A Time for Action

[Kashafa]

Daybreak. As the sun rises and light begins to fall, the horror of what has occurred begins to rear its ugly face. Where once stood buildings, there is rubble. Where once the laughter of children playing bellowed filled the town, there is silence. Where once brothers used to mingle is the litter of rotting corpses. The streets are empty, save for the dead and their murderers.

 

These past weeks have seen some of the most horrific crimes committed against any people, yet the whole world stood by and watched, with some utterances of condemnation, but really nothing else. The world stood by and watched whilst Palestinian homes were bulldozed down, where men irrespective of age or ability were branded terrorists and either summarily executed, taken away never to be seen again, or used as human shields, whilst children who would 'dare' to break the curfew in order to buy some bread to eat were shot, where sewage had to be drunk because no clean water was available, where hospitals and ambulances were used as target practice, where pregnant mothers were forced to give birth at checkpoints, where the dead were prohibited from being buried. These acts of savagery have shown the that for the Jews it is not enough to exterminate the Palestinians, they must humiliate their dead as well.

 

For many of us, these atrocities committed in Palestine is nothing but a soap- opera in which we turn on and tune in every day for the latest installment, to get our daily fix in order to appease ourselves that 'at least we care'. But then there are some who go further and actually do something, be it a march, petition, or boycotting goods: however in all honesty these are merely transient remedies for a much deeper wound. And then there are those who decide to take the brave step, who realize that the most precious possession they have to give, more than their time, money and status is their blood. They are the few of the few.

 

There are harrowing echoes of Bosnia, accounts of an elderly woman in a wheelchair stranded in a open field whilst IDF soldiers just watched and laughed at her helplessness and revelled in their power, and then of the mothers who risk their lives by breaking the curfew because they have no milk to feed their babies, or accounts of the elderly being forced to walk to in front of the Jewish tanks..….these stories are not fables of a bygone age of oppression, something from the stone age where men were savages, no, these are eye witnessed accounts of the brutality which our brothers and sisters of Palestine have suffered by the Jews. This, is the New World Order. However, these are the stories that the Ummah will never forget, these are the stories which will inspire a new generation of Mujahideen, these are the stories which will be fuel for the fire which, by the help of Allah, will soon engulf the Jews.

 

A Billion strong? Rather they call us the nation of a Billion cowards. When once they would only dare to whisper it amongst themselves, now they proclaim it openly, boasting that the Muslims will do nothing to help each other. Indeed the weight of evidence is on their side, for during the early days of the Afghanistan war there was much outrage in the Muslim Ummah, yet they continued undeterred, they even dared to kill our brothers and sisters in the month of Ramadan whilst we stood by and did nothing. Ask yourself why they are so confident?

 

Look outside your window, quiet isn't it? Now imagine that there are Apache Helicopters and American F-16 fighter jets circling menacingly above you, now begins the onslaught; one after another, relentlessly rockets are fired into your town, into your house, at your family. This is precisely what has happened in Palestine. They say this is a war on 'Terrorism', and civilians are being spared, funny, I didn't know a rocket could differentiate between a father and his son, funny I didn't know a rocket could differentiate between a mother and her daughter. Quite obviously my lack of education has brought about this ignorance, how uncivilized of me.

 

When you sleep tonight, look around your house, nice isn't it? Then think of the old mother who was at one moment sitting in her home much the same as you and I, in her sanctuary, and then in the blink of an eye found herself under a pile of rubble. This elderly mother had been buried alive by Israeli bulldozers as they tore through the streets. Imagine the depth of darkness she must have felt whilst being trapped beneath all that rubble, shouting but to no reply, crying but to no consolation she lay there starving, not knowing which would kill her first, starvation or suffocation. Then almost as angels the sons and daughters of Palestine rescue her. Imagine her unrestrained joy. Then she is taken to the hospital only to be told that eight other members of her family had been killed. The victims of the IDF genocide are many and varied. Take Sami Abda who lived in Bethelehem, but is now a prisoner of the IDF. He was sitting in his home when the IDF started firing into his home even though they had been forewarned that women and children were in it, but did they care? Then, almost inevitably Sami's mother and brother were shot and before him, before his own eyes. What does that do to a man? What would that do to you? Sami said:

 

" They hit my mother, Sumaya, and my brother Jacoub. My mother was 64, my brother was 37. They both fell to the floor. I called everyone I could to take them to the hospital. But there was no one to help us. They were dying. When an ambulance came, an Israeli officer refused permission for it to enter our street. So for 30 hours, we have lived with their bodies. We put the children into the bathroom so they could not see the corpses. Help us, please.''

 

"My mother ran for help. A soldier shot her in the head" His is not an isolated case. In Jenin, the town of the slaughtered, Abdullah Washai watched his 17 year old brother bleed to death in his arms after being shot by circling helicopters made and paid for by the USA. His mother not being able to simply watch her son whom she had carried in her womb, the son whom she had fed when he couldn't feed himself, the son whom she had cleaned when he couldn't clean himself, she could not just stand by and watch him die. A brave warrior she ran out into the street, with no care for her personal safety screaming for help, but none came. Only a bullet from Jewish terrorists into her head.

 

So please tell the little girl in Jenin who is forced to drink sewage because no clean water is available, who is sobbing because her mother has been taken away whilst her father was mudered, tell her not to worry because a petition is coming, tell her not to worry because you went on a rally with thousands of others around the world but then returned to your every day life, tell her not to worry because you have written to your local Member of Parliament and he is really sorry so many people are dying. Tell her not to worry because when you finish your studies you are going to be successful and more recognized in the community and then when you talk people will listen. But then she says I need you now. And whilst you wait, dithering, deliberating, about how much more useful to Islam you will be as a Doctor, or as a Banker, or as Lawyer, whilst you sit there and convince yourself of these lies, yet another Israeli tank rolls into another street, yet another Israeli bulldozer ruthlessly crushes another house burying the family alive, yet another Israeli soldier slaughters our innocent brothers and sisters, and whilst we wait yet another Ayesha cries out for her brother to come and help her now. But then she stops crying, because she realizes, that her brothers in the Ummah have love for this Dunya and a hatred for the death. And then you pause momentarily as you reflect, and you feel sad for a while, but then you just turn the TV on shrugging your shoulders muttering to yourself 'What can I do about it?'

