Iraqi Orphans Not By Choice

Two Sunni and Shia Muslim orphan boy hugs each other.

An Iraqi Christian Mariam Ammar, 4-years-old, joins other mainly Sunni and Shia Muslim orphans during a gathering between orphans from the Shia Kadhimiyah district on the west bank of the Tigris River and the orphans from the Adhamiyah Sunni district, opposite, on the east side of the river which run through the center of Baghdad on 3 May 2009.

Mariam's parents were killed when she was 7-months-old by a US military operation in her country.

Some 40 orphan boys and girls are also victims of this same type of violence by the Americans. All these children lost their parents in such killings.

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The Value of People and Orphan Care

If one should find an orphan give the child a home and other advantages provided by family life until they grow up, which is a charitable act rewarded by Allah (Hashem);if one is of good character and not take advantage of the child.

As to the child, they should keep their own name and the estate or money that belongs to them should remain with them.

For it is an obligation if one is able to care for the orphan, the widow or the unfortunate; so they may not unduly suffer.

For it should never be forgotten, that people hold great value in this life.-HRM Deborah

The Milk of Human Kindness

Milk of human kindness, is care and compassion for others.
Compassion and care is especially important when you see a person has fallen into troubles and you take out your hand to help them up, help them with the problem in a kind and generous manner. Brush off their clothes and send them on the good path again.

Sometime’s, a simple hug or a kind word when someone is in a time of sorrow or pain can do more good, then anything else and Allah (G-d) is always pleased.

For we should care for all living things upon this earth and relieve all suffering.

Compassion is like a cup filled with love.

Compassion and caring for other’s, makes you feel as though you have wings.

Saving a Child's Heart

Helping us save the world one heart at a time…

A Canaanite mother Houda Siam sits next to her son Abdullah's hospital bed in an intensive care ward shortly after a Jewish medical team repaired a congenital defect in his heart at the Wolfson Medical Center, on 29 January 2009; in Tel Aviv.

The 6-year-old Canaanite boy is the first child from the Gaza area to cross the border to the Jewish hospital for life-saving heart surgery, since 18 January ceasefire was initiated.

Abdullah Siam's open heart surgery is seen on a computer monitor as the Jewish medical team repairs a congenital defect in his heart at the Wolfson Medical Center.
A Jewish medical technician (R) keeps an eye on Abdullah Siam's vital signs as another tends to the heart-and-lung machine keeping the boy alive during his open heart surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center.

Steel sutures are used to close Abdullah Siam's chest after a Jewish medical team repaired a congenital defect in his heart at the Wolfson Medical Center.

Jewish Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Lior Sasson (C) leads his medical team in repairing a congenital defect in Abdullah Siam's heart at the Wolfson Medical Center.

Siam was brought over by the Christian charity Shevet Achim to repair the hole in his heart through Save a Child's Heart (SACH), a Jewish-based international humanitarian project whose mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from not just in Palestine, but developing countries as well; who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries.

Syrian and Palestinian Protestor’s unite Against US Terrorism Attack on Syria

Palestinian men hold their national flag as they walk over a US flag during a sit-in protest at Damascus castle, on 30 October 2008; in reaction to a deadly US raid that targeted a Syrian village near the Iraqi border on October 26.

Thousands of people marched in the streets of Damascus today, waving Syrian flags and banners reading 'No to American terrorism' and 'American democracy' -- the killing of civilians at Abu Kamal,' the area targeted during the raid.

Syrian sits on a statue of Arab and Islamic leader Salah Eddine al-Ayyubi holding Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese flags during the sit-in protest at Damascus castle.

It is a well known fact, that Palestine does not nor will we ever accept terrorism in any manner, shape or form.

Also, the people of Palestine strongly condemn the recent attack on Syria by the US, to further not accept; the loss of life due to this recent attack in the name of democracy or any form of tyranny towards the Middle East.-HRM Deborah

Further Reading:
American people back Iran's right to enrich uranium: Chomsky (Commentary)

Germany Presents Jewish Holocaust-era Directory

23 October 2008
By ARON HELLER

JERUSALEM – The German government on Thursday handed Palestine's national Jewish Holocaust memorial the personal details of 600,000 Jewish residents of Nazi Germany, the most comprehensive record to date of German-Jewish life during the Nazi era.

German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann presented the directory during a ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial, saying that it allowed for the first time to show the Jewish residents of Germany from 1933-1945.

