As if the last post wasn't enough, more and more incidents are arising. The Zionists are dead set against truth and against peace, and don't care who is asking for it, Muslim Christian or Jew.....

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/05/teaneck-harassment-trial-involves-pro-palestinian-bumper-stickers.html

US support for Israel must be conditioned on adherence to international law, UN resolutions, human rights, and a commitment to real peace. The settlements must end, the abusive settlers must be stopped, and a new era of fair diplomacy must begin.

Hmmmm.....
Where to start....
Well, of course, besides thwarting any chance of peace, Israel and its supporters have been busy....
First, they had their own diplomats expelled from the UK and Australia in response to their use of falsified passports to commit an assasination of a Palestinian in Dubai.
Hmm...
Then they denied entry to Noam Chomsky, a Jewish thinker, author and professor, who happens to be critical of Israeli aggression. Of course, their supporters took it a step further, attacking the home of Rabbi Lerner of Tikkun, who advocates peace and is critical of the Israeli aggression. As if death threats to shut him up weren't enough... In addition, an AP exam was the subject of outrage by zionists for using a quote by Edward Said. I guess the word Palestinian is offensive to the zionists because no one actually lived on the land they settled on (due to their historical and religious right) and continue to settle in. The homes they constantly demolish, such as the one that Rachel Corrie, Gods mercy and blessings be upon her soul, stood to protect, are Darwinian evolutionary phenomena. They just magically came together, and just the same the Israelis can take them apart. The settlers themselves are very respectful of human rights, as you can see below:



They actually begin the civic duty and human rights training early for those wonderful settlers:


The Gaza blockade continues. A group of international aid ships will not be allowed to reach Gaza according to the Israelis, despite the obvious humanitarian crisis they themselves caused.

This just in, Israel offered to sell the nuclear technology it constantly lies about having, despite its foremost criticism of Iran for trying to get the same technology, to its former brother in Apartheid, South Africa. Of course, what do we expect other than new lies of denial, even though the agreement has the signature of the current president of Israel, Shimon Peres, and Botha of South Africa.

And what does the world do about all this?

Well, our government approved more military aid for Israel.
And the EU said Palestinian aid would be cut if there is no peace. Regardless of if the Palestinians or the Israels cause the lack of a peace deal.
We even threatened to cut aid to Lebanon.

We live in a fair and balanced world. Thank you Faux News! The real story is so telling. We don't even have to spin it.

The headlines are shouting "Fugitive cleric al-Awlaki warns of future attacks" or "American-born cleric praised in al Qaeda audio message‎" or "US-Born al Qaeda Cleric Says Kill Americans" or "Radical cleric justifies killing of US civilians"....

Clearly Mr. Awlaki has lost his marbles.
Because he has turned his back on the principles and history of the faith which he professes to follow and teach.

The last headline is especially telling. In Islam, there is no justification for wrong. The history of the Prophet Muhammad is abundantly clear with that message. When the Muslims were persecuted, tortured and even killed during the Meccan era, the message by the Prophet was patience and perseverance in the face of the wrong. When they negotiated a treaty with Meccans, from Madina, which was seemingly imbalanced in favor of the Meccans, he honored his agreement, even if it meant turning back new converts. During the Madinan period, when he was undermined by the hypocrites, and the son of the chief hypocrite offered to kill his own father to end the controversy, he insisted that such an act would be unacceptable, unjustifiable and wrong. Even in war, prisoners of war and those who surrendered and even local vegetation had rights, even in the heat of the battle, let alone civilians. Lastly, suicide is strictly forbidden, even on the battlefield, and that is an undeniable and indisputable fact and principle.

The principles that underly our faith, and the noble history of those who practised it clearly make the words of this individual baseless. For him to support and suggest for the major in the Ft Hood tragedy and the young Nigerian in the Christmas day event to carry out such heinous acts, it begs the question, has this guy lost his marbles? Perhaps his call for "killing Americans" is a suicidal call for his own death?

I can't say for sure. All I can say is he and others need to stop misrepresenting our noble religion. You want to carry on as such, make sure to distance yourself from the religion and principles you clearly are violating and tarnishing its name.

McManus v. Fulton, 278 P. 126 (1929).


OPINION: [*172] [**127] MR. CHIEF JUSTICE CALLAWAY delivered the opinion of the court.