 

Sleep well tonight, as the tears of Jenin echoes through your heart. May Allah forgive us for allowing our brothers and sisters to have been slaughtered, may Allah forgive us for standing idly by whilst our fathers have been slaughtered, may Allah forgive us for allowing our mothers to have been slaughtered, and may Allah forgive us for allowing our children to have been slaughtered.

 

No more tears. Let these four walls bear witness to the last burning tear drop trickle down my face, no more tears, the time for action is upon us. 'There is only one death, so why not make it for the sake of Allah?'

 

"And what is wrong with you that you fight not in the Cause of Allâh, and for those weak, illtreated and oppressed among men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You one who will protect, and raise for us from You one who will help." [4:75]

 

"Fight against them so that Allâh will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people" [9:14]

 

"O you who believe! What is the matter with you, that when you are asked to march forth in the Cause of Allâh (i.e. Jihâd) you cling heavily to the earth? Are you pleased with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? But little is the enjoyment of the life of this world as compared with the Hereafter." [9:38]

 

 

Author: Unknown

[Socod_badne]

Lay Down the Law to the Killers of Khartoum

 

By Kenneth Roth, published in The International Herald Tribune, June 3, 2004.

 

 

When foreign ministers from major countries meet in Geneva on Thursday, June 3, to address the horror in Darfur, they must demand in no uncertain language that Sudan's government stop the ethnic cleansing there.

 

 

GENEVA: When foreign ministers from major countries meet in Geneva on Thursday to address the horror in Darfur, they must demand in no uncertain language that Sudan's government stop the ethnic cleansing there.

 

A million people have been chased from their homes in the west of Sudan; untold thousands have been murdered or raped. Hundreds of thousands face imminent death from starvation and disease.

 

The public knows little about their plight because the Sudanese government has been refusing visas to humanitarian workers and journalists, and entering Darfur over the border from Chad is risky. But the Darfur crisis is just as pressing as Bosnia in 1993, if not more so. The United Nations recently called it the world's biggest humanitarian disaster.

 

The foreign ministers meeting in Geneva should commit generous resources for humanitarian relief and human rights monitoring; insist on unhindered access; demand that the appointed UN humanitarian coordinator be allowed to take up his post, and ensure that humanitarian programs do not inadvertently promote ethnic cleansing.

 

But they must not stop there.

 

As in Bosnia, the people of Darfur need foreign aid so desperately because armed forces have been committing crimes against humanity in their villages. Unless those crimes are stopped, reversed and punished, the humanitarian crisis will continue.

 

Left to its own devices, the Sudanese government will not stop those crimes; on the contrary, it is sponsoring them. Deploying militia known as Janjaweed with the backing of government troops and aircraft, it has pursued a scorched-earth campaign against the members of three African ethnic groups. Hundreds of villages have been left in smoking ruins.

 

Intense international pressure is needed to force the government to end these atrocities and permit the displaced to return home.

 

Last week, Human Rights Watch and others briefed the UN Security Council, the body most capable of putting pressure on Sudan. We told of the deadly campaign in Darfur. We described the remedial steps needed. Council members listened attentively. But their public statement fell short of what is needed.

 

When the Security Council wants to insist on action, it adopts a mandatory resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. But in the case of Darfur, it issued only a nonbinding statement. Instead of "demanding" action, it politely "urged" it. It did "condemn" the atrocities - a useful step. But it didn't even name the perpetrator, as if these government-directed atrocities were somehow spontaneous eruptions.

 

Sudan's government undoubtedly noticed these distinctions. A few days later, on May 28, its aircraft attacked a village in northern Darfur on market day, killing at least 12. In a weeklong spree that coincided with the Security Council statement, 3,000 Janjaweed were reportedly marauding in southern Darfur, burning villages and killing civilians, apparently heeding President Omar al-Bashir's plea to "secure" the area. These atrocities make a mockery of a cease-fire agreement reached on April 8.

 

Western governments are filled with excuses for why more can't be done. The African Union is handling it, they say. The African Union is playing a useful role trying to implement the cease-fire agreement, but it has no mandate to protect civilians or reverse ethnic cleansing. Nor does it begin to have the clout of the Security Council.

 

Pressing too hard on Darfur might upset the peace process in southern Sudan, they say. There, a conflict decades long is waning, with a milestone political agreement signed last week. Growing international attention to Darfur has not upset that process. But Khartoum can hardly be a reliable partner for peace in the south if it is simultaneously murdering civilians and blocking emergency relief in the west.

 

But where will peacekeepers for Darfur come from? some governments ask. The African Union has offered limited troops to protect cease-fire observers. But commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in Africa mean that Western militaries are depleted. With slaughter raging in Darfur, the only way to avoid the need for peacekeepers is to send an unequivocal message to Khartoum now.

 

It is time to move from lip service to conviction. The Security Council should insist, in mandatory language, on pain of targeted sanctions, that ethnic cleansing stop and conditions for the safe return of the displaced be established. Only such clarity stands a chance of being heeded by the killers of Khartoum.

 

Kenneth Roth is executive director of Human Rights Watch.

 

Human Rights Watch

[Captain Xalane]

Brother Kashafa are u really serious?And suppose we all had to do something,what can we do?