Back To The Fundamentals A Reminder of Prophet Ibrahims ( Abrahams) Legacy! Wa jacalahaa kalilmatan baaqiyatan, lacallahum yarjicuun! Nur

Revisiting old threads for new audience Nur

burahadeer writes: Let us see who laughs last. It's a waiting game--just that, a waiting game ! Allah Says in Holy Quraan, Surah Al Mutafifeen: 34. But this Day (the Day of Resurrection) those who believe will laugh at the disbelievers 35. On (high) thrones, looking (at all things). 36. Are not the disbelievers paid back (fully) for what they used to do (To Believers)? Allah further says in Quraan, Surah Hood 121. And say to those who do not believe: "Act (according to your ability and way), We are acting (on our capacity) 122. And you wait ! We (too) are waiting." Nur

Israeli Spokesman Mark Regev Interview on Channel 4

Yaa Ghaaliya yaa LazieG First of all let me express my great admiration, you are natural debater and eNuri and Company believes that you should be crowned as The Reigning Queen of SOL Islam Page Controversial Debates. I could not stop smiling as I read your last response, and I applaud you for sharing your speedy opinions without wearing a seat belt, if there was a debating analogue of Formula One car races, I felt overtaken by Michael Schumacher, the only difference being that Mike is predictable when he turns corners, yours are very sharp and stealthy at that, you even drive outside of the racing track on the green turf, turning fast corners leaving me behind your exhaust fumes unable to see where you are coming from. I am stopping my Ferrari and offer to teaming up with you, or may be, make peace with you so that we compromise on this: Neither the Shabab nor the TFG should rule Somalia, instead, lets champion a fresh face, like Lazie G, and of course you need me as your Formula one, side mechanic for quick services before going back on track! Ok, let me get this straight yaa Ghaalya 1. You say : "my personal view on this is that religion should be separate from the state" A simple Question, If Lazie G becomes Somalia's FEDERAL President, and the UN Designated Secular parliament of Gayland province approves gay marriages in Somalia with a slim majority, as the Federal Sovereign of the secular nation, will you approve such a motion if the Supreme Federal Constitutional Court of Somalia approves it? 2. You say: ...."I want my country back(sounding like a teabagger) and if it means getting help from Brundi forces or Ugandas or Nigerians tomorrow or whoever is willing to lend a hand to this deficient administration and if thats what I must do, so be it, I am ready. " I adore Sharif, I still feel the same way I felt about him when he was with the ICU" Yaa ghaalya, who stole your country from your adorable Shareef? your Ethiopian brothers or the terrible Shabab!? 3. You say: " Matter of fact, I want Melez (now that he is elected for another term) to aid the administration and help them arm themselves again by sending troops to clean up Mogadishu. (when the axmaaro were present, we didnt have suicide bombers roaming the city freely)" So, you are inviting back your brother Meles Zenawi, the Humanitarian and Kind Ally of Somalia who kept his goodwill soldiers in Mogadishu over 2 years helping the poor and needy and protecting them from the evil of the Shabab terrorists. Wouldn't that be so kind of you as the next President of the Federal Secular Somali Nation? 4. You say: As far as your question about which is better, "secularism or Islam" is inconceivable, waayo, Islam is a religion and it can in no way be compared to a concept such as Secularism. I'm baffled by the uncertainty in your query yaa Nur. Yaa Ghaaliya, Secularism is at odds with Islam, they are mutually exclusive, you can't be a Muslim and Secular at the same time, acceptance of either one, automatically implies the rejection of the other. 5. You Say: When the shabaabs have maimed, killed innocent bystanders, robbed women and children of their dignity, left them homeless and with ailing children to look after, you have left nothing for these civilians, not one shred of dignity and if you dont think thats worth a cease fire then you and I are further apart than I can care to admit and for that, I was wrong about you or was I? Yaa Ghaaliyah, can you put your hand on Holy Quraan and say that statement under oath if you have Iman? just YES or NO for this question. Throwing words around does not befit you, choose your words more carefully sis, washing the hands of the TFG, the Ethiopians and the Warlords in the TFG who held Somalia hostage for 20 years, and accusing it all on the Shabab is not fair assessment of the situation if you aspire to lead Somalia one day. 6. You say: In summary, you are saying, "we will not put our arms down and agree to a cease-fire" because the so called "ugandan mercenaries" will kill us. You are saying" we will not stop throwing rockets from populated areas because we are justified in our PR propaganda". No Yaa Ghaaliyah, that is not what I am saying, The Shabab are not worried about being killed for the sake of their faith, actually they seek martyrdom. What I am saying is that assisting a rapist in your house raping your sister is not a good idea, specially when you ask the same rapist, Melez to come back once more to Somalia to rape and kill your people so that you can build your dream Secular Somalia Nation in which what is left of religion is kept in private and all imaginable perversions are legalized (of course with AU and UN mandate) Nur

