New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

[Biggest Islamic web site in the U.S.]
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Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily shared by editorial committee.
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WHY IS MOST of AFRICA MUSLIM?
One major reason: Islam opposes Slavery

"And what will explain to thee the path that is steep? - It is the freeing of the slave." [The Qur'an 90:12-13]

Bara' bin ‘Azib (r.a.) narrates that a dweller of the desert came to the messenger of Allah and said: O messenger of Allah, tell me of a deed which will help me to enter Paradise. He (the messenger) replied: Your question is short but the issue you have asked for is extensive.( The short answer is): Free the slave (you have) and help free the slave who is looking for help to free himself. [Hadith. Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.]

Abu Huraira (r.a.) narrates: The messenger of Allah, pbuh, said: One who frees the enslaved believer, Allah will free each part of his body (from hell fire) for each part of the freed slave's body. [Hadith. Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Nasai.] [Imam Ali ibn Hussain, Zainul Abedin, freed his most "expensive" slave on hearing this Hadith.]

According to Imam Abu Hanifa, freeing slaves is among the greatest of good deeds.
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President Bush in Senegal: Someone Gave Him the Wrong Speech to Read
[From our Africa Monitor]

From media coverage of President Bush's visit to Africa, it appears that he is being kept away from the masses of Africa. His gatherings are very small and carefully selected.

However, in spite of all the care, the tour started off on the wrong foot. It appears that Bush's speech writers did not realize that Senegal is a Muslim country and gave him a speech to read which was ostensibly written for a Christian audience. He talked about Equino who became a Christian and spoke of acceptance by the Lord!

Bush was ill at ease with African issues and READ almost the entire speech. The speech itself was poorly written and seemed to have been copied from some High School Black History text. A major blunder in the speech was that although it was supposed to be against slavery, the President referred to a poem of Phyllis Wheatley. Was the speech written by a White Supremacist trying to demean Africa?

Wheatley was a naive young African slave girl who wrote of SLAVERY AS A BLESSING because without slavery, the slaves would not have become Christians. Thus slavery, she thought, brought Africans to Jesus and they became saved. [Her poetry is being used by Christian groups in America who are concerned about extensive conversions to Islam in America's African-American communities.]

For Phyllis Wheatley to be included in a presidential propaganda speech against slavery was a cruel joke against Africa.

The Senegalese audience looked ill at ease and bored by the lecturing tone of the American president.
[To be continued.]
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2003-07-12 Sat 14:31ct