New Trend Magazine (www.newtrendmag.org)

[Biggest Islamic web site in the U.S.]
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087. Phone: 410-435-5000.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily shared by editorial committee.
Responses (positive or negative) up to 250 words are welcome.
Names will be withheld on request.

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IMAM JAMIL PHOTO: We have received an interesting photo of Imam Jamil al-Amin when he led a procession in New York to support the Muslims of Bosnia. Most of his face is visible. The photo will be posted on our web site in a few days. The Imam of America always cared for Muslims overseas. Muslims must unite in his defense.
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STRANGE PAKISTANI NEWS: The Chief Of Pakistan's air force and a whole group of other officers were killed when their plane crashed near the Afghan frontier. According to the Pakistani government, it was an accident.
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Israel's America: Muslim Professor, Sami al-Arian, Arrested as Terrorist!
Bush Supporter Did Not Realize that the Zionists had Taken Over
Ashcroft Strikes Blow at Palestine: Zakat (Islamic charity) becomes "racketeering"

[At the initiative of Imam Badi Ali, Greensboro, North Carolina, JUSTICE FOR SAMI AL-ARIAN Committee is being set up. Broad support from all groups interested in justice is being solicited. Write to: badi323@aol.com.]

An American university professor is arrested from his home in Tampa, Florida and led away in manacles like a criminal. Sami Al-Arian puts on a brave face at this humilation as his family watches in horror. That is Israel's America where anyone can be arrested at any time and branded as a terrorist, labeled as a man of death and destruction on the mass media and led away to solitary confinement.

In the afternoon of February 20, 2003, America's top "justice" officer, attorney general Ashcroft came on TV from coast-to-coast and told millions of Americans that Prof. Al-Arian is the leader of a terrorist organization called Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Read Ashcroft's statement: It's all about Israel. Islamic Jihad did this to Israel and did that to Israel, and as Al-Arian is allegedly part of that organization, then he must be tried for being a terrorism organizer and sentenced to life in prison! His associates too have been arrested or will be arrested.

Even in Ashcroft's hate laden words, Prof. Al-Arian has done NOTHING AGAINST AMERICA. Whatever he has done was against Israel. MOST AMERICAN MUSLIMS ARE ASKING: ARE WE LIVING IN AMERICA OR IS THIS ISRAEL? The reality is sinking in that the Zionists have taken over. The life, goods and honor of anyone opposed to Israel are now facing open season with the Zionist hand coming out of the sleeve of Ashcroft.

A new line of oppression was crossed on February 20. ACADEMIC FREEDOM and university tenure is no longer a protection against a burgeoning police state.

ZAKAT IS A FORM OF RACKETEERING! As it came out in the case of Enam Arnout, Ashcroft's people place charges of "racketeering" on Muslims who want to help the people of their countries if in any way the Zakat (charity) helps Islamic resistance or brings healing to the lives of widows and orphans resulting from the occupation of Palestine by the Zionists (or from the occupation of Chechnia by the Russians, as in the case of Arnaut). MEDIA BARRAGE FOLLOWS ASHCROFT'S CHARGES: Hardly had the words of accusation and hate left Ashcroft's mouth, the mass media, controlled by the Zionists, rushed in to condemn Prof. Al-Arian. MSNBC had Steve Emerson gloating over the fate of the Muslim professor. At night CNN brought out the father of a man killed in a Palestinian attack in occupied Palestine, as if Prof. Al-Arian had been convicted in the death of his son!

WHAT CAN BE DONE: The Muslims of America face a clear choice. They can either be the slaves of a Zionist-controlled America, shut their mouths, kiss Bush's hand and forget about Islam except as a ritual of prayer (not unlike the churches where people sing all day about Jesus, pbuh) without saying a word about the takeover of America by the Zionist Jews.

Or they can stand up for the truth, organize, mobilize, reach out to the people of America, and prepare to go to prison. Future generations of Muslims will either be inspired by what we do today as dignified human beings, or Islam will be a mere story, enshrined as a minority religion in licensed mosques.