The Empire and the War By Fidel Castro June 02, 2010 "Escambray" -- Two days ago, I said in a few words that imperialism was unable to solve the extremely serious problem of drug abuse, which has become a scourge for the people all over the world. Today, I wish to deal with another issue that I consider of major significance. The current danger that the United States attacks North Korea, following the recent incident in the territorial waters of the latter, could perhaps be thwarted if the President of the People’s Republic of China decides to exercise the right to veto --a prerogative that country totally dislikes-- with respect to the agreements currently under discussion at the UN Security Council. But, there is a second and more serious problem for which the United States has no possible answer; this is the conflict created involving Iran. This could be clearly seen coming since President Barack Obama made his speech at the Islamic University of Al-Azhar, in Cairo, on June 4, 2010. In a Reflection I wrote only four days after that, --when I had access to an official copy of his remarks-- I used many parts of it to analyze its significance. I shall now mention some of them. “We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the World...” “Colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations”. This and other arguments sounded particularly impressive as they were voiced by an African-American US President; they resonated like the self-evident truths contained in the Declaration of Philadelphia of July 4, 1776. “I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect” “As the Holy Quran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth”. “And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear”. Thus, he continued dealing with thorny issues from the universe of insoluble contradictions involving US policies. “In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government” “Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians.” “America's strong bonds with Israel are well known. This bond is unbreakable”. “Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead”. Today, we know that white phosphorus and other inhumane and cruel substances are often dropped on the population of the Gaza Strip with a truly Nazi fascist frenzy. Still, Obama’s assertions seemed vibrant, and on occasions sincere, as he repeated them once and again during his feverish racing around the world, wherever he promptly arrived in his US Air Force One. Yesterday, May 31, the international community was shocked when in international waters, --tens of thousands of miles off the coast of Gaza--nearly one hundred Israeli paratroops jumped from helicopters, in the wee small hours, recklessly shooting on hundreds of peaceful people from various nationalities, causing them --according to press reports-- no less than 20 dead and scores of injured. There were also Americans among those under attack, who were carrying goods to the Palestinians besieged in their own homeland. When Obama spoke at the Islamic University of Al-Azhar about “the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government” and immediately added that “since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against U.S. troops and civilians...” he was referring to the revolutionary movement promoted by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who --from Paris and without a weapon-- crushed the Armed Forces of the most powerful US gendarme in South Asia. It was very difficult for the mightiest power of the world not to succumb to the temptation of setting up one of its military bases there, south of the USSR. More than five decades back, the United States had subdued another absolutely democratic revolution when it overthrew the Iranian government headed by Mohammad Mossadegh, who had been elected Prime Minister of Iran on April 24, 1951. On May 1st that same year, the Senate approved the nationalization of oil, which had been his main demand during the struggle. “So far, our long years of negotiations with foreign countries have proved unsuccessful”, he said. He obviously meant the big capitalist powers that controlled the world economy. In view of the intransigence of the British Petroleum, then known as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Iran seized its facilities. The country was unable to train its technicians. The UK had withdrawn its skilled personnel and imposed a blockade on spare parts and markets. It had also sent the Royal Navy ready for action against that country. As a result, Iran’s oil production decreased from 241.4 million barrels in 1952 to 10.6 million in 1953. In such favorable conditions, the CIA organized the coup d’état that ousted Mossadegh, who passed away three years later. Then the monarchy was reinstated and a powerful US ally took power in Iran. That is the only thing the United States has done with other nations. Ever since the creation of that country on the richest soils of the planet, it never respected the rights of the indigenous population living there for thousands of years or of those brought in as slaves by the English colonizers. Nevertheless, I am sure that millions of smart and honest Americans understand these truths. President Obama can make hundreds of speeches trying to accommodate irreconcilable contradictions to the detriment of truth; or he can dream of the magic of his well articulated phrases while making concessions to personalities and groups lacking in ethics. He can also portray fantastic worlds that only fit in his head, as they are planted there by unscrupulous advisors aware of his tendencies. Two unavoidable questions: Will Obama be able to enjoy the excitement of a second presidential term without seeing the Pentagon or the State of Israel, --whose behavior shows that it does not accept the United States decision to use their nuclear weapons on Iran? What will life on our planet be like after that? Fidel Castro Ruz - June 1, 2010 - 11:35 AM

A Plague Upon The World: The USA is a "Failed State" By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts June 02, 2010 "Global Research," -- Interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary US Treasury, Associate Editor Wall Street Journal, Professor of Political Economy Center for Strategic and International Studies Georgetown University Washington DC. Question: Dr. Roberts, the United States is regarded as the most successful state in the world today. What is responsible for American success? Dr. Roberts: Propaganda. If truth be known, the US is a failed state. More about that later. The US owes its image of success to: (1) the vast lands and mineral resources that the US “liberated” with violence from the native inhabitants, (2) Europe’s, especially Great Britain’s, self-destruction in World War I and World War II, and (3) the economic destruction of Russia and most of Asia by communism or socialism. After World War II, the US took the reserve currency role from Great Britain. This made the US dollar the world money and permitted the US to pay its import bills in its own currency. World War II’s destruction of the other industrialized countries left the US as the only country capable of supplying products to world markets. This historical happenstance created among Americans the impression that they were a favored people. Today the militarist neoconservatives speak of the United States as “the indispensable nation.” In other words, Americans are above all others, except, of course, Israelis. To American eyes a vague “terrorist threat,” a creation of their own government, is sufficient justification for naked aggression against Muslim peoples and for an agenda of world hegemony. This hubristic attitude explains why among most Americans there is no remorse over the one million Iraqis killed and the four million Iraqis displaced by a US invasion and occupation that were based entirely on lies and deception. It explains why there is no remorse among most Americans for the countless numbers of Afghans who have been cavalierly murdered by the US military, or for the Pakistani civilians murdered by US drones and “soldiers” sitting in front of video screens. It explains why there is no outrage among Americans when the Israelis bomb Lebanese civilians and Gaza civilians. No one in the world will believe that Israel’s latest act of barbarity, the murderous attack on the international aid flotilla to Gaza, was not cleared with Israel’s American enabler. Question: You said that the US was a failed state. How can that be? What do you mean? Roberts: The war on terror, invented by the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney regime, destroyed the US Constitution and the civil liberties that the Constitution embodies. The Bill of Rights has been eviscerated. The Obama regime has institutionalized the Bush/Cheney assault on American liberty. Today, no American has any rights if he or she is accused of “terrorist” activity. The Obama regime has expanded the vague definition of “terrorist activity” to include “domestic extremist,” another undefined and vague category subject to the government’s discretion. In short, a “terrorist” or a “domestic extremist” is anyone who dissents from a policy or a practice that the US government regards as necessary for its agenda of world hegemony. Unlike some countries, the US is not an ethic group. It is a collection of diverse peoples united under the Constitution. When the Constitution was destroyed, the US ceased to exist. What exists today are power centers that are unaccountable. Elections mean nothing, as both parties are dependent on the same powerful interest groups for campaign funds. The most powerful interest groups are the military/security complex, which includes the Pentagon, the CIA, and the corporations that service them, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the oil industry that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico, Wall Street (investment banks and hedge funds), the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the agri-companies that produce food of questionable content. These corporate powers comprise an oligarchy that cannot be dislodged by voting. Ever since “globalism” was enacted into law, the Democrats have been dependent on the same corporate sources of income as the Republicans, because globalism destroyed the labor unions. Consequently, there is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats, or no meaningful difference. The “war on terror” completed the constitutional/legal failure of the US. The US has also failed economically. Under Wall Street pressure for short-term profits, US corporations have moved offshore their production for US consumer markets. The result has been to move US GDP and millions of well-paid US jobs to countries, such as China and India, where labor and professional expertise are cheap. This practice has been going on since about 1990. After 20 years of offshoring US production, which destroyed American jobs and federal, state and local tax base, the US unemployment rate, as measured by US government methodology in 1980, is over 20 percent. The ladders of upward mobility have been dismantled. Millions of young Americans with university degrees are employed as waitresses and bartenders. Foreign enrollment comprises a larger and larger percentage of US universities as the American population finds that a university degree has been negated by the offshoring of the jobs that the graduates expected. When US offshored production re-enters the US as imports, the trade balance deteriorates. Foreigners use their surplus dollars to purchase existing US assets. Consequently, dividends, interest, capital gains, tolls from toll roads, rents, and profits, now flow abroad to foreign owners, thus increasing the pressure on the US dollar. The US has been able to survive the mounting claims of foreigners against US GDP because the US dollar is the reserve currency. However, the large US budget and trade deficits will put pressures on the dollar that will become too extreme for the dollar to be able to sustain this role. When the dollar fails, the US population will be impoverished. The US is heavily indebted, both the government and the citizens. Over the last decade there has been no growth in family income. The US economy was kept going through the expansion of consumer debt. Now consumers are so heavily indebted that they cannot borrow more. This means that the main driving force of the US economy, consumer demand, cannot increase. As consumer demand comprises 70% of the economy, when consumer demand cannot increase, there can be no economic recovery. The US is a failed state also because there is no accountability to the people by corporations or by government at any level, whether state, local, or federal. British Petroleum is destroying the Gulf of Mexico. The US government has done nothing. The Obama regime’s response to the crisis is more irresponsible than the Bush regime’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Wetlands and fisheries are being destroyed by unregulated capitalist greed and by a government that treats the environment with contempt. The tourist economy of Florida is being destroyed. The external costs of drilling in deep waters exceeds the net worth of the oil industry. As a result of the failure of the American state, the oil industry is destroying one of the world’s most valuable ecological systems. Question: What can be done? Roberts: The American people are lost in la-la land. They have no idea that their civil liberties have been forfeited. They are only gradually learning that their economic future is compromised. They have little idea of the world’s growing hatred of Americans for their destruction of other peoples. In short, Americans are full of themselves. They have no idea of the disasters that their ignorance and inhumanity have brought upon themselves and upon the world. Much of the world, looking at a country that appears both stoopid and inhumane, wonders at Americans’ fine opinion of themselves. Is America the virtuous “indispensable nation” of neoconservative propaganda, or is America a plague upon the world? Paul Craig Roberts has had careers in scholarship and academia, public service, and journalism. He served in the Congressional staff and as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration. From 1971 until 2004 he was associated with the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. A former editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal and columnist for Business Week and the Scripps Howard News Service, he was a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles.

