Nomads Have they stolen the show again?. 100% Islamic government (aka Extremist) for Somalia is not acceptable by Western Strategists if our leader has to sit side by side with other African Despots at the African Union who are collectively subservient to the Imperial Nations and their past colonialists. Hence, the requirement of the dilution of the Somali Parliament with the Warlords whose hands are still stained with crimes against humanity committed the past 18 years as a service for Ethiopia in its drive tow weaken its Muslim neighbor. You see Nomad, Sheikh Shareef's joining of the fraternity of African Heads of states means joining corrupt heads of states who have all sold their nations and deposited their share of the commission in western Banks. Now these men, are all scared to be tried in world court for either crimes against humanity or corruption, so, they all hear and obey what the Colonialists ( aka Aid Donors) dictate, who are taking back ten times value in return for the aid they give in the form of over produced American peanuts and maize. As Sheikh Shareef joins this African Union body, there is no doubt that the Sheikh will learn to be politically correct at all times to maintain his membership to this exclusive club which is located in the capital of the nation that broke UN law by invading a sovereign nation with pretext that they are afraid from the Somali Resistance. A criminal nation hosting corrupt heads of states in the service of an unholy war against Islam based on lies. Africa is hopeless! Nur

Akhi Waranle Wadaaddadu isku mid ma wada aha. Allaha mahaddi, waxaa umadda ku dhex jira addoon Allah oo ku dadaalayaa raaciddaa Sunnadii Nabigeenna SAWS, akhlaaqdiisii wanaagsaneyd, una horseeda dadka tilmaan fiican oo dadka wax baraya una faaideynaya. Walaal, ogow waxa ay Somalia u degi la'dahay iney sabab u tahay in Culimadeenna ay wadaan dadaal badan oo mirahiisi keenay maanta, welina ayan far ka qodneyn. Dadaalkaas ayaa la diiddan yahay, oo keenay iney nasasho naloo diiddaan yahay. Culimadeenna wey wadayan dadaalkooda si kii noolna ay xaqa iyo baatilka u kala baxaan, ka dhintana uu ku dhinto asagoo doortay wuxuu ku dhimanayay. Maanta, magac wadaadnimo ninkii wata ma aha nin loo naco diinta, maxaa yeelay, qofkii xaq doon ah, xaqa ayaa u kala saara dadka, laakin ma aha inuu xaqu la jiro qofkii wadaadnimo sheegta ama ay ka muuqato. Xaqa waa kan Allah ka yimaadda oo qudha, hadaba ha shakinin. Nur

Akhi Muridi Waxaa Amiir noo ah Suubbanihii Nabi Muxammad SAWS, ifka iyo aakhiro. Allahu Mowlaanaa, wa laa mowlaa lahum! Taladoo dhanna, wexey gacanta ugu jirtaa Allah oo Qudha " Innal amra kullahu lillaah" Hadduu Allah doonana, asagoo qudhaa ku filan inuu ka guuleysto " Wa low shaa Allahu lantasara minhum" laakin, qaarkeen buu qaarka kale ku imtixaanayaa, maxaa yeelay waa xikmaddii Allah u uumay dadka, waxaana xaq ah iney is khilaafaan dadku, marka laga reebo inta Allah ugu naxariistay iney asagoo qudha addoon u noqdaan " Wa laa yazaaluunawa mukhtaliffina illaa man raxima Rabbuk, wa lidaalika khalaqahum" Cidhibta dambena waxaa leh, Taqwada. Nur

Ayoub bro. Official Definition Of Civil Society: " Civil society is as a "third sector," distinct from government and business. In this view, civil society refers essentially to the so-called "intermediary institutions" such as professional associations, religious groups, labor unions, citizen advocacy organizations, that give voice to various sectors of society and enrich public participation in democracies." Personally I have no idea of the 75 Members Of Parliament that are jokeying for these seats. "Civil Society" is a mask of many special groups that are vehicles to infiltrate the decision making body of poor nations, In the case of Somalia, they are protected by donors of financial aid to the Somali government, here is how it works: 1. A nascent undesirable government wins election. 2. The World Shadow Government needs to influence the decision process of this new government. 3. They offer Financial Aid in the form of agricultural, technological and monetary assistance, with some "conditions" 4. The aid recipient country becomes dependent on the aid, and neglects its own production and self reliance, thus compromising its independence and surrendering to the donors. 5. In order to receive aid, a dependent country must accept political pluralism ( meaning: individuals representing donor interests who would never make it to the parliament without the aid leverage) 6. These individuals are known as " Civil Society" as if the rest of us are Barbarians! Who are these? Artists, Feminist groups, Dancers, oh! I forgot about the perverts, actually this last group is the heart of the "civil society" if Sheikh Shareef does not accept them, he risks the anger of the "International Community" who are the aid donors The International Community is composed of United States, UK, France, Israel and Micronesia Islands of Palau. who are currently in debt to China, India, Gulf Nations to the tune of 87% of its GDP in the case of US and 400% in the case of UK, indebted to China, India and Arab Gulf Countries. So, the aid the Sheikh will get in order to give concessions to the "International Community" comes from China and India and Gulf Countries. Nur

Postive walaal Hadal aad u qurxan oo xikmad dheer ay ku dheehan tahay ayaad ku hadashay, Allaha kaa ajar siiyo, miisaanka xasanaadkaagana ha ku culeysiyo( Wallahu min waraa il qasd). Waan kugu raacsnahaya in loo baahay xasilloni iyo xikmad lagu gaaro muraadka Allah, haseyeeshee maadaama aan ahay Moderator, ama mid kulmiya aragtida ummaddeenna kala qaysbsan, sida aan u jiclahay in niyaddaada wanaagsan ay run u noqoto, ayaan intaasoo kale ka baqayaaa in annagoo bohol dheer nalagu riday hadda ka soo baxnay, oo nala xabaali waayey, in qaarkeen loo adeegsado sidii qaarkii kale wexey dhiseen u dumiyaan. Allah wuxuu Quraanka ku leeyahay" Laa tattakhiduu bitaanatan min duunikum, laa ya'luunakum khbaalan, wadduu maa canittum, qad badatil baghdaa u min afwaahihim, wa maa tukhfii suduurahum akabr!" Sidee baan mas ula seexannaa sariirta? Walaal, markey awoodi waayeen iney Islaamka ka tirtiraan waddankeenna oo labaatankii sano oo hore loo adeegsaday iney qabil u udeegsadaan iney isku kaaya laayaan, ayaa hadda wexey bilaabeen iney madhab diineed oo la isku diro noo adeegsadaan, weligeed lama sheegin labo wadaad oo hub isu qaadatay, waanad ogtahay qolada magacooda loo adeegsaday oo aan hubo iney iyagu bari ka yihiin baatilka loo nisbeeyay, saa waa walaalahayo. Ma moogi, in Allah yiri " Haddey nabad uu liicaanna, adiguna u liic waxaase Allah na xasuusiyay, inay khiyaano ka marnayn raggaas " Haddey doonaan iney ku khayaanaan se, (ogow) iney mar hore Allah soo khayaaneen ( isku dayeen iney Allah khiyaanaan) markaasuu Allah idiinka hiilliyay ood ka gacan sarreyseen" Waxaan u baahan nahay, sidee baan ku hubinnaa in nabadina lagu gaadho, annagoon iibinin diinteenna! Nur