"But this list is much more than a list," Neumann said. "It is a unique document about life in Germany and tells the story of those who could not tell their own story."

Neumann, whose responsibilities include German commemoration of the Holocaust, said he hoped the list would "restore to these victims part of their honor."

The ceremony took place in the Hall of Names, a cone-shaped room whose walls are lined with bookshelves containing folders upon folders of pages of testimonies about the Holocaust victims. Yad Vashem currently has records on 3.3 million of the 6 million who perished and continues to collect archival material from around the world.

The new directory includes the names and addresses of the Jewish residents and classifies them into those who survived, those who perished and those whose fate remains unknown. The list includes details on emigration, detention and deportation, as well as where and when people died.

"This list adds to our understanding of what happened to the Jews in Germany," said Yad Vashem director Avner Shalev. "Every new piece of information allows us to piece together the story of individuals and communities during the Holocaust."

With this latest list, Yad Vashem has essentially completed its database on German Jewry during the Nazi era, Shalev said.

Its focus will now turn to compiling a similar database on the Jews who lived in Poland and eastern Europe, an extremely difficult task because of poor record-keeping, large-scale executions and mass destruction of villages.

"We are nearing the point where we will reach the limit of extracting human memory," Shalev said. "It's a scary point, because beyond it everything will be lost."

It took 20 German scientists four years to compile the directory and cost $2.24 million. It was presented to German Chancellor Angela Merkel a few weeks ago and she instructed Neumann to hand over a digital copy to Yad Vashem.

Around 2.5 million data records were collected from more than 1,000 sources, including Jewish and Nazi archives, according to "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future," the German foundation that produced the directory together with the German federal archives.

Following Yad Vashem, the records will also be made available to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the Jewish Claims Conference and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.

The list is not being made public. It is subject to strict German data protection laws, given that it has names of people who are still alive.

"It is a memorial to those murdered and those forced into exile. The shame for the crimes committed by the Germans is mixed with grief for the loss that Germany inflicted upon itself," said Martin Salm, the chairman of the foundation.

"The murderers wanted to eradicate the Jewish people and Jewish identity. They did not succeed," Salm said.

Commentary:

As to the Jewish Holocaust, it is a hope that all that actually happened will be known one day, because one thing I have personally learned, that sometimes the horror’s that effects a person are hard to explain sometimes because it is to much for them; even though one may try very hard to do so, for it is thought this is a mechanism of how the human body survives events such as this.

This is why in cases like this, documentation or in some case’s archeology; is so important.

Furthermore, it is even a thought of some Jewish Holocaust survivors that I have met and some became friends for a time, relayed things when they spoke and as I have gotten older completely understand.

For example, I will never forget the anguish of my friend Esther when she spoke of herself and the death’s of her whole family nor her tears and even to this day, when I think of what she said, to her tears; I still cry and remember too.

In further thinking of a remark that was said to me yesterday, that some people apparently think the horrors that I have went through in my own life, are reminiscent to this time and even my process of thinking; which personally, I am not sure. But I will not rule out the possibility that this idea may be so, that I am also a 'victim,' which I never liked that word, of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

If this turns out to be true, I will hold my head up with the millions that are here and now being subject to this form of maltreatment, to those who came before me; especially those who did become martyrs, for they did not nor should not fold to these sort of crimes subjected to any part of humanity.

Just think about it?

by HRM Deborah

In these times, the world has the largest population that has ever been seen in history and while some people find it necessary to fight over comforts, what most people are forgetting that people need the basic necessities which usually include food, water, shelter and clothing above anything else; because this is survival of humanity.

With the population situation as it is, people should find the charity within there heart, to help and care for each other; then find ways to create anger, war and mistrust; because emotions such as this, creates a disharmony in the world that no one actually needs, especially, with not just the environmental situation changing rapidly, but every factor upon the earth; at this time.

As to these comfort items, in the direction the world is going, they very well may not be there at all in the future and then what are people going to argue about?

Mankind was met to help each other and create harmony throughout the world, not what we are more seeing today, with the wars, to some people biting at the heels of other’s; because they do not think they are getting the biggest share of the pie.

Furthermore, no one is better then the next person, but one needs to take the initiative to understand this fact and do the right thing towards each other or everyone will eventually be the looser.

Nevertheless, this comes to mind as a good example especially at this time, with the possibility of Hurricane Gustav maybe hitting landfall and the possibility of loosing my home again and to the factor of what it was like being a refugee of sorts when Hurricane Katrina hit and what it came down too was just the basic necessities of survival and with the comforts; what in actuality, if all of a sudden the comforts are all washed away, in a moment.