Dear Lazie G You Write: "For once make me a promise that you will not discuss "main stream media", "United States of America", "puppet regime" or anything else but your m**ryaan boys aka Al shabaab long enough to get some answers from you."......For once, let us discuss this problem among ourselves and recognize this as a Somali problem. ....And then you write: Let us call the shabaab bosses for who they really are, foreigners. ... their orders are sent from Afghanistan You violated your own First rule of engagement, by mentioning foreigners, the Afghans! You write: If this is to be true and if someone like Abu Mansuur uu nin afghani uu caabudo, how can you call him a Muslim? Nin nin caabudaayo is worse than a gaal, soo maaha? You can't be serious yaa ghaaliyah! I doubt your sincerity at this point, ama ma taaqaanid cibaadada macneheeda, ama waxaadan oqoonin Shabaabka. Cibaadada macneheda waa jeceyl iyo cabsi wada socda oo laga sara mariyo wax walba. Shabaabka, Allah oo qudha ayey sheegteen iney qaddariyaan, hadaba haddey jirt qolo jecel waxaan Allah aheyn, ama ka cabsata, waa kuwa ka soo hor jeeda, yaa ghaaliyah! If orders make someone gaalo, then what about the TFG? whose orders they obey yaa ghaaliyah? You write: I'm not selective with my news C'mon sis, you are very selective, even if you try hard, you can't hide, don't tell me you can't find a single good thing to say about the Shabaab! after reading all of the news media, besides, here is a quote on Islam page that you have not read: "In 1983 the principal global media was owned by 50 corporations, most of them American. In 2002 this had fallen to just 9 corporations. Today it is probably about 5. Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will be just three global media giants, and his company will be one of them" ..... John Pilger 2007 You write: Why do they provoke attacks from populated areas knowing full well the so called 'enemy' would retaliate? Let us say, you are a big family, and you had family feud, you are on one side of the fight and you won the fight, the other side ran away and brought in the Warsames next door to be on their side, together they vow to make you a slave and they failed repeatedly after trying everything they know. Will you then negotiate with them while the Warsames who are there for their protection only, are still in your house? You write: "If these shabaabs are under the assumption that secular state is evil and Islamic State is the way forward" The Shabab are not under assumption! they have an unwavering belief in Allah and Islam, and any person who doubts that Islam is not better than secularism, is simply not A Muslim. Therefore, aren't you of the same belief like the Shabab that Islam is better than Secularism? You write: why don't they put their guns down Because the Ugandans and Burundian mercenaries are still in Somalia with a lot of guns! besides, the right to bear arms is an Islamic obligation, Allah says in Holy Quraan "Wadduu low taghfuluuna can aslixatakum wa amticatikum fa yamiiluuna calaykum maylatan waaxidatan " meaning; they wish that you put down your weapons and supplies, so that they can ambush you at once!, actually not carrying your weapon is Haram in Islam when hostilities exist, which is the same right the American constitution gives to its citizens. The right to bear arms to protect your property, life and people is fundamental human right, manhood is more than having two balls! don't you agree? You write: (why don't they) agree to a treaty, which will follow up with elections and let us take a referendum vote on the constitution. How can you make a treaty when you are under occupation? You Write: In short, why can't they make their point clear without the violence and bloodshed? They did, its the Ugandans and Burundian mercenaries who can't make theirs clear and shoot to all directions as collective punishment to civilians whenever the Shabab freedom fighters attacks their barracks. You write: Why do I have to hear another 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 human lives are lost on a daily, weekly basis? Because some Somalis are supporting the Ugandans and Burundian mercenaries. You write: PS: You are naive if you think your boys are in this war out of the goodness of their heart. These are not my boys yaa ghaaliya, they are the boys of their parents. Are you suggesting that you are so sophisticated that you have a window to view their hearts and intentions? you must be kiddin! You write: Besides wanting power, money is the second most driving force. Everyone wants something, even those that maim and kill in Allah's name, including the veiled ones. You are right yaa ghaaliya, but the order of getting the wealth is different. The Shabab are paying the price now and seeking their permanent wealth in the next life, while their adversaries are getting paid now by their paymasters, seeking this life's glitter and are oblivious of the permanent price they will pay in the next life for their evil. Nur