Ashkiro sis Very interesting read indeed! Here is an humble attempt to summarize the gist of the article and the motivation of the author: "..... these very Sufis -- these dedicated defenders and evangelists of mystical Islam -- are potentially vital allies for the nations of the West." So, its not hidden secret, that, Sufis being a potential ally for the west in its war against Fundamentalist Islam are the best weapon to weaken Islam! " For the Islamists -- for hard-line fundamentalists like the Saudi Wahhabis and the Taliban -- the Sufis are deadly enemies, who draw on practices alien to the Quran" ...Very Interesting, They are deadly enemies to Fundamentalist Islam because THEY DRAW ON PRACTICES ALIEN TO THE QURAN!!!!!!! "..Around the world, the Sufis are struggling against violent fundamentalists who are at once their deadly foes, and ours This means. the West wants to break a camel bone with another! ( Lafo Geel ayagaa la isku jabiyaa) Somali Proverb! "... They ( SUFIS) presented an Islam that incorporated local traditions and worship styles, including Christian saints and Hindu gods. " Meaning : They are not puritans, who divide people along faith, they are open to any interpretation of Islam and accept other faiths as valid! " Today, moreover, Sufi brotherhoods face a deadly danger from the strict puritanical or fundamentalist Islam represented by Qaeda and similar movements, which are as threatening to the Sufi brotherhoods as they are to the West" Thus the Unholy War on Terror! " But the Sufis are much more than tactical allies for the West: they are, potentially, the greatest hope for pluralism and democracy within Muslim nations.." Since they will accept all Western Ideals! " From their beginnings, too, Sufi traditions have been religiously inclusive. Wherever the orders flourish, popular Islamic religion focuses on the tombs of saints and sheikhs, who believers venerate with song and ritual dance. In fact, they behave much like traditional-minded Catholics do when they visit their own shrines in Mexico or southern Italy ......They are the Catholics of Islam! interesting, then Al Qaeda must be the Protestants who were persecuted , who are now powerful! "... This open-mindedness contrasts with the much harsher views of the fundamentalists, who we know by various names. Salafism claims to teach a return to the pure religion taught by the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, and in that early Islamic community Salafis think they can find all they need to know about life and law. The most powerful and best-known version of this back-to-basics ideology is the Wahhabi movement that emerged in the 18th century, and which in modern times has built a worldwide presence on the strength of Saudi oil money. At its most extreme, this exclusive tradition rejects knowledge that is not clearly rooted in the Quran and Islamic legal thought, and regards other religions and cultures as dangerous rivals lacking any redeeming virtues. Al Qaeda and its affiliates represent an extreme and savage manifestation of this fundamentalist current" Self Explanatory, no comment here! " Sufis have literally everything to lose from the continued advance of the Islamist extremists. But Sufis are anything but passive victims, and in their resilience lies their true importance to the West" Meaning: The west must keep them alive and arm them to fight the Extremists! " .. Hard as they try, fundamentalist radicals find it impossible to gain much of a foothold in societies where Islam is synonymous with Sufism, and where Sufi loyalty is deeply tied to cultural and national identity" Meaning: Sufis have more loyalty to nationalism, culture etc. than Islam. ".. In 2007, the influential RAND Corporation issued a major report titled "Building Moderate Muslim Networks," ( http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG57 4.pdf ) which urged the US government to form links with Muslim groups that opposed Islamist extremism. The report stressed the Sufi role as moderate traditionalists open to change, and thus as potential allies against violence" No Comment here too! " The British government especially has befriended the Sufi orders, and has made groups like the British Muslim Forum and the Sufi Muslim Council its main conversation partners in the Muslim community. ......If this British model works, it would encourage the growth of a Euro-Islam that could reconcile easily with modernity and democracy, while yielding nothing of its religious content" I like how the British fight "war on terror" ( bogus war against Islam with pretext of self inflicted wound blamed on Muslims to steal their Oil), their tactics are soft compared to American tactics. Back in the Eighties, the British Intelligence was tipped off that a group of Iranians were planning to assassinate the Queen, unlike the Americans, they did not go after the suspects, they simply published the Queens family tree, the Iranians were shocked to find out that the Queen was a descendant of Prophet Muhammad! ( Her ancestors married the Muslim rulers of Spain who were direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad SAWS, which foiled the attempt without a shot, The Queen can walk unprotected now in streets of Tehran). " Nobody is pretending that building bridges with Sufis will resolve the many problems that divide the West from the Islamic world. In countries like Afghanistan or Somalia, warfare and violence might be so deeply engraved into the culture that they can never be expunged. Yet in so many lands, reviving Sufi traditions provide an effective bastion against terrorism, much stronger than anything the West could supply by military means alone. The West's best hope for global peace is not a decline or secularization of Islam, but rather a renewal and strengthening of that faith, and above all of its spiritual and mystical" Meaning: Somalia and Afghanistan are a headache for the west, let us contain spread of puritan Islam that is competing with Christianity in other parts of the Muslim world before its too late! About the Author: "Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. He is author of " The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia -- and How It Died" (HarperOne, 2008)" Is this the author's attempt to revive Christianity at the expense of Islam by reviving SUFISM as an ally? Nur 2009 eNuri Western Media Digest Reading Between The Lines

Sheikh Shareef's "Election" to head the alliance of warlords and "Moderate Islamists" calls for a review of the central issue of the dispute between secularists and Islamists in the Alliance of the Re-liberation of Somalia. I see cracks in the alliance, that will surface at a non-opportune time. What is you take on this issue? Nur

