Posts filed under 'History'
I had wanted to go to Kashmir ever since I visited Palestine in 2007. There are many similarities in the nature of the occupation as well as the struggles, both being nearly 63 years old. One difference is that while Israel is seen as an external occupying force in Palestine, the Kashmir issue is considered an ‘internal’ matter or a conflict between Pakistan and India and the voice of Kashmiris is often lost. As a result there are fewer international organizations monitoring the region and little information about the extent and impact of the occupation gets out.
Continue Reading June 18th, 2010
The difference between the true Muslim approach and the western approach is that Islam is based on co-existence and acculturation, while the dominant western civilization was based on the elimination of native people, settling in their land and expropriating their wealth after characterizing them as backward, primitive and ignorant to justify exterminating them.
Continue Reading December 11th, 2009
There is no better example of this than the crusades blessed by the popes. When the crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099, they massacred 30,000 Muslims and Jews. Contrast this with the compassion and magnanimity of the illustrious Saladin when he recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. He not only protected the Christian community — along with the Jews — but also their places of worship.
Relinked by request. Originally posted September 27th, 2006
Continue Reading September 14th, 2009
All of this can be confusing to those following the news. And rather irrelevant. We already know that the United States has been assassinating non-believers, or suspected non-believers, with regularity, and impunity, in recent years, using unmanned planes (drones) firing missiles, in Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia, if not elsewhere. (Even more victims have been produced from amongst those who happened to be in the same house, car, wedding party, or funeral as the non-believer.) These murders apparently don’t qualify as “assassinations”, for somehow killing “terrorists” from 2000 feet is morally and legally superior to doing so from two feet away.
Continue Reading August 7th, 2009
Contrary to popular belief Iran is not an Islamic state as outlined by the Quran and Sunnah. In Sunni Islam the Caliphate with the Caliph elected by the people is the benchmark whilst Shia Islam considers an infallible Imam appointed by Allah(SWT) as the legitimate ruler over the Islamic state. To understand the true reality of Iran one needs to consider the actual constitutional foundations of post-revolutionary Iran. An examination of the Iranian political system and comparison with the Islamic state of Muhammad(SAW) will reveal Iran as very much a man-making legislative quasi democracy couched in an Islamic garb which differs from the Western model only to the extent that it does not incorporate liberal social values in it’s political culture; it is not a ‘liberal democracy’ so to speak.
Continue Reading July 13th, 2009
What is probably the oldest known Bible is being digitised, reuniting its scattered parts for the first time since its discovery 160 years ago. It is markedly different from its modern
equivalent. What’s left out?
Continue Reading July 6th, 2009
“The first Zionists, up until the Arab Revolt [1936-1939], knew that there had been no exiling, and that the Palestinians were descended from the inhabitants of the land. They knew that farmers don’t leave until they are expelled.
“Even Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of the State of Israel, wrote in 1929 that, ‘the vast majority of the peasant farmers do not have their origins in the Arab conquerors, but rather, before then, in the Jewish farmers who were numerous and a majority in the building of the land.’”
Continue Reading April 20th, 2009
Israel is now trying to portray herself as a nation that is defending itself, while the truth is that Israel is a cruel occupying power trying to force a people out of their land. And this is being done with the help of some Arab nations; the very same nations that constantly talk about Arab and Muslim solidarity. These nations are: Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Continue Reading January 15th, 2009
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