Just think about it?

Texas boy, 3, dies in mom's overheated truck

Woman said she forgot to drop son at day care before working hospital shift

15 August 2008

HOUSTON - A 3-year-old boy was left in his mother's truck in 90-degree heat as she worked her shift at a hospital, then wriggled free from his car seat and even tried to start the ignition or open the windows before he died, officials said.

The mother of Cameron Thomas Boone told investigators she forgot to drop him off at day care. She returned to the truck about nine hours later to find him unconscious Thursday.

The woman broke the back windshield and called for help, but the boy was dead when she took him to North Cypress Medical Center, where she worked, Sheriff's Lt. John Denholm said. A key the child had put in the ignition automatically locked the doors, so the woman had to use a rock to break in, officials said.

Security guards were patrolling the lot, but the truck had tinted windows and it was difficult to see inside, Denholm said.

The sheriff's office would not identify the mother or disclose her position at the hospital. Calls to the hospital were not returned Friday.

No charges have been filed.

Commentary
Some people either do not think of the consequences of there actions or just pure neglect, which in the above case is more in line of child abuse.

There is also some people that in our modern times, that do not also think of the repercussions of there actions, either so they get the do not care attitude. This is why in certain parts of the world, they have very strict laws towards certain crimes, kind of like; one doesn’t wish to do this crime; if one will get hanged for it.

Then something I happened upon earlier, reading a different news story, that there is some cases where it is easier for a person to yell for help, when instead they need too think and help themselves to better there situation; especially those who blame others for there plight; while they sit on there hands, do nothing and complain.

The greatest achievements in life, came about by people taking the intuitive to just go and do it or make something better; too making a change for the better.

A Family Called, “The Walton’s"

By HRM Deborah

There was a time in America, when the average person did not overly emphasize about being a super power or excessively on patriotism, but about something more important, called living.

I first came into contact about this apparent dust ridden element of American society, when I was in my early teens by chance from a simple family program called, “The Walton’s.”

While I did not get to watch all the episodes of this program, it also did perk my interest to learn later from some of my reading, listening to older Americans and wonder yet what happened to a society that forgot that materialism was not so important, being bigger then the next guy or putting blame on someone else, was not so important; but living, family, hard work and sometimes as an individual to do the right thing was?

Furthermore, people could still look in the mirror and be happy with themselves.

Nevertheless, even in these more modern times, one listens to the older American’s wondering what happened to there country and just what went wrong or they will say it is the government that gave us all these troubles and some people listened to them; while they are worried, what is to happen to them next.

No to Materialism

Humanity should always look towards the spiritual side of life, for materialism is always temporary; as the old saying, you can’t take it with you after you die.

For a materialistic society tends to be more self-centered, then the one that keeps there eyes on Allah.

Nevertheless, materialism has created some of the greatest ills to mankind.-HRM Deborah

A Man from Burundi

Burundi (East Africa), man with basket on there back picking tea.

A Muslim man from Burundi helped me today, with a small problem that I had which I had no choice but ask for help and while I do not know much about this country, I have to admit; if they are anything like the man that gave me help when I was in need, they must be very nice people.

Something else, very nice about these people, they are not just nice within themselves, but very respectful and seemed to be very good Muslims; which under the circumstances, I was most grateful.

As to knowing anything much further towards this country, I have to admit my knowledge is poor; even though the nice man was trying to explain a little.

Something like this instance, I always think of it as Allah’s way of showing a person, something new to learn or understand; even when it did not start off that way.

This further reminds me of something I have always liked to do, is learn about people; for the simple fact, while sometimes a person may think there life is uninteresting at least to themselves; to others it may be fascinating for a variety of very good reasons.

Like a young American woman one time, that thought she had a dead end job as a shop clerk and we got to talking and I learned she was very gifted, within certain types of the arts or another woman who was Palestinian, that made very beautiful window drapes. -HRM Deborah

Religious Studies Makes Better People.

I have always been a firm idea, that at least some religious studies should be taught in all school’s along with the other academics; for the simple fact, religious studies makes better people.

Furthermore, one is less likely to see some of the social problems and crime, people have in our modern times.

Nevertheless, religious studies can close the gap of the many misunderstanding’s people have about other’s, in the world; with the hope that religious persecution for example, can be stopped, among other of global problems.