Sheikh Sharif waxaa loo doortay Madaxweynaha ay doorteen labo urur oo siyaasi ah (Isbaheysiga Dib o xoreynta Somalia, iyo Isbaheysiga Gumeysiga Axmaarada) oo Mareykanku citaraafsana yahay. Sheikhu wuxuu ku dhaartay inuu ilaaliyo Dastuurka Dimoqraadiga ah ee Gumeysigu dajiyay. Sheikh Shareef ma fahamsan yahay soohdinta kala soocda Dimoqraadiyadda Iyo Islaamka? Ma yaqaannaa macnaha ay u taagan tahay Dimoqraadiyadda? Haduu jiro qof akhristayaasha boggan ka mid ah , oo yaqaan jawaabta , noo faa'iidee, Allaha kaa jar siyee, aad baan ugu baahnaan lahaa. Hadduusan Sheikhu Fahamsaneyn macnaha qotada dheer ee Dimoqraaddiyadda u taagan tahay, iyo soohdinta u dhexeysa ayada iyo Diinta Islaamka, waxaan jeclaan lahaa in qofkii qoraalkan Sheikha u gudbin kara uu u gudbiyo, waa intaasooy anfacdaaye. Nur

"It is becuase they want to use him against what they see as 'extremists'. Waa la adeegsanayaa." By Abttigiis & Tolka (Islaamka) Wisdom of the week! Nur

It's official! Sheikh Shareef has won the second round as expected. Like his predecessor Abdullahi Yusuf's election in Nairobi, the winner was predesignated with some window dressing "candidates" by western interest groups as he is seen as the least evil of the Islamists who can secure a peaceful robbery of Somalia's wealth in the coming days. What is next? 1. The Presidential Elections of the Islamic Courts and TFG Alliance ( Asmara Faction) 2. The Presidential Election of The homegrown Resistance groups either in Mogadishu, Kismaio, or Baidoa. History is in the making before our eyes! Nur

The Sheikh wins the first round of the Djibouti Election Show of Somalia's "President" by a margin of 50% by Ethiopian picked Warlord Parliamentarians, with sugar coating of "Moderate Neo-Islamists", the second round is to follow on Saturday, and as predicted by (ENN) eNuri News Network four weeks ago, Sheikh Sharif will be the disputed President of Somalia by the Islamic Courts Union Asmara faction and the armed resistance groups controlling most of Somalia. Can a government driven by foreign interest endure the test of time in Somalia? Here is what the News Media Said about the Sheikh: * (Sheikh Sharif)Ahmed has met U.S. officials in the past and is seen as an acceptable president to the West, although hardline Islamists say he has sold out. His first challenge would be to bring them into a reconciliation process. (Reporting by David Clarke; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) A President or a Poodle? So, Democracy means the process in which a Third World Nation"s elite (Warlord Criminals + "Moderates") select the Nation's Governor for The Western Interests in their own country. Election Process takes place entirely yet in another country or else! :mad: Here is what news media said about the "Election" : " Whoever wins the presidential election will face the daunting task of taming the Shebab, a hardline offshoot of the ICU, which rejects the peace process and controls several key towns " When did the Shabaab reject peace? unless peace is defined as the acceptance of the Ethiopian Occupation! which was ordered and maintained by the (The West)? So, After the failure of the American backed Ethiopian Army to TAME the Somali resistance, it takes a Somali "Moderate Islamist" to attempt this impossible feat! Nur -------------------------------------------- " The Western Media Calls Black color, White, and calls White Color, Black" Vladimir Putin

Xiin brother I am sure that you are aware that competence has both a quantity and direction, like we say in Somali " Ninba dhinac u badi". Competence has also time element, a person who is competent at a point in time can fail in another, given the new situation at hand. Competence can also manifest in subject matter, a change in the subject matter that requires competence can reflect in the incompetence of a person. Thus, a politician to rise to the highest level of his failure point, is logical, just like when we load a structure to its limit, it fails. Nur

Xiin bro. You write: " I am still trying to get Dr. Ahmed's gradual advance in Islamic movement in Somalia link created and posted so we can all share it! I blv it addresses most of the issues we are discussing here in SOL! Bear with me brother!" I am also a believer of the concept brother, but there is an exception to every rule. A mind once expanded with an idea, is difficult to shrink it back to make it conform with this gradual concept, hence the problem of grassroots variations of the islamic resistance. Some want to go all the way in insisting that Sharia will be the law of the land, while, the " Moderators" aware of the "Big Brother" pressure on their shoulders, are conciliatory and are willing to accommodate the warlord monkeys who collaborated with the enemy's invasion of Somali Sovereignty and slaughtered civilians, and continues its genocide of our brothers in the occupied western Somalian territory. Gone are the days when 4.5 Clan division formula was the law of the land, gone also are the days of excluding Islamists from power as per foreign demands. Today, as I have predicted in this thread two years ago, the western world which dictates to our people the acceptable form of governance that they should aspire, has conceded to an Islamist representation of the government, but only as an interim strategy of dividing the resistance. What does that mean? It means that freedom is not given, anyone willing to stay a slave, will stay a slave, slavery is an abominable crime against humanity, freedom is a Divine given right, its taken by any means necessary. Being reasonable can be risky at times, the reasonable man deals with the world as it is, hoping a gradual change, which never comes, as the slave masters are keen in prolonging the slavery, the unreasonable man insists on immediate change as a condition for any settlement with adversaries. Amazingly, if it was not for the defeat of the American backed ( inhumane Ethiopian Invasion and molestation of Somalia), by a handful of Somali resistance youth, I doubt that Sheikh Sharief or any " Moderate" Islamist would have had the chance to be invited to Djibouti conference. Its unfortunate that the very people who defeated the Ethiopian invaders are not represented in Djibouti, in there place, the collaborators of the Ethiopian Occupation are represented. What I don't understand is, how can anyone familiar with the recent history of the barbaric Ethiopian Invasion can accept their traitor representatives in Djibouti, specially when their last town Baidoa has been taken by the resistance? Another mind boggling question is, how can Sheikh Sharief and others running for power expect to defeat the resistance spirit that the Ethiopians failed to defeat in two years? is the Djibouti faction making the same mistake of the TFG by excluding a vital factor from the equation? ironically, once more electing a government by the influential for the Imperialists interests in the region is in the making, history repeats itself, ( من يرد الله فتنته فلن تملك له من الله شيئاً ) Nur

Much thanks akhi, Will view the video inshAllah when I have time. As much as I am delighted with the rosy world view you hold (Palestinians and Jews hugging each other, which means I will marry a Jewish bride), my dreams are still materializing to the opposite, the first dream came true when Obama was elected President, My anticipation now is that the other dreams may come true too. His resignation will signal that he has some decent morals left in him in a city where most politicians are morally challenged. If he does not resign in light of the mountains of problems he inherited from the Bush legacy, and if he can't solve these problems in time, then, he will be a greater fool than Bush, so my dream has some merit, assuming the man is relatively honest (Washington Standard), intelligent and human (has finite abilities in face of infinite problems on his table) Nur