All At Sea By Yvonne Ridley June 01, 2010 "ICH" -- I wonder how many of you remember the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship the Achille Lauro way back in October 1985? Four members of the Palestine Liberation Front took control of the liner off Egypt as she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said. It was a bungled operation in which the hijackers killed disabled Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and then threw his body overboard. The incident created headlines around the world and polarized people over the Palestinian cause. It also prompted the law makers to create new legislation making it an international crime for anyone to take a ship by force. And this is the reason for the brief history lesson - under article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process. The treaty necessarily adopts a strict approach. One cannot attack a ship and then claim self-defence if the people on board resist the unlawful use of violence. In other words, according to international law, the actions of the Israeli military were beyond the law and those involved should be treated no differently than, say, the Somali pirates who are also in the habit of boarding ships by force. Any rights to self defence in such dramatic circumstances rests purely with the passengers and crew on board. Under international maritime law you are legally entitled to resist unlawful capture, abduction and detention. What those on board the Freedom Flotilla did was perfectly legal. I believe they acted with great courage in the face of heavily armed IDF commandos, while others might have thought their actions reckless. Whatever your view, a number paid the ultimate price for their international right to resist. Israel now stands virtually alone having exposed itself as a pariah state. I wrote an article last year calling them the Pirates of the Mediterranean after they had illegally boarded other aid ships, kidnapping crew and passengers. Now I want you to ask yourself this question … if a group of Somali pirates had forced their way onto half a dozen humanitarian aid ships from the West, slaughtering around nine or 10 people and injuring scores more what do you think the international reaction would have been? Let me tell you. A NATO task force would by now be steaming towards the Horn of Africa accompanied by a couple of drones and various members of the press to record the occasion. (On a point of interest the Achille Lauro sank in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia in 1994.) So why is Israel allowed to get away with murder? In a pre-meditated act the Zionist State showed once again its total disregard for human life – and international law. There were pensioners, women and children on board those ships which were carrying bags of cement, electric wheelchairs, toys, medicines and water purifiers for Gaza's people. Realizing Israel had shot itself in the foot, the vile state’s leader Binyamin Netanyahu then started shooting from the lip. He asked us to believe that his troops were acting in self-defence. And then, 24 hours later, given time to come up with more lies he told the world that the soldiers were armed with paintballs and had not expected to use their weapons. Not content with insulting our intelligence he said his nice, cuddly IDF folk had only boarded the boats to carry out an inspection and inventory. Then backing him up was Mark Regev, the Zionist State’s political Pinocchio. He reckons these evil-doers on board the boats grabbed the IDF’s real guns and used them to fire on the soldiers. These are the same soldiers that come from an elite, highly trained, crack squad … hmm Mr Regev, if that’s the case why would you send in the A-Team if they were just going to do an inventory? And if they were such a hot squad how did a bunch of civilians manage to overpower them and give them a good slap? Either Israeli soldiers fight like a bunch of old women – which Hizb’Allah says they do – or they intended to massacre those on board to make sure that no other peace activists get involved in trying to help the Palestinian people of Gaza. Well if that was the aim then it has failed. As I write this some heroic friends of mine from the Free Gaza Movement are bound for Gaza now onboard the appropriately named ship Rachel Corrie. In our thousands in our millions … today we are all Palestinians. Journalist Yvonne Ridley is the European President of the International Muslim Womens Union, and a committed peace activist who was on the first boat to break the siege of Gaza in 2008.

Gaza Aid Convoy Attack: Israel’s Murderous Sea Piracy a Horrendous Moment of Truth for US Policy By Finian Cunningham May 31, 2010 "ICH" -- This time, the Israeli war machine may have gone too far for international public opinion to stomach. In the early hours of 1 June, before daybreak, Israeli commandos stormed the international civilian aid convoy heading for Gaza. Between 20-24 volunteers onboard have been killed and at least 50 injured, according to various reports, but the number of casualties has risen rapidly from the initial reports of two dead. The final death toll could be greater. The actions by Israeli forces have been condemned by governments around the world. European governments, including those of Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Norway and Sweden have summoned their respective Israeli envoys over the incident. Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan is reported to have cut short a trip to South America and his country is said to have recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest. In a tired-sounding script, Israeli government spokespeople claimed that its forces were acting in self-defence after they were attacked by aid workers wielding knives when they boarded the main ship – a Turkish vessel – in the six-ship convoy. One Israeli commando was stabbed, Israeli TV reported. Within minutes of the interception, Israeli forces blacked out all communications from the flotilla, which is carrying 700 civilians from 50 countries, including Britain, Ireland, Turkey and the US. The aid convoy – dubbed the Gaza Freedom Flotilla – had a high-profile assembly in Turkey last week before departing from Cyprus for the Palestinian coast on Sunday. Backed by several governments, including that of Turkey, and counting among its numbers at least four European MPs, a Nobel laureate and journalists from various news media, the aid convoy had declared itself to be a civilian, humanitarian relief operation. The flotilla was attempting to ferry some 10,000 tonnes of aid material, ranging from medicines, building materials to school equipment, for the 1.5 million Gazans who have been besieged by Israeli military for three years, ever since they democratically elected the Hamas government. After the Israeli onslaught on Gaza during December 2008 and January 2009, in which more than 1,400 people – mainly civilians – were killed, the Palestinian territory remains a disaster zone, with its population living under tents and having to resort to smuggling vital materials via underground tunnels, which the Israeli air force frequently bombard. The Gazans’ only other lifeline is via tunnels into Egypt on their southwestern border, but these, too, are routinely attacked by Egyptian forces. The Israeli government had denounced the Freedom Flotilla as “provocative” even before it departed and warned that it would be intercepted – despite the fact that the convoy had declared that it would be entering Palestine from international waters in the Mediterranean, well away from Israeli territory. While the Israeli naval interception was clearly well planned, its accompanying blackout of communications was evidently not swift enough, failing to prevent Turkish satellite TV footage broadcasting for several minutes what was taking place. Those images relayed by international media nail the lie in the Israeli version of events. (Whether the US media do so will be telling.) Taken from different angles on various positions of the vessel, the TV images show the following: The convoy was intercepted at around 5am local time, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza in international waters. Israeli commandos are seen hauling themselves on to the aid ship. The commandos were armed with assault rifles and handguns, wearing helmets and full body armour. It appears that the passengers and crew are unaware of the intrusion. The Israeli personnel were able to assemble without any opposition; they seemed casual in their movements, then raising their guns in assault mode, covering each other with pointed weapons before filing off to their intended target area on the ship. Other images show an Israeli military helicopter hovering over the convoy and high-speed marine dinghies approaching. Chaotic scenes ensue. Aid workers are seen lying on decks wounded with what appear to be gunshots. Some of the injured – all clearly civilian in appearance – are lying motionless and unconscious, presumably dead. Other aid workers are shown trying to assist the wounded. One woman is seen carrying a blood-soaked stretcher amid the mayhem. Some of the footage shows a melee of aid workers scuffling with Israeli commandos. None of the civilians are shown to be carrying knives. Of course, there is hardly anything new here – Israeli forces using disproportionate violence, killing civilians with impunity. But on this occasion, the murderous incident is not in some poor ghetto in the Gaza Strip hidden from the full view of the world. Up to now, Israeli disinformation could afford just enough wriggle room to sow doubts over such events. The cynical phrases of “terror suspects” and “self defence” parroted by the western mainstream media served to give the Israeli government and its backers in Washington a degree of political cover for otherwise heinous conduct. Hence, the United Nations’ Goldstone report on human rights violations by Israel during the Gaza offensive could be rebuffed by Tel Aviv and Washington because Israel was responding “in self defence to rocket attacks”. The crushing to death of American peace activist Rachel Corrie in 2003 by an Israeli military bulldozer was “a tragic accident”. The assassination of Mahmoud al Mabhoub by Mossad agents in a Dubai hotel in January of this year could be brazened out because, well, the victim was an official of Hamas – the government of Gaza whom the Israelis and the Americans refuse to legitimise and treat as “terrorists”. Nevertheless, all of these crimes – in addition to the warmongering towards Iran over trumped allegations of nuclear ambitions from the only state in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons and possess them illegally – has seen the political and moral position of Israel and its US patron gradually diminish to the point of contempt in the eyes of the world. In attacking the Freedom Flotilla, Israel and the US are now in danger of losing whatever shred of credibility or pretence they may have had with regard to the roots of conflict in the Middle East. What the world has witnessed is an outrageous act of sea piracy bordering on an act of war that transgresses the diplomatic rights of 50 countries and the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of civilians. At the same time that world powers are demanding a tough response to the alleged attack by North Korea on a South Korean warship in which 46 seamen died, public opinion will likewise see the appropriate demand for the same legal standard applied to Israel. The US government stands to be severely exposed by this latest, most glaring crime against humanity. No mealy-mouthed US censure of its client will placate world anger that is inevitably pushing governments, especially the increasingly critical governments of the non-aligned movement, including Turkey and Brazil, to apply international law on the US-Israeli war machine. Washington is so bound up by mendacious contradictions in its support for the Israeli war machine while at the same time posturing for international standards to be imposed on others such as Iran and North Korea – this latest outrage by its favourite criminal client will surely impose a diplomatic manoeuvre on Washington that even the great escape artist Houdini could not defy. Finian Cunningham is a journalist and musician www.myspace.com/finiancunninghammusic