During the March term, just ended, the judgment of the trial court was reversed by a three to two decision. Two opinions were filed. Considering the case upon motion for a rehearing and as a result of an extensive study of the authorities one of the justices has changed [***2] his mind, now being of the opinion that the judgment ought to be affirmed. In coming to this conclusion he but followed the commendable rule of judicial conduct expressed a thousand years ago by Khalif Omar, instructing his first Kadi: "If today thou seest fit to judge differently from yesterday, do not hesitate to follow the truth as thou seest it; for truth is eternal, and it is better to return to the true than to persist in the false."

On CNN's Ireport, there was a very cool pictorial of Sun halos and other natural phenomena. A sun halo occurs when there are extremely high cloud formations distorting the view of the Sun. Eg.

Check out the images at http://www.ireport.com/ir-topic-stories.jspa?topicId=441262&hpt=Sbin

Frankie Boyle, a Scottish comedian with a show on BBC, said the following during an episode, 'I'm quite interested in the Middle East, I'm actually studying that Israeli army martial arts. And I know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back.

''It's a difficult question to understand. I've got an analogy which explains the whole thing quite well: If you imagine that Palestine is a cake - well, that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.'

The BBC has since apologized due to complaints of Anti-Semitism (Humorous anecdote: The host of the show Andy Zaltzman himself is Jewish).

What is anti semitic about the statement? Hmmm... Let me think about this. 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back? Lets do a quick google search for Israeli soldiers or even settlers abusing Palestinians.... WOW plenty of results there.

How about the analogy, Palestine is a cake that is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew?

Hmm.... Just recently we keep hearing about how Israel continues to build its settlements irrespective of them being on territories they illegally occupy. Even in today's paper, a mayor and founder of a settlement in the middle of the west bank seems to try to establish that his illegal settlement founded 32 years ago is not going anywhere and is a permanent fixture.... One that requires a four lane highway to bisect Palestinian territories, in the middle of Palestinian territory, on land they had no right to whatsoever.

Rachel Corrie who was murdered by the Israelis 7 years ago is a testament to "punched to pieces". She stood as a human shield to Israeli bulldozers destroying another Palestinian home. And the Israelis had no qualms whatsoever about running her over with said bulldozer, which was made by my and Rachel's home country (USA by Caterpillar) and likely given for free as part of our huge annual aid package to Israel. Or about faking dozens of passports of nations they are allies with and sending their assassin squads to other countries to murder people.

I guess the only part that really stands out as potentially anti semitic is the use of the term Angry Jew. (I would even argue that labelling the crimes of the Israelis as being related to their Jewish faith is a slap in the face of the faith. No faith would allow them to justify such crimes. It is truly a tragedy that the Zionists have taken such terms and the association of Israel to the Jewish religion and cheapened them to justify their own ends.)

So on behalf of the BBC, Mr. Boyle and anyone else I apologize(not that I represent them or anything, but hey we all got to do our best to promote peace and harmony). The Israelis are abusing, murdering and stealing from the Palestinians, but they are not doing it because they are angry. They are very calm in committing their crimes.
(see for example the pictures of the guys in the Dubai hotel casually strolling in their tennis outfits and carrying their tennis rackets right before they murdered someone?)

Story link: http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2010/04/30/10922/franke_boyle%3A_bbc_are_cowards

For more on the occupation, I highly recommend the movie Occupation101

Side anecdote: There has been a recent proposal sponsored by Egypt to make the entire middle east a nuclear free zone. I am definitely in favor of this proposal, as it will mitigate the Iranian crisis we are currently watching, by removing the Israeli nuclear threat which underlies the power imbalance of the region. Unfortunately, as is typical with most well meaning peace initiatives, Israel thumbed its nose at it.

In light of the Christmas day attempted bombing of the KLM flight, I am definitely in favor of stronger security measures in today's day and age. I was sort of in the middle when it came to those new body scanners. On one side, I can totally understand civil liberties groups and individuals complaining about the privacy issues. I can also see the need for better technology to ensure the safety of all.

Well, recently, the staff who are supposed to be utilizing the technology, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), had a flare up because of the technology and the potential privacy issues they raise. Read more at http://us.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/05/06/tsa.scanner.assault/index.html?hpt=T2 and try not to laugh.

We have gone through a rough period of time recently. Terror attacks or attempted terror attacks are on the rise. From Columbine, to 9/11, to the Mumbai attacks, to the failed Christmas day Nigerian bomber, to Joseph Stack flying his plane into the IRS building, to Major Hasan attacking his colleagues in Fort Hood, to the arrests of the Hutarees, to the stabbing of dozens of school children in China, etc etc. In the last two days, explosives were planted in Times Square and on the route of a marathon in Pennsylvania, and thank God, both attempts failed.

