Dr Kaukab Siddique | Editor-in-Chief ---------------------------------------------------------
Muharram 30, 1426/March 11, 2005 #20
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Scroll way down to shattering article by Edward Miller on Lynne Stewart/Ahmed/Yusry conviction which pinpoints Zionist role in Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman's case. New Trend's veteran writer Miller proves he is still among the best.
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There goes Democracy!

Russia's secret service has murdered Maskhadov,

Chechen president who was elected by a landslide of voters. Not a peep out of the Bush White House over this murder of a duly elected representative of the CHECHEN PEOPLE.
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On March 19th demonstrations in support of Lynne Stewart will be held in cities across the country. See
(www.lynnestewart.org)

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Student Arrested for Distributing anti-Military Flyers

Recently, Tom Keenan, a student at William Patterson University, was arrested by campus police while distributing anti-military recruitment literature.
This was at an event in the atrium that was meant for the public to attend.
According to several witnesses, Tom Keenan was behaving in an orderly manner and well within his First Amendment Rights. He was told during the arrest that he was being arrested for disorderly conduct, but was actually charged with defiant trespassing. Trespassing at a public event at a school he lives at and pays to attend!

This arrest and silencing of free speech is unjust at best and oppressive at worst. He was not breaking ANY laws.

This gross violation of justice WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. We will fight to have Tom's charges dropped for the preservation of student rights, civil rights, and FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. The silencing of one of us will be the silencing of us all unless we fight back.

call William Paterson University president Arnold Speert between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to tell him: Arnold Speert 973-720-2222 speerta@wpunj.edu

Speert's response has been that Tom got a disorderly ticket for blocking the recruiter's table, but even the recruiter told the police that Tom was not harassing them. It is important that possible recruits are give ALL the information about what they would be signing up for and that those organizations that use discriminatory hiring practices and not be invited to future "job fairs"

STUDENTS ARE NOT TRESPASSERS - MILITARY RECRUITERS OFF CAMPUS AND OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES!
http://www.anti-racist.org/defendtomkeenan/
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War News: compiled by New Trend's Media Monitor

IRAQ
U.S. Media Fading Out Military Losses: Focusing on Attacks on Shi'ites

Instead of Iraq, Michael Jackson's sex life is being discussed on U.S. TV screens. Here is why.

According to figures released by the Pentagon, the number of U.S troops killed in action in Iraq rose from 1440 on January 31 [immediately after the election farce] to 1506 on March 4.
However, only 6 of these 66 deaths were mentioned on U.S. TV screens. Obviously the correct news is that the jihad against the U.S. armada in Iraq has not abated after the propaganda parade which was sold as "free elections" to mislead the American public.

Instead of the ongoing attacks on U.S. troops, the American public is being shown attacks on Iraqi "shi'ites' by the [sunni] "insurgents]. These are presented as random terror attacks. The impression is given that the Iraqi [Shi'ites] are now in charge of "their" country and the insurgents are killing them

New Trend's study of the biggest such attack, at Hilla, indicates that the targets were not innocent "shi'ites" but recruits to the mercenary force which the U.S. is building from its $87 billion Iraq budget. These soldiers had already been hired and had lined up for their medical check up when the martyrdom operator struck wiping out the entire unit, killing 120 of the mercenaries and wounding 155.
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"Mommy, I didn't know there were so many 'terrorists'"

Historic Hizbollah Rally in Beirut Shatters Bush's Hope of Easy Victory in Lebanon

New Trend Report

More than a million people rallied in Beirut on March 8 at the call of Hizbullah. They focused on Israeli and U.S. interference in Lebanon as THE problem. In a powerful speech, Shaikh Nasrallah reminded the U.S. that the Islamic people of Lebanon are willing to defend themselves in spite of the military power of the U.S. Beirut has never seen such a big expression of people's power. It brought to a crunching halt President Bush's dreams of a walk over, specially after the groveling of the Syrian regime which had scrambled to accomodate American demands.

The earlier pro-American rallies organized by the Maronites for several days were puny by comparison but were hailed as expressions of 'democracy' by President Bush. Hizbullah is labeled a "terrorist" organization by the U.S. though most observers wonder what the term terrorist could mean when applied to Hizbullah. It's become a tired term and simply means "a Muslim who will fight back."