Walaal, Maaddey, Amin, Allaha ii aqbalo ducadaada iyo tan inta kheyr iyo jeceyl Allah iigu soo duceeya, adigana Malaaigtu wexey ku leedahay, wa lakal mithl. intaad iigu duceysay iyo in ka badan Allaha ku siiyo, kaana yeelo, kuwa Alle agtiisa ay u hor martay wanaag, oo shanqadha iyo urka naarta laga fogeeyay oo lagu sugay meeshey naftooda jeceshahay. Kuwa cabsida ugu weyn ee qiyaamaha aan la tiiraanyoonin, ooy malaaigtu soo dhaweyso ayadoo leh [ maanta waa maalinkiinnii la idiin ballan qaadi jiray ]. Kuna bishaareyso in dhulka ay dhaxli doonaan addoonta Alle ee wanaagsan, taasoo ah wargelin la gaadhsiiyo kuwa cibaadada badan. Nur

Israeli Butchery at Sea An institutional failure of a morbid society By Gilad Atzmon May 31, 2010 "ICH" -- As I write this piece the scale of the Israeli lethal slaughter at sea is yet to be clear. However we already know that at around 4am Gaza time, hundreds of IDF commandos stormed the Free Gaza international humanitarian fleet. We learn from the Arab press that at least 16 peace activists have been murdered and more than 50 were injured. Once again it is devastatingly obvious that Israel is not trying to hide its true nature: an inhuman murderous collective fuelled by a psychosis and driven by paranoia. For days the Israeli government prepared the Israeli society for the massacre at sea. It said that the Flotilla carried weapons, it had ‘terrorists’ on board. Only yesterday evening it occurred to me that this Israeli malicious media spin was there to prepare the Israeli public for a full scale Israeli deadly military operation in international waters. Make no mistake. If I knew exactly where Israel was heading and the possible consequences, the Israeli cabinet and military elite were fully aware of it all the way along. What happened yesterday wasn’t just a pirate terrorist attack. It was actually murder in broad day light even though it happened in the dark. Yesterday at 10 pm I contacted Free Gaza and shared with them everything I knew. I obviously grasped that hundreds of peace activists most of them elders, had very little chance against the Israeli killing machine. I was praying all night for our brothers and sisters. At 5am GMT the news broke to the world. In international waters Israel raided an innocent international convoy of boats carrying cement, paper and medical aid to the besieged Gazans. The Israelis were using live ammunition murdering and injuring everything around them. Today we will see demonstrations around the world, we will see many events mourning our dead. We may even see some of Israel’s friends ‘posturing’ against the slaughter. Clearly this is not enough. The massacre that took place yesterday was a premeditated Israeli operation. Israel wanted blood because it believes that its ‘power of deterrence’ expands with the more dead it leaves behind. The Israeli decision to use hundreds of commando soldiers against civilians was taken by the Israeli cabinet together with the Israeli top military commanders. What we saw yesterday wasn’t just a failure on the ground. It was actually an institutional failure of a morbid society that a long time ago lost touch with humanity. It is no secret that Palestinians are living in a siege for years. But it is now down to the nations to move on and mount the ultimate pressure on Israel and its citizens. Since the massacre yesterday was committed by a popular army that followed instructions given by a ‘democratically elected’ government, from now on, every Israeli should be considered as a suspicious war criminal unless proved different. Considering the fact that Israel stormed naval vessels sailing under Irish, Turkish and Greek flags. Both NATO members and EU countries must immediately cease their relationships with Israel and close their airspace to Israeli airplanes. Considering yesterday’s news about Israeli nuclear submarines being stationed in the Gulf, the world must react quickly and severely. Israel is now officially mad and deadly. The Jewish State is not just careless about human life, as we have been following the Israeli press campaign leading to the slaughter, Israel actually seeks pleasure in inflicting pain and devastation on others.

Lazie G. My Dear Sister, Allah SWT says in Quraan: "O you who believe, if a FAASIQ brings you some news, verify it, so that you may not accuse a group, thereby committing libel, without being aware (of your sin)" Hafs Ibn Assem, Radiyallahu Canhu, said " The Messenger SAWS , may peace be upon him, said "Its sufficient for a person to lie (Be a liar) , the he/she tells everything he/she hears (without verifying authenticity, sources, and their motivation) Reported by Muslim You have made many unfounded claims against the Shabab, claims that are right out of the mainstream media box, usually made by those who oppose the Shabab's mission to make Somalia a truly free nation that submits to Allah only and not to foreign demands. Your perceptions have been seriously compromised by the Western Media regurgitating lies after lies, As well as claims by Atheists like Raamsade and his ilk, Ethiopia and those who have declared open enmity on Islam and his Messenger SAWS and who are actively engaged in killing innocent Muslims worldwide under the pretext of fighting Islam aka "terrorism" a moving goal post to apply on anything about Islam they don't like. If you share the vision of how Islam should be with US, EU, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, corrupt TFG officials, and Raamsade and the main stream media, then what you say is understandable, if not, then you need to follow the above verse and Hadeeth to do little homework and investigate background of the conflict, its drivers, its players behind the curtain, the dummies that are being handled by the foreign entities to do the dirty work etc. Its Ironic that you have used the word Moriyans describing the Shababul Mujahidun movement. For your information, these kids take credit driving the CIA sponsored Moriyans who have terrorized Somalia for twenty years out of Mogadishu, who are now reconditioned as statesmen represented in the current TFG government that controls one square kilometer known as Villa Somalia surrounded by freedom fighters willing to die for your freedom and not for money like the Moriyans in the TFG. The word foreign does not apply to a Muslim in another Muslim country as much as it does not apply to a french woman in an EU country like Italy. But, a convert Muslim women who is born in France is foreign in France since she is not allowed to practice her faith to the fullest in her birth place. To get things in perspective my dear sister. The real foreigners in Somalia are the Ugandans and the Burundians, and all of the uninvited intruders who camouflage themselves as NGO, who do not have the best interest of Somalia in their heart but are mainly driven by quick financial gain. Nur