The Obama Spectacle History, Hypocrisy, and Empire By Larry Pinkney January 29, 2009 "BlackCommentator" -- January 22, 2009 -- The so-called democracy of the powerful U.S. elite continues to live up to its legacy of hypocrisy and deceit. Now that the spectacle of the Barack Obama coronation as the “American” Empire’s first African-American emperor has run its course, and many, many millions of dollars have been spent on self-adulation by the power elite of this nation, the huddled masses will necessarily be compelled to return to a system of no universal, single-payer health care, increasing joblessness, insatiable corporate / military greed, homelessness, de facto racial disparity & discord, police brutality, a burgeoning U.S. prison population, and endless U.S. wars abroad. For yet again, this nation will have done what it all too often does: perverted its promise, including the dream of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into a hypocritical nightmare of gigantic and historic proportions. For the majority of Black, Brown, White, Red, and Yellow peoples, the “dream” to which the late Langston Hughes referred [in the poem A Dream Deferred] has not only been “deferred,” it has been obscenely and grotesquely disfigured and distorted into something almost beyond recognition. Barack Obama’s presidency is not a step forward nor is it a step towards the fulfillment of the struggles by Nat Turner, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so very many others. Rather, he is the slick pro-apartheid Zionist antithesis and perversion of the fulfillment of these struggles. Barack Obama has already begun to repeatedly and shamelessly call upon the people of this nation to make “sacrifice,” as if the everyday people of this country have not already made enormous, heart rendering sacrifices. How about having Obama’s elite corporate backers in Lockheed, Goldman Saks, and the insurance and banking industries make some meaningful, ongoing, and painful sacrifices?! How about reversing the government’s criminal financial bail out of the big corporations [which government bail-out Obama enthusiastically supported], and passing those billions upon billions of dollars back directly to the everyday people of this nation - no strings attached?! How about immediately stopping all U.S. wars of aggression, and bringing our men and women in uniform home right NOW - no strings attached?! So many of these men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of so-called U.S. “national security,” which false “security” has meant their being the perpetual working-class cannon fodder for Halliburton and other avaricious corporate components of the U.S. “military / industrial complex.” Barack Obama, though the first African-American “presidential” figurehead of the U.S. Empire, is actually the last best hope of continuing U.S. international hegemony under the fake cloak of democracy and justice at home and abroad. Therein is Obama’s appeal to the political and economic ruling elites. He is a conscious, willing, and potent tool of the power elite, and should be understood and dealt with as such. He is neither a progressive, nor a leftist or socialist. He is a cynical opportunist and a shrewd politician, who cloaks his double-speak in glitzy so-called “progressive” sounding rhetoric. He is arguably the most dangerous U.S. politician, to the actual economic and political well being of everyday people of all colors, thus far in this 21st Century. A reader of The Black Commentator recently reminded me of what is undoubtedly the most important, defining, and yet perhaps the least known speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the speech that Dr. King delivered on April 4, 1967 at the Riverside church in New York City, precisely one year before he was shot down in Memphis, Tennessee, under the auspices of the U.S. Government. The speech is titled, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Every discerning person who peruses this speech will quickly realize what a perversion, of the struggle for justice at home and abroad, the pro-apartheid Zionist Barack Obama really is. We can and must do so much better. The installment of Barack Obama as U.S. president has not ushered in a “post racial” era in this nation. To the contrary, it has ushered in a heightened economic, political, and yes racial hypocrisy, which the masses of Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples will ultimately not ignore. The paraphrased adage, often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, that: “You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time” is absolutely correct. And even though the U.S. corporate media (including CNN and PBS) is unabashedly complicit in their de facto mission to “fool the people,” the legitimate needs and aspirations of the people can be contained for only so long; Obama or no Obama. To the people of this nation of all colors and ethnicities who are losing your jobs, your homes, and your families…to those with no health insurance… to those who cannot afford to send your children to college…and to those languishing in prisons… this writer says: Place not your faith in the rhetoric of politicians or the false promises of such cynical opportunists. Place your faith in yourselves and each other, in your / our ability to discern the difference between rhetoric vs. reality, and in our determination to find and create ways of organizing and coming together to bring about real systemic change dedicated to everyday people and not the corporate blood suckers of the peoples of this nation and world. To the long-time freedom fighters, including Assata Shakur, Reverend Edward Pinkney (no relation), Leonard Peltier, the SF 8, and so many others who have held on and struggled for collective justice for so long, and to all political prisoners everywhere, this writer says: Please keep holding on, for the time is approaching when your struggles will be rewarded and that proverbial “day of reckoning” is hastening hither, sooner than some may realize. To Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente, and Cindy Sheehan: Thank you for your ongoing and brave examples of what it means to be truly for-real and in service to the people and not the blood sucking corporate / military / prison apparatus. To the young people of this nation and world be you Black, Brown, Red, White, or Yellow: This writer understands your legitimate rage and your desire for a better world. You have every right to want a just and humane world. YOU are humanity’s present and future. YOU are why so many of us have struggled and died so that we might live through you. YOU must carry this struggle on. To the peoples of Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and elsewhere: Know that the peoples of the U.S. do not hate you and that those of us who are socially and politically conscious stand with you in your just quests to live free and strong, unfettered and unhindered by U.S. hegemony. History does not repeat itself. People repeat history. Let us commit and re-commit ourselves to the struggle for systemic change in this nation, and not be duped by this latest dose of U.S. hypocrisy in the person of Barack Obama. Onward... BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

For Nomads on far ends of this blessed blue planet, from Nomads in Melbourne, Australia enjoying pleasant summer time, to Nomads under snow and (- 45) degree temperature in Alberta, Canada, and all other Nomads in between, I hope this piece finds you in good faith, if not, I pray it heals your soul. Nur