A major change can be made IF MUSLIMS BREAK OUT OF THE ORGANIZATIONS which are supporting the government. People like the ISNA-types (Muzammil Siddiqui, etc) who had an FBI stall in their last convention, and Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, need to clarify their position. Do they believe in the Qur'an and the authentic teachings of the Prophet (pbuh)? If so, and we hope that they do, then why the silence about the tyranny of Bush?

Why this silence, as Sis. Karen English asked? Remember that Prof. Al-Arian supported the movement to vote for Bush. Nothing will come of such kow-towing. The Zionists have taken over and the MUSLIMS MUST STAND UP and defy tyranny. Do not wait for people to be picked up one at a time.
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Warith Deen Muhammad's bewildering Silence on atrocities against Muslims [The editor of Imam W.D. Muhammad's paper, "Muslim Journal," Sis. Ayesha, blasted Br. Kaukab Siddique for writing a poem about her Imam. She called Br. Kaukab names like "Abu Lahab." Actually the powerful poem was written by Sis. Karen English. Here is Sis. Karen English's reply to Sis. Ayesha.]
[More letters to follow.]

Dear Sr. Ayesha:

The purpose of this letter is to clear up a misunderstanding. I am the author of the poem written to Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, not Brother Kaukab Siddique. I wrote that poem because of profound sadness and dismay concerning his most bewildering silence about the growing war on Islam and all the wrongs currently being committed against Muslims.

I cannot compartmentalize myself and think because I'm African American, these things have nothing to do with me. I cannot think that I am not that grandmother who goes out to buy an Eid gift and is gunned down or the little girl who's shot in her window. I am every Muslim who bows down to Allah beseeching Him for succour. I am the Muslim who has to live under apartheid in Palestine (a system kept in place by our tax dollars). Sister, have a heart. You would want someone to speak out for you. We shouldn't be so arrogant and smug that we don't take attacks on Islam ---in this country and in the world---personally.

My poem was inspired by frustration and pain. I could quote hadith and verses from the Qur'an that support my sentiments but I'm sure you know them, already.

If you feel the need to blast someone, blast me, the author of the poem. "and give me no respite! Behold, I have placed my trust in Allah who is my Sustainer and your Sustainer, too, for there is no living creature which He does not hold by its forelock." 11:55-56

Your sister-in-Islam,
Karen English
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BARRED MUSLIM CHAPLAIN TO ADDRESS MEDIA

Warith Deen Umar, the retired New York State Department of Corrections Chaplain who was recently barred from entry to state prisons, and fired from his job as a Muslim Chaplain in the federal prison system, will address the media on issues surrounding the controversial statements attributed to him in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Umar was the focus of a February 5, 2003 article entitled How a Muslim Chaplain Spread Extremism to an Inmate Flock, by WSJ staff reporter Paul Barrett. The debarred chaplain was quoted as saying amongst other things, that the (Sept. 11th) hijackers should be honored as martyrs, The Quran does not condemn terrorism against oppressors of Muslims, even if innocent people die, and that African American prisoners who convert to Islam are natural candidates for terrorism attacks.
Umar has declared of the reports that they were wrong, false, a misrepresentation of the truth, and a patchwork of lies, half-truths, twisted facts, and mis-quotes. He has retained a lawyer, and will announce legal action to be taken in response to his disbarment from correctional facilities. Further, he will address various statements attributed to him, and state forthrightly his condemnation of the Sept. 11th attacks, in quote from an unpublished book written by him, which he claims to have given to reporter Barrett.
Umar claims that the WSJ writer and editors took license in using statements out of context from that book, mis-quoted him in a way so as to cast a menacing image of Islam.
Monday February 24, 2003
PLACE: THE MANHATTAN MASJID
12 WARREN STREET (BETWEEN BROADWAY & CHURCH ST.) MANHATTAN
TIME: 10 A.M.
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2003-02-21 Fri 08:58ct