GP bro. Well put, your conclusion speaks wisdom, Islamic principles are permanent, but those who apply the principles can come short to live up to its lofty goals due to the theater in which they operate and the entire environment around them. For many Somalis, its easy to point fingers, but very hard to lend a hand to those in sincere search for a solution to Somalia's woes. Nur

Humanitarian Flotilla Vs Evil Navy By Gilad Atzmon May 27, 2010 "ICH" -- Haaretz reports today that Israel will attempt to block the humanitarian Freedom Flotilla heading toward Gaza. However, according to the Israeli paper, the humanitarian cargo would then be unloaded, inspected and sent to Gaza overland via the United Nations. Typical for Israel, it tries to win a lost battle. On the one hand, by stopping the flotilla Israel attempts to maintain its regional status as an omnipotent super power that controls the land, the air and the sea. On the other hand, the Jewish state pathetically also wants to evoke sympathy for being ‘sensitive’ to humanitarian issues and the Palestinian plight. The Israeli government fails to gather that the tide has changed. We see through them. We all know what the Jewish state stands for. We all know about the devastation in Gaza, we know about the siege, the destruction and the crimes against humanity. We all watch the Israeli separation wall cutting through Palestinian family's houses and olive orchards. We also follow the racist ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem. The Israelis better save us from their spins and manipulations. In case the Israelis still fail to see it, they are dealing this time with an international flotilla that is sailing under Turkish and Greek flags, a fleet that carries 800 enthusiast activists from all over the world. The Israelis are dealing with peace lovers who are determined to break through the siege and deliver medical aid, cement, paper and food. On the deck we have 35 European parliamentarians who must have decided to say NO to Zionist fund raisers. This flotilla is a clear signal to Israel that the game is over. Israel is now all but officially isolated. All that is left for Israel is to come to terms with its true nature: a shameless racist, murderous and terrorist state. Militarily and politically Israel locked itself into a limbo. For the Israelis it is a “no win situation. The Israelis may have the military means to stop the flotilla from accomplishing its humanitarian mission. The Israeli Navy can easily block the flotilla's way, it can also impose an electronic blackout around the ships, such an act may lead to the loss of communication with the humanitarian mission. Israel would then have to act militarily. Yet, taking control over 8 ships and 800 activists armed with relentless will and backed by many cameras is not going to serve the Israeli interest. If Israel dare use force, this will backfire. We also have to bear in mind that this time the Turkish Government is closely monitoring the situation and openly supporting the mission. Israeli aggression at sea could lead to an evolving incident with some unpredictable consequences. Israel better give up on any attempt to stop the flotilla. On a further note, the Israeli Government and the Israeli people better start to come to terms with the fact that the game is soon to be over. The Zionist project and the Israeli state is in a state of moral bankruptcy. From that perspective the flotilla is not just a humanitarian mission, it is actually a reminder for all of us of the true meaning of humanism. Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel in 1963 and had his musical training at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem (Composition and Jazz). Atzmon's essays are widely published. His novels 'Guide to the perplexed' and 'My One And Only Love' have been translated into 24 languages.

Nomads Let me summarize RAAMSADE's post above: 1. Alshabaab are a gang of pretenders and murderers. They neither have the interest of Somalis at heart nor the decency to respect our traditions. On the other hand, the US, EU, UN, AU , Ethiopia, Uganda, and Burundi, Somali warlords, drug dealers, corrupt Somali politicians have the best interest of Somalia at heart. They only occasionally steal money given to them by their sponsors ( EU, US) to fight Shabaab and also to drink alcohol which is OK, and to womanize. 2. Our Somali forefathers picked and chose the type of Islam that matched their culture which was closer to western peace loving tolerant Ideals of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Nagazaki, Vietnam, Iraq, than the barbaric Islamic culture. 3. Our Somali forefathers, like me, did not like the Hijab part of Islam, because we should be proud of and celebrate our Somali women beautiful bodies, our forefathers did not like applying the Shariah on thieves and murderers, since all Somalis by nature are Camel thieves and tribal murderers, and being hard on thieves is also against the western ideals that prefer Wall Street corporate grand larceny of tax payers money, and wholesale annihilation of entire villages and nations like Somalia by hiring their own worst criminals and warlords to do the dirty work, to empty the land from its inhabitants for oil companies' business by killing, maiming and raping since last 20 years without disturbing the show ( until of course Islam appeared in the form of Islamic Courts and the Shabab)), who terrorize and disrupt western interests in the region. 4. Our Somali forefathers share the same ideals of US and EU (sponsors of peace in Somalia) who enjoy sadist waterboarding torture methods, sodomizing prisoners in captivity, Holocausting Jews, enslaving blacks, supporting apartheid and listing the ANC as a terrorist group like the Shabab, stealing land from Palestinians and incarcerating them in the largest open concentration camp, carpet bombarding Vietnamese villagers, murdering 1.5 Million Iraqis for a fake WMD, and who are now engaged in tightening the noose on the poorest people on earth, who have a remnant of self worth in terms of faith and who only bow to their maker in submission. 5. Shabab movement is making real marks on the ground applying real Islam, which as a Devout Atheist, and all of my "MODERATE MUSLIMS" and supporters on this SOL site hate. Because they all tolerate me when I insult their phony God on this site, and would not kill me for it as I exercise my human right to insult others and spew my venom and walk free after words, ( Of course the same can not be said by making antisemitic insults) because the Shabab would have killed me for what I have said on this board. 6. Shabab are inviting "foreign fighters" to fight on their ranks and are even wearing their Punjabi dress, to oppose the local indigenous Ethiopian,s Ugandans and Burundians who wear the traditional Somali clothes, drink Somali beer, secretly sleep with poor peasant Somali girls delivering food to them, and who are only there to earn their money by guarding the post to fulfill the western ideals that are closer to my Atheist ideals of legalizing Sodomy, witchcraft, theft, Qat drugs, prostitution and alcohol. 7. Shabab are like Taliban, they want to Establish Islamic state, which after 911, is not acceptable by US and EU who pay the bill of the African Union Mercenaries, Ethiopians, Ugandans, and Burundians, and now, a Western raised Somali Warlord Darman and his German Soldiers-of-fortune mercenaries, and since Islam is a strategic threat against the whole of the western civilization, because Islam's banning of homosexuality, prostitution, grand larceny, Oil companies destruction of all lifeforms including people, when seeking oil (Iraq's 1.5 Million victims , EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL, and BP Gulf of Mexico OIL SPILL that devastate the environment) can cause unemployment in the western world that thrives on instability in the poor parts of the world to steal their wealth and endorse creative chaos as a cover of their planned heist of resources to finance their failing usury based economies. Translated by 2010 eNuri Transemantix Simplifying Atheist Content