As I made Salat yesterday, I stopped and reflected on Al Faatiha, the words " Iyaaka Nacbudu, wa iyaaka nastaciin" caught my attention, I repeated these verses several times, every time I read, I find a seamless connection between the verses that most tafaaseer do not highlight, here is a snapshot of my mental journey. The mainstream tafseers of Quraan usually explain this Surah as disconnected verses, but if we focus on these verses closely, we discover that they are all connected. We repeat the following verses 17 times a day: " Iyaaka nacbudu, wa iyaaka nastaciin" Thee alone we worship, and from thee alone we seek help" They do not move us as desired because, we don't digest them as they were meant to be. Here is how they settle in our hearts: The disconnected tafseer. "We worship you alone, and we seek help from you alone. Guide us to a path that is straight. the path of those you have favored For these verses to make the difference they were meant to make in the Arabic language, they need to be connected to deliver the full meaning, hence the actions. Now here is the seamlessly connected tafseer. " O Allah, we worship you alone, as a constant means to seek help from you for all of our needs which you alone are capable in providing(because if we don't seek help from you alone, we are assured not to get it ), foremost of which is our need for guidance to follow the right path that will connect our efforts in this life to your pleasure in the next life, the path taken by those you have shown your generous favors, such as the Prophets, the Sidiques ( Like the Disciples of Jesus and Abu Bakar), the Martyrs, and the pious men and women, NOT the path taken by those who chose to disobey you with full knowledge of their actions, hence earning your anger, nor those who lost the path due to ignorance That first part of this daily prayers clearly sets the tone of what should we focus on in our prayers, which is to seek the path of the Prophets, Martyrs and the pious men and women who lived throughout history, like Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad . The second part of the Al Fatiha includes a disclaimer, that we seek not to take the path of those nations before us who lost the way. If we pray while keeping the above meaning in our minds, what course of action should we take in our daily lives? Socially? Politically? And of course, economically? Nur

On The Wrong Side By Uri Avnery January 26, 2009 "Gush Shalom" -- OF ALL the beautiful phrases in Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, these are the words that stuck in my mind: “You are on the wrong side of history.” He was talking about the tyrannical regimes of the world. But we, too, should ponder these words In the last few days I have heard a lot of declarations from Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert. And every time, these eight words came back to haunt me: “You are on the wrong side of history!” Obama was speaking as a man of the 21st century. Our leaders speak the language of the 19th century. They resemble the dinosaurs which once terrorized their neighborhood and were quite unaware of the fact that their time had already passed. DURING THE rousing celebrations, again and again the multicolored patchwork of the new president’s family was mentioned. All the preceding 43 presidents were white Protestants, except John Kennedy, who was a white Catholic. 38 of them were the descendants of immigrants from the British isles. Of the other five, three were of Dutch ancestry (Theodor and Franklin D. Roosevelt , as well as Martin van Buren) and two of German descent (Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower.) The face of Obama’s family is quite different. The extended family includes whites and the descendents of black slaves, Africans from Kenya, Indonesians, Chinese from Canada, Christians, Muslims and even one Jew (a converted African-American). The two first names of the president himself, Barack Hussein, are Arabic. This is the face of the new American nation – a mixture of races, religions, countries of origin and skin-colors, an open and diverse society, all of whose members are supposed to be equal and to identify themselves with the ”founding fathers”. The American Barack Hussein Obama, whose father was born in a Kenyan village, can speak with pride of “George Washington, the father of our nation”, of the “American Revolution” (the war of independence against the British), and hold up the example of “our ancestors”, who include both the white pioneers and the black slaves who “endured the lash of the whip”. That is the perception of a modern nation, multi-cultural and multi-racial: a person joins it by acquiring citizenship, and from this moment on is the heir to all its history. Israel is the product of the narrow nationalism of the 19th century, a nationalism that was closed and exclusive, based on race and ethnic origin, blood and earth. Israel is a “Jewish State”, and a Jew is a person born Jewish or converted according to Jewish religious law (Halakha). Like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it is a state whose mental world is to a large extent conditioned by religion, race and ethnic origin. When Ehud Barak speaks about the future, he speaks the language of past centuries, in terms of brute force and brutal threats, with armies providing the solution to all problems. That was also the language of George W. Bush who last week slinked out of Washington, a language that already sounds to the Western ear like an echo from the distant past. The words of the new president are ringing in the air: “Our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.” The key words were “humility and restraint”. Our leaders are now boasting about their part in the Gaza War, in which unbridled military force was unleashed intentionally against a civilian population, men, women and children, with the declared aim of “creating deterrence”. In the era that began last Tuesday, such expressions can only arouse shudders. BETWEEN Israel and the United States a gap has opened this week, a narrow gap, almost invisible – but it may widen into an abyss. The first signs are small. In his inaugural speech, Obama proclaimed that “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and nonbelievers.” Since when? Since when do the Muslims precede the Jews? What has happened to the “Judeo-Christian Heritage”? (A completely false term to start with, since Judaism is much closer to Islam than to Christianity. For example: neither Judaism nor Islam supports the separation of religion and state.) The very next morning, Obama phoned a number of Middle East leaders. He decided to make a quite unique gesture: placing the first call to Mahmoud Abbas, and only the next to Olmert. The Israeli media could not stomach that. Haaretz, for example, consciously falsified the record by writing - not once but twice in the same issue - that Obama had called “Olmert, Abbas, Mubarak and King Abdallah” (in that order). Instead of the group of American Jews who had been in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, Obama, on his very first day in office, appointed an Arab-American, George Mitchell, whose mother had come to America from Lebanon at age 18, and who himself, orphaned from his Irish father, was brought up in a Maronite Christian Lebanese family. These are not good tidings for the Israeli leaders. For the last 42 years, they have pursued a policy of expansion, occupation and settlements in close cooperation with Washington. They have relied on unlimited American support, from the massive supply of money and arms to the use of the veto in the Security Council. This support was essential to their policy. This support may now be reaching its limits. It will happen, of course, gradually. The pro-Israel lobby in Washington will continue to put the fear of God into Congress. A huge ship like the United States can change course only very slowly, in a gentle curve. But the turn-around started already on the first day of the Obama administration. This could not have happened, if America itself had not changed. That is not a political change alone. It is a change in the world-view, in mental outlook, in values. A certain American myth, which is very similar to the Zionist myth, has been replaced by another American myth. Not by accident did Obama devote to this so large a part of his speech (in which, by the way, there was not a single word about the extermination of the Native Americans). The Gaza War, during which tens of millions of Americans saw the horrible carnage in the Strip (even if rigorous self-censorship cut out all but a tiny part), has hastened the process of drifting apart. Israel, the brave little sister, the loyal ally in Bush’s “War on Terror”, has turned into the violent Israel, the mad monster, which has no compassion for women and children, the wounded and the sick. And when winds like these are blowing, the Lobby loses height. The leaders of official Israel do not notice it. They do not feel, as Obama put it in another context, that “the ground has shifted beneath them”. They think that this is no more than a temporary political problem that can be set right with the help of the Lobby and the servile members of Congress. Our leaders are still intoxicated with war and drunk with violence. They have re-phrased the famous saying of the Prussian general, Carl von Clausewitz into: “War is but a continuation of an election campaign by other means.” They compete with each other with vainglorious swagger for their share of the “credit”. Tzipi Livni, who cannot compete with the men for the crown of warlord, tries to outdo them in toughness, in bellicosity, in hard-heartedness. The most brutal is Ehud Barak. Once I called him a “peace criminal”, because he brought about the failure of the 2000 Camp David conference and shattered the Israeli peace camp. Now I must call him a “war criminal”, as the person who planned the Gaza War knowing that it would murder masses of civilians. In his own eyes, and in the eyes of a large section of the public, this is a military operation which deserves all praise. His advisors also thought that it would bring him success in the elections. The Labor party, which had been the largest party in the Knesset for decades, had shrunk in the polls to 12, even 9 seats out of 120. With the help of the Gaza atrocity it has now gone up to 16 or so. That’s not a landslide, and there’s no guarantee that it will not sink again. What was Barak’s mistake? Very simply: every war helps the Right. War, by its very nature, arouses in the population the most primitive emotions – hate and fear, fear and hate. These are the emotions on which the Right has been riding for centuries. Even when it’s the ”Left” that starts a war, it’s still the Right that profits from it. In a state of war, the population prefers an honest-to-goodness Rightist to a phony Leftist. This is happening to Barak for the second time. When, in 2000, he spread the mantra “I have turned every stone on the way to peace, / I have made the Palestinians unprecedented offers, / They have rejected everything, / There is no one to talk with” - he succeeded not only in blowing the Left to smithereens, but also in paving the way for the ascent of Ariel Sharon in the 2001 elections. Now he is paving the way for Binyamin Netanyahu (hoping, quite openly, to become his minister of defense). And not only for him. The real victor of the war is a man who had no part in it at all: Avigdor Liberman. His party, which in any normal country would be called fascist, is steadily rising in the polls. Why? Liberman looks and sounds like an Israeli Mussolini, he is an unbridled Arab-hater, a man of the most brutal force. Compared to him, even Netanyahu looks like a softie. A large part of the young generation, nurtured on years of occupation, killing and destruction, after two atrocious wars, considers him a worthy leader. WHILE THE US has made a giant jump to the left, Israel is about to jump even further to the right. Anyone who saw the millions milling around Washington on inauguration day knows that Obama was not speaking only for himself. He was expressing the aspirations of his people, the Zeitgeist. Between the mental world of Obama and the mental world of Liberman and Netanyahu there is no bridge. Between Obama and Barak and Livni, too, there yawns an abyss. Post-election Israel may find itself on a collision course with post-election America. Where are the American Jews? The overwhelming majority of them voted for Obama. They will be between the hammer and the anvil – between their government and their natural adherence to Israel. It is reasonable to assume that this will exert pressure from below on the “leaders” of American Jewry, who have incidentally never been elected by anyone, and on organizations like AIPAC. The sturdy stick, on which Israeli leaders are used to lean in times of trouble, may prove to be a broken reed. Europe, too, is not untouched by the new winds. True, at the end of the war we saw the leaders of Europe – Sarkozy, Merkel, Browne and Zapatero – sitting like schoolchildren behind a desk in class, respectfully listening to the most loathsome arrogant posturing from Ehud Olmert, reciting his text after him. They seemed to approve the atrocities of the war, speaking of the Qassams and forgetting about the occupation, the blockade and the settlements. Probably they will not hang this picture on their office walls. But during this war masses of Europeans poured into the streets to demonstrate against the horrible events. The same masses saluted Obama on the day of his inauguration. This is the new world. Perhaps our leaders are now dreaming of the slogan: “Stop the world, I want to get off!” But there is no other world. YES, WE ARE NOW on the wrong side of history. Fortunately, there is also another Israel. It is not in the limelight, and its voice is heard only by those who listen out for it. This is a sane, rational Israel, with its face to the future, to progress and peace. In these coming elections, its voice will barely be heard, because all the old parties are standing with their two feet squarely in the world of yesterday. But what has happened in the United States will have a profound influence on what happens in Israel. The huge majority of Israelis know that we cannot exist without close ties with the US. Obama is now the leader of the world, and we live in this world. When he promises to work “aggressively” for peace between us and the Palestinians, that is a marching order for us. We want to be on the right side of history. That will take months or years, but I am sure that we shall get there. The time to start is now.

