to frequent cross-border rocket barrages.

Israel's Haaretz daily newspaper reported the military planned to increase its ground action in Gaza to prevent rockets being fired at Israel.

Society

The Cave of Hira

by Housewife4Palestine

Society-
Drops a pebble into a pool,
It Ripples
Then Glides away
Without response.

Society-
Who forgets God?
Wallows in their own stagnation
Cries in despair
And then all is lost.

U.S. troops kill pregnant woman in Iraq

A young boy riding a bicycle looks across at a newly-erected warning sign put up Wednesday, May 31, 2006 on a road around 100 metres from the maternity hospital which Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, a pregnant woman and her 57-year-old cousin Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were driving to for Jassim to give birth when they were killed in Samarra, Iraq Tuesday, May 30, 2006. U.S. forces apparently shot to death two Iraqi women, one of them pregnant, when they fired at a vehicle that failed to stop at an observation post in the town, Iraqi officials and relatives said. (AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed)

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer

May 31, 2006

Yahoo News

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday. Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, 35, was being raced to the maternity hospital in Samarra by her brother when the shooting occurred Tuesday.

Jassim, the mother of two children, and her 57-year-old cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassan, were killed by the U.S. forces, according to police Capt. Laith Mohammed and witnesses.

The U.S. military said coalition troops fired at a car after it entered a clearly marked prohibited area near an observation post but failed to stop despite repeated visual and auditory warnings.

"Shots were fired to disable the vehicle," the military said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant."

Jassim's brother, who was wounded by broken glass, said he did not see any warnings as he sped his sister to the hospital. Her husband was waiting for her there.

"I was driving my car at full speed because I did not see any sign or warning from the Americans. It was not until they shot the two bullets that killed my sister and cousin that I stopped," he said. "God take revenge on the Americans and those who brought them here. They have no regard for our lives."

He said doctors tried but failed to save the baby after his sister was brought to the hospital.
The shooting deaths occurred in the wake of an investigation into allegations that U.S. Marines killed unarmed civilians in the western city of Haditha.

The U.S. military said the incident in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, was being investigated. The city is in the heart of the so-called Sunni Triangle and has in the past seen heavy insurgent activity.

"The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them," the military said.

The women's bodies were wrapped in sheets and lying on stretchers outside the Samarra General Hospital before being taken to the morgue, while residents pointed to bullet holes on the windshield of a car and a pool of blood on the seat.

Khalid Nisaif Jassim, the pregnant woman's brother, said American forces had blocked off the side road only two weeks ago and news about the observation post had been slow to filter out to rural areas.

He said the killings, like those in Haditha, were examples of random killings faced by Iraqis every day.

The killings at Haditha, a city that has been plagued by insurgents, came after a bomb rocked a military convoy on Nov. 19, killing a Marine. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a decorated war veteran who has been briefed by military officials, has said Marines shot and killed unarmed civilians in a taxi at the scene and went into two homes and shot others.

Military investigators have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines, a senior defense official said last week.

In his first public comments on the incident, President Bush said he was troubled by the allegations, and that, "If in fact laws were broken, there will be punishment."

Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi told the BBC that the allegations have "created a feeling of great shock and sadness and I believe that if what is alleged is true — and I have no reason to believe it's not — then I think something very drastic has to be done."

"There must be a level of discipline imposed on the American troops and change of mentality which seems to think that Iraqi lives are expendable," said Pachachi, a member of parliament.

If confirmed as unjustified killings, the episode could be the most serious case of criminal misconduct by U.S. troops during three years of combat in Iraq. Until now the most infamous occurrence was the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse involving Army soldiers, which came to light in April 2004 and which Bush said he considered to be the worst U.S. mistake of the entire war.

Once the military investigation is completed, perhaps in June, it will be up to a senior Marine commander in Iraq to decide whether to press charges of murder or other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The incident has sparked two investigations — one into the deadly encounter itself and another into whether it was the subject of a cover-up. The Marine Corps had initially attributed 15 civilian deaths to the car bombing and a firefight with insurgents, eight of whom the Marines reported had been killed.

"People in Samarra are very angry with the Americans not only because of Haditha case but because the Americans kill people randomly specially recently," Khalid Nisaif Jassim said.

America Threatens Iran

US makes major shift on Iran




Video

May 31 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised Iran greater economic cooperation if it abandoned its nuclear weapons plans and said Tehran had the right to civilian nuclear power.