Rafah, Ghazza and West Bank in Iraq

An Iraqi flag and the spiral minaret of Samarra are painted on a concrete security 'blast wall,' on 7 November 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq.

Commentary

26 July 2008

by Laith

One of the gifts of God to Iraqis is their ability to make fun of everything. Without this great gift, I think there would be no Iraqi people because we are the nation that has the best relation with Sadness and pain.

Four days ago, I came to work around 10:00 a.m. I had to go an area known as Aden Intersection as a first step. When I reached the intersection, I had to pass through the blast wall that separates the residence area from the main street. There was a very small space between two concrete blocs. Only one person can go through this space. So you can imagine two long lines of old and young men and women waiting for their turn to pass. In fact, there were two groups of people not lines because each one wants to pass without even thinking about the others. I waited for about a minute. I was only three steps away from the gap but I didn't want to pass because I kept listening to the funny comments of the young men. A group of young men started talking as if we are in Palestine passing through the big blast wall that was made the Israeli authorities.

Young man 1:- "how is the situation in Gaza?"

Young man 2:-"It's very bad. The Israeli tanks surround the city and bothering the civilians (referring to the American Humvees which we saw near the main residence area.

Young man 3 "I don't know about that. I just came from Rafah and everything was fine."

I started laughing in pain. We make fun of our pains always but that was never the solution for the big problem of occupation. I'm afraid that one we would envy the People in Palestine because in spite of the improvement of the security situation, the Iraqi authorities insist on putting more blast walls. I'm afraid that I might wake up one day and I find an Iraqi checkpoint near my room's door searching me evey time I get in and out. I think at that time, I would be happy if I can travel to Gaza (the real Gaza in Palestine) for some peace.

A Few of Life’s Valuables

A person in this life, should always value there family and there friends. - HRM Deborah

Making Peace with Your Fellowman

If one should wrong another, go and make peace with the one wronged and ask their forgiveness; then make right the wrong that was done to the satisfaction of both parties. For it is better to love one another, then to cause harm to each other.-HRM Deborah

Lord of the Flies

When a portion of humanity resort’s to barbarism, instead of the goodness of life; this is usually synonymous with those who walk with Satan.

The Two Highways

And shown him the two highways? (Good or Evil roads)

But he would not attempt the uphill road, and what will make you comprehend what the uphill road is?

(It is) to free a slave,
Or the giving of food in a day of hunger,
An orphan near of kin (one should always care for an orphan),
Or to the poor man lying in the dust.

Then will he be of those who believe, and enjoin patience, (constancy, and self-restraint), and enjoin deeds of kindness and compassion. These are the people of the right hand.

But those who reject Our Signs, they are the (unhappy) Companions of the Left Hand (those who refuse to do good). On them is fire closed over.

Al-Balad 90: 10-20

The Borrowers Care

If your borrow something from your neighbor, always treat the item as good or better then the person you borrowed it from and always return the item in a timely manner.

Nevertheless, always show kindness and gratitude when the item is borrowed and returned.- Deborah

One Hug Please

6 June 2008

A Palestinian boy who’s family is associated with Mahmoud Abbas’s terrorist organization, gestures for a hug at a Jewish soldier standing guard during a demonstration by Abbas terrorists and foreign activists.

While this was during another trumped-up protest against the construction of the controversial separation barrier in the village of Maasarah, near the town of Bethlehem, it was still a lovely gesture by the boy and thinking a little surprise for the soldier.

Let's Eat in a Building's Shadow

Homeless women eating her dinner in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.

More often then not in New Orleans, one will find a homeless person dead, just from there horrendous living conditions.

Furthermore, the crime rate, especially murder is very high in New Orleans; I heard of a murder yesterday, in an apartment building.

One thing people need to be reminded of, that life is very precious and should never be made cheap nor should anyone ever have to live needlessly in misery.

Full of humility

by HRM Deborah

Humility is a reminder to always be modest and respectful of not just Allah, but towards all humanity; to also remember to not think better of oneself above others.

For in doing so, you will think better of those around oneself and you will even be content towards your inner self.

For a truly humble person keeps to prayer, has patience, is kind, along with keeping there eyes always towards Paradise.

Furthermore, you will never see a humble person puff-up like a blowfish, when confronted with ill words or hardships.

Nevertheless, a humble person is more likely to be focused on the world around them, for they are contented in there life and wish to make life easier for others.

Nasheed by Dawud Wharnsby Ali