In America, Speaking the Truth Is a Career-ending Event By Paul Craig Roberts January 26, 2009 "ICH"-- - “ The evidence is sitting on the table. There is no avoiding the fact that this was torture.” These are the words of Manfred Nowak, the UN official appointed by the Commission on Human Rights to examine cases of torture. Nowak has concluded that President Obama is legally obligated to prosecute former President George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. If President Obama’s bankster economic team finishes off what remains of the US economy, Obama, to deflect the public’s attention from his own failures and Americans’ growing hardships, might fulfill his responsibility to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld. But for now the interesting question is why did the US military succumb to illegal orders? In the December 2008 issue of CounterPunch, Alexander Cockburn, in his report on an inglorious chapter in the history of the Harvard Law School, provides the answer. Two brothers, Jonathan and David Lubell, both Harvard law students, were politically active against the Korean War. It was the McCarthy era, and the brothers were subpoenaed. They refused to cooperate on the grounds that the subpoena was a violation of the First Amendment. Harvard Law School immediately began pressuring the students to cooperate with Congress. The other students ostracized them. Pressures from the Dean and faculty turned into threats. Although the Lubells graduated magna cum laude, they were kept off the Harvard Law Review. Their scholarships were terminated. A majority of the Harvard Law faculty voted for their expulsion (expulsion required a two-thirds vote). Why did Harvard Law School betray two honor students who stood up for the US Constitution? Cockburn concludes that the Harvard law faculty sacrificed constitutional principle in order not to jeopardize their own self-advancement by displeasing the government (and no doubt donors). We see such acts of personal cowardice every day. Recently we had the case of Jewish scholar and Israel critic Norman Finkelstein, whose tenure was blocked by the cowardly president of DePaul University, a man afraid to stand up for his own faculty against the Israel Lobby, which successfully imposed on a Catholic university the principle that no critic of Israel can gain academic tenure. The same calculation of self-interest causes American journalists to serve as shills for Israeli and US government propaganda and the US Congress to endorse Israeli war crimes that the rest of the world condemns. When US military officers saw that torture was a policy coming down from the top, they knew that doing the right thing would cost them their careers. They trimmed their sails. One who did not was Major General Antonio Taguba. Instead of covering up the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal, General Taguba wrote an honest report that terminated his career. Despite legislation that protects whistleblowers, it is always the whistleblower, not the wrongdoer, who suffers. When it finally became public that the Bush regime was committing felonies under US law by using the NSA to spy on Americans, the Justice (sic) Department went after the whistleblower. Nothing was done about the felonies. Yet Bush and the Justice (sic) Department continued to assert that “we are a nation of law.” The Bush regime was a lawless regime. This makes it difficult for the Obama regime to be a lawful one. A torture inquiry would lead naturally into a war crimes inquiry. General Taguba said that the Bush regime committed war crimes. President Obama was a war criminal by his third day in office when he ordered illegal cross-border drone attacks on Pakistan that murdered 20 people, including 3 children. The bombing and strafing of homes and villages in Afghanistan by US forces and America’s NATO puppets are also war crimes. Obama cannot enforce the law, because he himself has already violated it. For decades the US government has taken the position that Israel’s territorial expansion is not constrained by any international law. The US government is complicit in Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. The entire world knows that Israel is guilty of war crimes and that the US government made the crimes possible by providing the weapons and diplomatic support. What Israel and the US did in Lebanon and Gaza is no different from crimes for which Nazis were tried at Nuremberg. Israel understands this, and the Israeli government is currently preparing its defense, which will be led by Israeli Justice (sic) Minister Daniel Friedman. UN war crimes official Richard Falk has compared Israel’s massacre of Gazans to the Nazi starvation and massacre of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Amnesty International and the Red Cross have demanded Israel be held accountable for war crimes. Even eight Israeli human rights groups have called for an investigation into Israel’s war crimes. Obama’s order to close Guantanamo Prison means very little. Essentially, Obama’s order is a public relations event. The tribunal process had already been shut down by US courts and by military lawyers, who refused to prosecute the fabricated cases. The vast majority of the prisoners were hapless individuals captured by Afghan warlords and sold for money to the ****** Americans as “terrorists.” Most of the prisoners, people the Bush regime told us were “the most dangerous people alive,” have already been released. Obama’s order said nothing about closing the CIA’s secret prisons or halting the illegal practice of rendition in which the CIA kidnaps people and sends them to third world countries, such as Egypt, to be tortured. Obama would have to take risks that opportunistic politicians never take in order for the US to become a nation of law instead of a nation in which the agendas of special interests override the law. Truth cannot be spoken in America. It cannot be spoken in universities. It cannot be spoken in the media. It cannot be spoken in courts, which is why defendants and defense attorneys have given up on trials and cop pleas to lesser offenses that never occurred Truth is never spoken by government. As Jonathan Turley said recently, Washington “ is where principles go to die.