Rice, announcing that the United States would be prepared to hold talks with Iran if it verifiably suspended its nuclear enrichment and reprocessing activities, said an Iran possessing nuclear weapons would put U.S. and international interests at risk.

The United States has not had formal diplomatic relations with Iran since after the 1979 Islamic revolution when fundamentalist students held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.


Link:

Bush Threatens Iran With U.N. Action

Many killed in Iraq attacks

Video

May 31 - At least 46 Iraqis killed, more than one hundred wounded in spate of attacks across Iraq.

A series of of bombings ripped through Iraq on Tuesday night (May 30), killing at least 46 people and wounding more than one hundred others.

In the deadliest incident, a bomb ripped through a crowded vegetable market in the capital and killed at least 25 people and wounded 65.

The bomb exploded in the northern district of Hussayniya.

"We were standing in the street at night when the blast took place. It is a popular area and the people here are used to gather outside. Some of the people were shopping and children were buying sandwiches and others were queuing for bread and most of them were children.

suddenly the blast occurred and we all run out and rushed to help people who were caught on fire. We put off the people who were on fire and almost of them were children. The situation was very tragic," said Karim Alwan, a resident of the neighbourhood.

In Baghdad, nine people queuing for bread died when a bomb planted in bakery exploded in the eastern New Baghdad district.

"We were queuing for bread and I was standing in the middle when the blast happened and all of us felt down," said Waleed from his hospital bed.

Hours earlier a suicide bomber in a car killed at least 12 people in the Iraqi town of Hilla, police sources said.

They said 36 people were wounded in the attack near a car dealership in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

The mainly Shi'te town has suffered some of the biggest bombings in the Sunni guerrilla campaign to topple the Shi'ite-led government.

On Wednesday morning (May 31) a roadside bomb hit a police vehicle while driving in Baghdad's Yarmouk district, causing no casualties, police said.

Link:

''Iron fist'' but death toll mounts

Note:

It most be noted that before any foreigners invaded the Middle East, you would never see the kind of violence for example that is in this Video.

Unfolding a Rose

A young, new ustadh (teacher) was walking with an older, more seasoned ustadh (teacher) in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what Allah had for him to do, he was asking the older ustadh for some advice. The older ustadh walked up to a rosebush and handed the young ustadh a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young ustadh looked in disbelief at the older ustadh and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of Allah for his life and ministry.

But because of his great respect for the older ustadh, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact... It wasn't long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger ustadh's inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older ustadh began to recite the following poem...

It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of Allah's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.

The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
ALLAH opens this flower so sweetly,
Then in my hands they die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of Allah's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?

So I'll trust in Allah for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to Allah for His guidance
Each step of the way.

The pathway that lies before me,
Only Allah knows.
I'll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.

Guidance of the Day

Dissatisfaction is a motivator to seek out better character. A human being is spiritually stalled as long as he is content and smug with his state. The basis of achieving good is knowing yourself. When this happens, a person becomes aware of his imperfections, minor and major, and ashamed of them to the point he strives to replace them with generosity, agreeableness, honesty, reliability, dignity, and other noble traits.

When the mind is given the responsibility to decide upon right and wrong it will usually base its judgment subjectively: what advances or thwarts one's whims? Our understanding of right and wrong, licit and illicit, needs a judge higher than ourselves and our whims. We are beings who are created and, therefore, have a Creator who brought us into existence for a reason. It is His purpose and guidance that informs our sensitivity and response to right and wrong. [Purification of the heart]

Listen or Search the Whole Quran

Best Downloads

Whole Quran!

Other Languages


Sahih Bukhari (complete collection)

Sahih Muslim (complete collection)

Sunan Abu-Dawud (partial collection)

Malik's Muwatta (complete collection)


Note:
I was sent a very blasphemous comment this morning that not only insulted Islam, but Allah (God) Himself. While who ever this person maybe because they rather hide in the shadows using the handle of Anonymous then face the fact that if they even believed there is a God they insulted not only Him but a large part of the world. They sent something called, “Lost Verses of the Koran” and there is no such thing. So for all those kind people who read my blog page please know, you can now hear the whole Quran and if you look at the bottom links you can search and learn the real whole Quran.

Please anyone whether you are monotheist, please be true to God and follow all that He teaches because you not only are harming yourself but everyone in the world. Myself, I would never wish the harm to another person nor would I insult anything that is dear to anyones heart; please everyone love all humanity.

Please never forget, if you think no one loves you;their is one that does and that is Allah(God)!

Quran Search