Recently, the administration decided to stop using such inflammatory terms as "Islamic terrorism". With good reason too... Lets evaluate the term first as a term and secondly in light of the recent incidents.

As a term Islamic terrorism is an oxymoron. Islam does permit and support self defense, and sets clear guidelines for warfare, should war arise. These guidelines are very clear, and include protections for among other things, enemies who surrender, civilians and even vegetation. It is also clear that to attack someone is forbidden, but to fight back when you are attacked is sanctioned. Islam clearly does not permit indiscriminate attacks.

From the basic greeting Muslims are obligated to share Salam Alaykum (Peace be unto you), it is a religion founded on and dedicated to peace.

Further, the killing of one person is clearly described in the Quran as equal to killing all of humanity. The value of human life, especially innocent human life, is extremely sacred.

Are there Muslim nutjobs? Clearly, since it is the second largest religion by adherents in the planet, we will have our share!
Are there those who try to justify or rationalize their crimes through twisting their religion? No doubt.
But they in no way are redefining or changing the religion or the principles upon which it is founded. To demonize the religion is akin to demonizing Christianity for the Inquisition, Hitler or the priest abuse scandals, or demonizing Judaism for the Israeli occupation.

What really strikes me about these incidents is how misguided the perpetrators are.

The Mumbai attacks to me are the most disgusting horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life, even beyond Columbine. A group of young men planned and carried out an attack where they walked through one of the most populous cities of the world and indiscriminately shot people. Over 500 of them at that. A quick search of the list of those who died reveals that of the 172 who died, at least 36 of them where Muslim(not to focus on only those victims but to make a point about the perpetrators). The religion clearly establishes that murder of anyone is a crime punishable by death, and murder of a fellow believer is a guaranteed ticket to hell. How could these lunatics justify what they did? It clearly had absolutely 0 basis from their religion. I was truly glad to see that the lone captured gunman was convicted. Hopefully he will meet his maker soon. I was also delighted that the Muslim cemeteries in India refused to accept the bodies of the other gunman. (See http://us.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/03/india.mumbai.verdict/index.html) I would not want my family cemetery to house such remains of such vile criminals next to my relatives' remains.

The Christmas day bomber was a seemingly bright 23 year old who burned himself trying to attack a commercial jetliner. I am sure that at least 25-60% of the passengers were Muslims. What would he have achieved? Was it purely a case of suicidal rage? Or was he an imbalanced individual, equipped and sent by criminals to carry out a horrendous crime?

Lets look at the New York Times Square attack. Who would the victims have been (assuming it was a perpetrator who claims to be Muslim)? Locals, tourists? I am pretty sure that at least 20% of street vendors in NYC are Muslim (including one of the first and closest witnesses to the scene)? Cabbies in NYC are, my guess, at least 30% Muslim(according to one source upwards of 85%). And with the general population of the US being approximately 3-4% Muslim, in addition to Muslim tourists, the crime would have impacted the Muslim community as much as the broader community. No different than 9/11, where Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists and all other faiths suffered just the same. My brother had a colleague of Greek heritage who had converted to Islam and was with his pregnant Pakistani wife on one of the planes. A Muslim firefighter was shockingly suspected of some involvement for months, until they found his body with other first responders.

My point is not to focus on the potential victims and what percentage of them were Muslim. Every victim is a tragedy. Every victim is someone's brother, sister, mother or father. Every victim has a family they provide for, who will now suffer. No matter their religion, no matter their ethnic heritage, no matter any characteristic they may have. Each victim is a tragedy for all of humanity.

The young misguided people who have carried out some of these crimes, with their whole lives ahead of them, the question begs WHY? Some might justify actions by blaming foreign policy, inequality, oppression in places, historical incidents etc. But no religion allows you to justify wrongs based on wrongs. As our parents always taught us, two wrongs don't make a right.

In this age, with movies and games that glorify warfare and criminal activity(#10 best selling game of all time is Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, 4 of top 10 PC games of all times are first person shooter games), is it really a stretch if an individual with some misguided passions acts in such ways that have come to seem almost natural to them? Let alone someone with serious issues? These games are definitely not the underlying problem, but they definitely contribute.

Terrorism is terrorism pure and simple, no matter who perpetrates it. We must try to understand what is causing these misguided people to do what they do. We may not solve every problem or prevent every criminal, but at least by trying to come up with the reasons and solutions, hopefully we can stop being part of or contributing to the problem.