Weyrax bro. Ashkiro spoke for me too. Your credit is earned not for the result of your attempt, but for the effort as only Allah guides people toward the right path. Your reward is earned inshAllah if your intention was purely for Allah's sake. As for the turning down a kiss, well, again Allah will reward you for that missed pleasure with a better one, hopefully you are already with a wonderful Halimo. Baarakallahu feek Nur

BOB bro You write: Most Somalis seem to have a problem with the word 'O' no matter how long you explain why the word is there and where it originated from they still come back to that same 'O' word which I find hard to understand because Ethiopian army don't rape, murder and imprison only the OG’s but Somalis as a whole and if people want to argue about a name and ignore to see the extent of what the Ethiopian army are doing to the civilians of Somali origin from that area then its unfortunate. Akhi, The word "O" was assigned by British Colonialists who gave it to Ethiopia as a gift. For all practicality, the British governor could have have called it by any other clan name that he came in contact, the problem is not in the name, as the "O" people are part of a Somali people, the problem is the assigning the name of a territory inhabited by many Somalis to a single clan name and forming a political resistance movement to fight for that land which in reality have alienated and divided Somalis who live in that region making it easy for the Ethiopians to continue their atrocities on all clans. If all Somalis in that region agree on the " O" name as their liberation name, I am all for it, but its difficult to restore a land to its rightful owners before restoring the original name of all of its inhabitants. Division is an advantage for the occupier, unfortunately, today we have multiple resistance organizations for the liberation of western Somalia, this division will never help, so its important to resolve the basis for which the movement serves, mainly the liberation of the land from foreign occupiers. Another problem in the waiting is, once liberation is realized, how are we going to govern these lands? Islam or Secular? Akhi, The word "O" was assigned by British Colonialists who gave the land and its people to Ethiopia as a gift. For all practicality, the British governor could have called it by any other clan name that he came in contact with, the problem is not in the name, as the "O" people are part of a Somali people, the problem is the assignment of the "O" name to the entire territory inhabited by all Somalis to a single clan name and the formation of a political resistance movement to fight in the "O" Name for that land which in reality have alienated and divided Somalis who live in that region making it easy for the Ethiopians to continue their atrocities on all clans. If all Somalis in that region agree on the " O" name as their liberation name, I am all for it, but its difficult to restore a land to its rightful owners before restoring the original name of all of its inhabitants. Division is an advantage for the occupier, unfortunately, today we have multiple resistance organizations for the liberation of western Somalia, this division will never help, so its important to resolve the basis for which the movement serves, mainly the liberation of the land from foreign occupiers. Another problem in the waiting is, once liberation is realized, how are we going to govern these lands? Islam or Secular? These questions are not sexy, or appealing at this stage, but what I have learned from past similar movements, agreement in ideology from the start can save us from division in the future. A Somali saying has it " Nimaan kuu furi doonin, yuusan ku xidhin" Nur

Weyrax brother Your story is interesting, I can relate to it from a purely business perspective. As a Product Manager of a hot product, we ran an advertisement in which we educated the consumer of the products benefits to attract them to buy our product. Our product class was new, which was reason we had to educate the public about its benefits and usage. There was a cheaper version of the product in the market which benefited from the advertisement. I was furious, I told a colleague that i felt like educating a young single woman about the benefits of marriage in the hopes that she will marry me, but after I convinced her, I hear that she married another guy. My Colleague joked: " Because the other guy has a better product" Price wise! Well, in your case, I think, Christianity costs less in this life, but costs more in the next, that's why young lady was attracted to it. Nur