LEBANON COULD BE STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY TO BLEED ISRAEL:

Analysts say, if Hizbullah could draw Israeli forces into Lebanon and then let the mujahideen bleed the Jews, it could teach Israel a lesson and move it towards its inevitable doom. ISRAEL might be tempted to attack Syria because Syria is such an easy target from the point of view of conventional warfare. The more the Syrians grovel, the bolder the Israelis become. The February 25 martyrdom operation in Tel Aviv was blamed by Israel on Syria although the martyr was from Islamic Jihad. The martyr came out of the West Bank and Islamic Jihad has only a political office in Damascus; however Israel blamed Syria and seemed to be tempted to attack Damascus. From the Islamic point of view, Israel, if given more such temptation, could actually attack. If it could be tempted to send its troops into Lebanon and then pinned down there, as the U.S. has been in Iraq, the mujahideen would finally meet the Jews in battle. Observers say, it's about time the meeting took place.
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AFGHANISTAN: [As reported in Urdu language papers.]

UNUSUAL PROTEST in KANDAHAR: Attempt to Take over Governor's House.

On March 7, nearly 1300 people marched in Kandahar. They were protesting the Karzai regime's failure to stop child kidnappers. The police attacked the protestors at which violence erupted between them. Shots were fired as the marchers tried to force their way into the governor's house. Two police were killed and 4 wounded while 3 civilians were killed and 5 wounded. Hundreds of people were arrested.

As the clashes spread, a number of government offices and jeeps were set on fire.
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On March 7, a British contractor was shot and killed by the Taliban in Kabul. The Karzai government said that it cannot believe that the Taliban could strike in Kabul.

On the same day, in Helmand province, 3 Karzai police were killed and 4 wounded in a Taliban ambush.

Earlier on February 25, also in Helmand province, NINE troops of the Karzai regime were killed in a battle with the Taliban, and their American supervisor wounded. Later the Karzai regime, as a propaganda ploy, claimed that the dead men were not troops but "smugglers," much to the chagrin of their commander. [The Afghan media did not mention the U.S. supervisor though this was mentioned on U.S. TV.]
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Letter

In Defense of W.D. Muhammad

As Salaamu Alaikum,
In the light of all we need to do as Muslims more of us should be very concerned about the following:
  1. Developing strong Muslim families and a support base for them.


  2. Developing Islamic Education. We are losing Islamically based and ran schools yearly.


  3. Educating the masses so when something comes up like the references in Imam WD Mohammed speech at Lincoln University and or Dr. Amina Wadud leading a mixed gender prayer we do not go to "nut city" making these situations the highlight of our lives. We are so small as a community at times when it comes to disagreeing on issues.
We all have the right to state, speak and or write our opinions. We also have the right to error. How we handle our errors small and or large will be the proof of who we really are as a people. None of us are right all the time. Remember we are human! Humans make errors! That is why Allah forgives us so much!

If we are not careful we are going to play into the power structure that wants us to fight among ourselves. We are so quick to turn on each other and attempt to destroy each other. We make their work very easy. They just have to put in the batteries to charge our egos and hit the go button and we do their job for them. Seek and destroy. The length of time that has been spent on the comments about Imam WD Mohammed and Dr. Amina Wadud shows how many of us are lacking in true commitment to our deen. The time spent blasting Dr. Siddique of New Trend for producing a publication that challenges us to think shows how narrow we are as a collective. Where are the peacemakers? Remember these individuals are most cherished by Allah. Where are you? Step forward and speak up! We need you!

Also we must stop the censorship in our community on all levels. We were created differently. This is a challenge for us to know each other and to be brother and sisters. We are not paper cut outs that look, think and act a like. This world would be so boring if we were exact duplicates of each other.

The Quran has opened my mind to look at the views of others (like them or not), weigh them carefully and move on to accept or reject. Even in rejecting I must accept the other persons right to have that opinion and even accept the fact I could be wrong at anytime or they can be wrong. Just because we disagree on any topic does not mean we have to become disagreeable in the process.

What happen to let go and let Allah resolve matters we small petty humans have such problems with in our daily lives. This goes for all of us.

We have the nation of Iraq in shambles, a war that is costing us billions of dollars daily and the lives of our young people. We have unstable homes in the Islamic community, unstable Islamic communities and many of us are so content with this reality! Worst yet we have leadership that so disjointed that they are laughed at by the power structure in the West for being so obvious in the general lack of awareness of the needs of its own people. How sad!