LazieG Baarkallahu feeke ukhtii, may Allah accept your bold dtand for his cause: Allah SWT says in Surah Ancaam: (saying): " 93..................And if you could but see when the Zalimun (Raamsade and his ilk) are in the agonies of death, while the angels are stretching forth their hands (saying): "Deliver your souls! This day you shall be recompensed with the torment of degradation because of what you used to utter against Allah other than the truth. And you used to reject His Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) with disrespect! 94. And truly you have come unto Us alone (without wealth, companions or anything else) as We created you the first time. And you have left behind you all that which We had bestowed on you. We see not with you your backers whom you claimed to be as powerful as Allah. Now all relations between you and them have been cut off, and all that you used to claim has vanished from you" Nur

LazieG Asks: Marka kale, who are the shabaabs? If you don't know them by now, its too late to explain. If, as you say in your title, "social issues alshabaab government can learn etc", do they in turn have a clear mandate from the people to govern? Mandate to govern the people resides with Allah SWT ALONE, who instructed believers to execute his commandments compiled in a code known as the Sharia Law, that is the only acceptable governance acceptable to Allah. Allah SWT says in Quraan: "Inil Xukmu illaa lillah" Governance is reserved for Allah alone. do you believe they(shabaabs) are carrying the wishes of the people to govern? Naturally NO my dear sister, Allah's wishes count, not people's! Johnny Boy Power belongs to Allah alone, Allah says in Quraan, "Innal Quwata lillahi Jamiican" All power resides with Allah, not with the UN nor with anyone else, the most powerful in the eyes of Allah, are those who take Allah as an ally. Abtigiis Saaxib, adigaa dib isugu laabasho u baahan, meeshaad taagan tahay bal eeg! ogow in qiyaamha lagula soo saari doono ciddaad maanta la safato. Ngonge bro. Ninyahow wallee waad iga qoslisay, ilaa hadda oon qorayo qoraalkan waan qoslayaa, waxaad tahay ninka qudha oo ii fahmay. Ha ka cabsan inaan Shabaabka fikrad siinayo iney hadday ku arkaan adigoo Kismaayo dhexdeeda iska wareegaya xaas la'aan, iney xoog kuugu guuriyaan! Nur

Raamsade Writes: "The clearest indication yet that Nur is Alshabaab -- designated international terrorist organization that took responsibility for the massacre of madina hotel in Beledweyne -- sympathizer. " Raamsade, we have a Somali proverb that says to the effect: " Haddad aragto nin dakhran, gar ha siinin ilaa aad agtiisa ku hesho nin dooxan" Every story has two sides saaxib, I am sure that you have studied in history that today's villains might be tomorrows heroes,. Besides, if we talk about specific incidents of killing civilians, the Shabab do not even get close to the record of your honorable heroes who are proud of Hiroshima and Nagasaki massacre of civilians, the slavery of blacks, Vietnam carpet bombing, Mi Lai, the Iraq Massacre of 1.5 Million civilians, Afghanistan, Somalia (1000 civilians in 1993 Black Hawk Down), Abu Ghureib and Guantanamo sadist torture of Muslims, and the list goes on for your heroes. It helps to be consistent, you said that you sympathize with the ANC in South Africa during the Apartheid, guess who was supporting the minority white rule? your friends, who gave the ANC the same title like the Shabab (Terrorists) and who were listed as such as recent as 2008 for your information. Nur

eNuri Comparative Law Research Department Presents: Ataturk's Marriage Law Nomads Looking back into the past of modern Turkey, it can provide a rare glimpse of the laws of the last Islamic Caliphate in Turkey, known as the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kamal Ataturk who overthrew the Islamic Caliphate in Turkey to install a secular government was unable to wipe out all of Islamic Caliphate's legal influence ( Sharia Law ) from appearing in his new Secular Turkish Law, below are some selected interesting articles of Ataturk's Marriage Law: 1. Voluntary Marriage age begins at 18 and ends at 25, anyone who doesn't marry by 25, will be forced to marry. 2. If a person claims an exemption from marriage duty after age of 25 due to sickness, the person will be sent to medical check up, if sickness is curable, the marriage will be delayed till the person is healthy, if the sickness is permanent, the person will be exempted from marriage. 3. If a married man travels to another town for residence for few years to work or for any other legitimate duty, and he can not take his wife with him, he must inform the local government in the new town he resides the reason that he is alone without his wife, if he is financially able to marry another local woman, the new local government will force him to marry a local woman, when his duty is completed and he has to return, he must take his new wife back and reside with both of his wives in same locality. 4. If a man refuses to marry after age of 25 without any legitimate excuse, he will be fined 25% of his income to be deposited in the agricultural Bank to help marriage costs of poor peasants as a gesture of kindness. 5. Any married man who travels to another town for any reason who was being subjected to article #3, if he can't marry again in the new locality, he will pay 15% of his income to be spent according to article #4, and after 2 years, he will be forced to take his wife with him on his business travels. 6. Any man who fails to marry after age 25, will be dealt according to article #4, he will not be eligible for government job and benefits and can not be elected to office and he can't take a public responsibility. 7. Any married man older than 50 years, with only one wife, and who is able and capable, physically and financially to marry another woman, will be forced to marry another woman as a fair contribution for civic duty, if he is unable with good reason, he has to support orphans and the children of the poor, and to help their education and bringing up as per his financial ability. 8.Any man who marries before age of 25 and before compulsory military service age, shall serve two years in case of war. As for the man who marries after the age of military service, he shall serve 3 years. 9. Anyone who marries during the voluntary age ( 18-25) and who is poor, who owns no property, he is entitled to a grant of 150 - 300 Dunam ( 1 Dunam = 930 Square Meters of land) closest to his residence, the title of the land to be given immediately after marriage. 11. Anyone who marries during voluntary age (18-25) who has no mature brother who can assist his elderly parents, is qualified for a deferment of military service, and if a woman marries and she has no brother who can assist her elderly parents, she is entitled to the deferment of her husband from military service. 13. University students are allowed to defer marriage until after graduation. 14. Any man who does not have a legitimate job and who reached the age of 25 without getting married and his social status is immoral, he will be warned, and given a year to find a decent job, if he fails, he will be forcefully recruited to be a government laborer. Signed Mustafa Kamal Ataturk October 21st, 1922 Anatolia , Turkey. Translation from Arabic text by eNuri Transemantix 2010 eNuri Comparative Law Digest Islam is the science of the Living -Spiritually!