SOS brother. You have equated two historical events to the struggle of our oppressed brethren in western Somalia: 1. The Story of the Elephant 2. The Persian ( Mushriks) vs Roman ( People of Book) battle. What we need to validate is: A. The Ideological, Moral and Material Support aspect of the above two examples as applicable to the struggle of our brothers in Western Somalia. 1. First the Elephant Story. The story is about the defiance of Abraha of Allah. An Arab villager relieved himself in a church which infuriated the King who ordered to destroy the Holy Kaaba in which the Arabs worshiped as a revenge. We have a case of a Christian King ( People of the Book) who is angry at Polytheists and retaliates by destroying the Holy Kaaba. The problem was that the Holy Kaaba didn't belong to the Arabs, it belonged to Allah as it was a gift offering erected by Abraham and Ishmael as a token of Gratitude for Allah which Allah accepted making it an eternal house of Allah on earth. As you recall, Prophet Muhammad's SAWS who was the custodian of the Holy Kaaba did not defend the Kaaba from the invading Abyssinian arky, saying his famous saying that the House belongs to a Lord that is able to protect, while he vowed to fight for his camels that were seized by the Kings army. The moral of this story: 1. This faith belongs to Allah, and He will defend it with or without our support. 2. Fighting to defend our possessions and lives are a legitimate causes regardless of faith. 3. When our interests of faith and possession conflict, faith takes priority over possessions, thus possessions and lives are asked to be sacrificed for to preserve faith. 2. The Story of Romans vs Persians. The Moral of the above story was that the first battle was won by the Persians. The news reached Quresih who were jubilant that there Polytheist allies defeated the Monotheist People of the Book Romans. Qureish vowed that they like the Persians they will defeat the Monothiest Muslims which demoralized the Muslims. The Holy Quran, Romans Chapter, predicted that the Romans will win the next battle in few years, and that day, Muslims will be jubilant for victory Allah granted to Romans. Moral of Story: As Muslims we set our alliances based on our Ideology, not RACIAL nor NATIONAL, since they sympathized with the Romans and opposed their Nationally related Qureish. In Short, the closer one's ideology to ours, the stronger our moral support to them, hence the connection between the Ideology and Moral Sympathy. What remains is: When does the Moral sympathy translate to material support? The Holy Quraan sets the conditions as follows: a. That we should rise to support those who are oppressed, who: i. Are oppressed for the sole reason of saying that Allah is their only Lord. ii. An exception is when these oppressed people of our faith are under the domination of an adversary with whom we have standing a mutual covenant. Wa Allahu Aclam Nur

Haaruun Bro. Bismillah, we bihi nastaciin. First, except for specially designated Holy land, peoples of different faiths, be they Muslims or those who belong to spiritually challenged faiths are meant to live together in peace, I don't believe in religious or ethnic cleansing in Somalia or elsewhere, and like you said, I believe in Justice and peace based on Islam. Secondly, These days, propaganda is as lethal weapons if not more deadly than firearms, and increasingly our defeated warlords are resorting to dirty tactics of confusing the public by creating pseudo- religious groups, ( Walghow fiihi )discrediting the resistance by way of fabricating damaging stories or distorting facts using available media not equally accessible to the resistance. Thirdly, Islam does not teach inhumane treatment of one's enemies, torture and terrorizing the public, these are the specialty of the spiritually challenged faiths, not Islam. As you are aware, we have all seen Abu Ghreib prison pictures, Guantanamo and the atrocities of genocide, rape and burning of entire villages by Ethiopian Tigres of occupied Western Somalia documented by Human Rights watch and the indiscriminate bombardment of Mogadishu killing thousands and injuring hundreds of thousands. Still, if a legitimate Muslim resistance organization is found to have committed an ethical crime during resistance, we should all strive in opposing it and correcting it to bring the resistance effort in line with our moral standards, because the warlords have no moral limits, Islamic resistance in Somalia should abide by the divine law for which they are sacrificing their lives. Do I believe in these videos? Absolutely NO. Like they say: Don't believe ALL you hear and HALF of what you see! Nur

Shirk In Our Lives As planned, here is the first eNuri contribution for 1430H (2009), and what a better choice than the most important Islamic Topic of Shirk, the opposite of Tawheed, key to Allah's pleasure. Shirk which means making Allah a partner in the business of running affairs of mankind on earth has ancient roots in History. To understand practical everyday Shirk we first need to know Tawheed in a nutshell. Today, with Allah's help, let us device a protection mechanism against Shirk in our lives. Motivation: Allah SWT said, " Allah NEVER forgives that Partners are set who share his Sovereignty over his creatures, (But) He forgives anything else for whomsoever He pleases" What does the verse mean? It means that Shirk is an definite NO GO Area. You can fool around everywhere you please, including but not limited to drinking strong drinks like Camel Milk, after you become intellectually challenged due to to the influence of the Camel milk, you cross decency line at will to exhibit temporary disorder in the form of multiple violations of sexual norms, illegal accumulation of wealth or even harming people's property or their persons. Shirk is to Tawheed: Like darkness is to light Like ignorance is to Knowledge Like absolute Zero temperature is to Heat Like oppression is to Justice So, What is Tawheed? From a past response of mine on another thread, here is a summary of the concept. Tawheed can be classified in many ways, depending on the context. Tawheed In terms of relationship between man and His maker. 1. TAWAJJUH meaning seeking ALLAH and serving Him ALONE 2. TALAQII meaning receiveing guidance from ALLAH ALONE A. Major classifications of TAWHEED ULUUHIYA = Absolute supremacy, sovereignty, Source of peace, ultimate objective of love, emotional attachment and devotion. RUBOOBIA = Ownership, care taker, leadership, source of guidance. SIFAAT AND NAMES = Nature and Characteristics of Allah, and the descriptive attributes of Allah Before we subdivide ULUUHIYA, we need to define the term ilaah first. a. ilaah means source of REAL security, hence our need for seeking Him in prayers and offerings Shacaayir. b. ilaah means sovereign, hence need for seeking his commandments as criterion for justice HUKUM c. ilaah means the closest one to us, hence need for an ally and protector. Subdivision of ULUHIYA TAWHEED 1. TAWHEED ASH SHACAA'IR. "INNA SALAATII WA NUSUKII WA MAXYAAY WA MAMAATII LILLAH" " Verily my prayers, my offereings, my life and death are all dedicated for Allah alone" 2. TAWHEED AL WALAA " Afa gheyra Allahi attakhidu waliyaa" " shall i give my allegiance to other than Allah?" 3. TAWHEED AL HAAKIMIYYAH " Afa gheyra Allahi attakhidu hakaman?" shall i take other than Allah for a judge?" So, How does Shirk contrast with the above classifications? That will be the gist of this thread inshAllah in the days to come. We will be right back, don't go away................ .................... .......... .................... ...... 2009 eNuri Aqeeda Vigilantes If You Don't Stand For Allah Alone, You Will Fall For Everything Else.