Haneefah sis writes: What a discovery eh, who woulda thought the great Sayyid influenced people in such mysterious ways, lol. Its indeed amazing that Sufi Sayyid Muhammad Abdallah Hassan aka Mad Mullah by Imperial Britain , had left an enduring legacy of faith, dignity and resistance on Somali people. May Allah have mercy on his soul and forgive him for his shortcomings. Amin. Nur

Nomads Summer time is around the corner, yet another year since posting this thread. I hope my efforts here help cool "Social Global Warming". Nur

Hales You write: You should know that Alshabaab is no better than Amisom when it comes to killing civillians and both dont intend to but do it out of reckleckness; lets leave it at that, the fact that in war civillians are terrorised. Bro. How long have you followed the news of the current war in Somalia? from which sources do you get your information? Bro. You have to do forensic news analysis to understand what is happening in Somalia without a live witness of the events on ground zero where people are dying, I have just talked to a shop keeper at the Bakaaraha Market who would've given you a different picture if you could speak with him. Nur

Special Place in Hell Rebranding Israel As A State Headed For Fascism No one knows fascism better than Israelis. By Bradley Burston May 20, 2010 "Haaretz" -- SHEIKH JARRAH, East Jerusalem - No one knows fascism better than Israelis. They are schooled, drilled in the history, the mechanics, the horrendous potential of fascist regimes. Israelis know fascism when they see it. In others. They might well have expected when fascism began taking root here, it would arise at a time of a national leadership of galvanizing charisma and sweeping, powerfully orchestrated modes of action. But that would have been much too obvious to deny. And it would take denial, inertia, selective memory, a sense that things – bad as they are - can go on like this indefinitely, for fascism to be able gain its foothold in a country founded in its very blood trail. In fact, it has taken the most dysfunctional, the most rudderless government Israel has ever known, to make moderates uncomfortably aware of the countless but largely cosmetized ways in which the right in Israel and its supporters abroad have come to plant and nurture the seeds of fascism. Wrote Boaz Okun, the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronot's legal affairs commentator and a retired Israeli judge, of Israel's ban on Noam Chomsky: "The decision to shut up Professor Chomsky is a decision to shut down freedom in the state of Israel. "I'm not speaking of the st**pidity of supplying ammunition to those who claim that Israel is fascist," Okun wrote, "rather, of our fear that we may actually be turning that way." At the weekend, Israeli police riot troops waded into a thoroughly non-violent sit-in near the entrance to this East Jerusalem settlement zone, where Palestinian residents were expelled by Israeli court order, to allow their homes to be taken over by Jews. What was curious here was not the neck-wrenching brutality of the Yasam riot police in their gunmetal gray uniforms, bristling with assault rifles, clubs, tear gas and helmets, arrayed against the demonstrators, most of of them Israeli Jews, some of them well past retirement age. What was surprising was not the fact that several burly officers, seeing a young Reshet Bet (Israel State Radio news) reporter - his microphone clearly and unmistakably marked, interview one of the seated demonstrators - jump him and drag him away in a headlock to a police custody van. In the end, what was peculiar was that the police seemed so entirely bewildered, so completely lacking in clear orders, left on their own to decide how to proceed in an arena of hair-trigger sensitivity. Fascism with a confused face. Why should we be concerned by any of this? Perhaps because we have made our peace with a number of factors that can turn a society toward fascism as a solution. 1. Losing a War. We've lost two in the space of less than three years. Our targets, Hezbollah and Hamas, are better armed and entrenched than ever. Our strategic and diplomatic standing is in decline. Iran and Syria are ascendant. And there is abundant reason to suspect that the Gaza War, a major factor in the loss of our international standing, may have been altogether avoidable, the huge civilian death toll indefensible and unconscionable. This has, in turn, led to 2. International quarantine, a sense of being scapegoated, and a search for an internal fifth column. 3. A radical redefinition of positive values. Look no further than the name of Jerusalem's obscene Museum of Tolerance project. 4. Olfactory fatigue We have grown desensitized to the consequences of actively denying basic staples and construction supplies to 1.5 million people in Gaza, many of them still waiting to rebuild homes we destroyed. We have grown inured to the appropriation of Palestinian-owned West Bank land, to abusive treatment of law-abiding Palestinians at checkpoints, to the ill-treatment and summary expulsion of foreign workers, to racist, anti-democratic and, yes, fascistic rulings by extreme rightist rabbis, especially some of those holding official positions in the West Bank. 5. Fascism by rubber stamp. "There are a million reasons why someone would be denied entry into Israel,” Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said Monday, when asked about the ministry’s border policies in the wake of the Chomsky ban. “There may be a million reasons, but try to find a single criterion for entry refusal and you’ll hit a blank wall,” said Association for Civil Rights in Israel attorney Oded Feller. "The Interior Ministry simply doesn’t publish them, despite a court ruling that ordered them to do so.” 6. The sense that despite everything, all is well. There will be those who argue that the fact that I, or my Haaretz colleagues, are allowed to publish what we do, is proof that there is no fascism here, nor evidence of a police state. The fact is that were we not Israeli Jews, and part of an establishment institution, any of us could find ourselves tossed out on the same pavement, and with the same lack of due process and due explanation, as Noam Chomsky. 7. The sense that there is a war on now, when there isn't. 8. Selective enforcement of court rulings. Routine defiance of same, in particular by radical settlers 9. The 180-degree untruth that officials allow Israeli and Jerusalem Arabs to do what they want, while cracking down on their Jewish neighbors. 10. Equating criticism of the government with favoring the destruction of Israel. This has become increasingly felt beyond Israel's borders. In San Francisco, the canary in the coal mine of free discourse within the Jewish community, the Jewish Federation [JCF] recently revised and tightened the terms under which it agrees to grant funds to organizations. "The JCF does not fund organizations that through their mission, activities or partnerships … advocate for, or endorse, undermining the legitimacy of Israel as a secure independent, democratic Jewish state, including through participation in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in whole or in part." The guidelines go on to state that "Presentations by organizations or individuals that are critical of particular Israeli government policies but are supportive of Israel’s right to exist as a secure independent Jewish democratic state" are "generally in accord with the policy statement," but "early JCRC [Jewish Community Relations Council] consultation is strongly encouraged and the programming should be presented within an overall program strategy that is consistent with JCF’s core values." Can all this have spread this far, this fast? Because of Israel, have Bay Area Jews who do not believe in a specifically Jewish state, now forfeited their right to be part of the Jewish community? Have Jews who love Israel but are seen as too critical, or who support a boycott to make their criticisms manifest, been effectively excommunicated? It's a free country, I guess.

LaZei G sis writes: A wise conclusion sis, that speaks volumes! Nur