Please get it! Stop this petty nonsense! No one is going to change due to it! Remember we are only responsible for the message. How people decide to view it or what they do with the information is up to them. If we like what someone does or not they have the right to be who they chose to be.

Imam WD Mohammed is who he is and is not going to change just because any one person and or community criticizes anything he does or says. Dr. Amina Wadud is who she is and is not going to change due to us fighting over anything she says or does. Our diversity is what makes us unique and can make us strong if we use it properly. We can disagree at anytime however to literally continue to blast each other over the same thing is not wise or beneficial. It serves no productive purpose. It hurts us!

Enough already! Enough!

ma salaam
Hadayai Majeed
Humble Servant of Allah
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Bush Needs W.D. Muhammad and Amina A. Wadud Types

[New Trend Response: Sis. Hadayai Majeed should realize that the Bush administration is waging a war against Islam around the world. W.D. Muhammad and Amina Wadud are outspoken supporters of the U.S. power structure. WITHIN that context, W.D. claimed that there DEFINITELY CAN BE MESSENGERS AFTER MUHAMMAD (pbuh). He was striking at the roots of Islam, consistent with his support for the U.S. government.
Similarly, Amina Wadud claims she can decide which parts of the Qur'an to accept and which to reject. She claimed that "same sex marriages" are okay, trying to make Haram into Halal. She is thus UNQUALIFIED TO BE a LEADER in ANYTHING ISLAMIC, let alone prayer.
These are the positions of W.D. and Amina Wadud. We didn't make these up. IF THEY HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY REPORTED, it's their job to clarify their position. Surely they can write for themselves.
W.D. Muhammad and Amina A. Wadud are needed by the U.S. power structure to divide and confuse the Muslims. These are the "moderates" Bush and Musharraf and Hosni Mubarak and Sharon have been looking for.
The fitna created by Amina A. Wadud will make it very difficult for authentic Islamic organizations like Jamaat al-Muslimeen to work for the rights of women.
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Zionists in Media and Courts Played Key Role in Lynne Stewart/Ahmed Conviction and the Tragic Suffering of Shaikh Omar 'Abdel Rahman

BY EDWARD W. MILLER. MD

" I'll be the judge, I'll be the jury" said cunning old Fury. I'll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death."

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland By Lewis Carroll

On Friday, February 10, 2005 Civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart, after a tedious 7-month trial, was convicted on all five counts of conspiring to aid terrorists and lying to the government. She was convicted of smuggling out messages from her jailed client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, of helping the Sheik contact followers in Egypt with messages that could possibly have ignited violence in Egypt by ending a cease-fire that had been established between the Jamaa a' Islamiya and president Hosin Mubarak's government. Stewart's co-defendants, Ahmed Sattar who acted as paralegal for the Sheik and Arab translator, Mohammed, were also convicted of all charges against them. Stewart's indictment way back in April 2002 had been personally announced to the media by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Bush's new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, said when the verdict was announced: " the convictions sent a clear , unmistakable message that this department will pursue both those who carry out acts of terrorism and those who assist them with their murderous goals. " (www.democracynow.org)

During Stewart's trial he government called few witnesses, basing its case primarily on 85,000 secretly recorded video and audio clips of meetings in prison between Stewart and the Sheik, as well as the home phone of Ahmed Abdel Sattar.

The prosecution also played a pre-9/11 video tape in which Osama bin Laden threatens to attack the United States as a means of winning the Sheik's release from prison ( www.slate.com/toolbar 2/16/2005). Judge John Keoltl had originally set Stewart's sentencing for July 15th, but has advanced the date into September 2005 . Stewart's lawyers will file post-trial motions with the judge in attempts to reverse her conviction Convicted of a felony, Stewart is barred from practicing law. While free on bail, She cannot travel outside New York State. She faces up to 35 years in prison.

Amy Goodman of station KPFA on February 1oth, met Stewart and her husband as they emerged from the courthouse after the verdict had been announced. Lynne commented: " I'm still very shook up and surprised that the jury didn't see what we saw….but when you put Osama bin Laden in the courtroom and ask the jury to ignore it, that's asking a lot…..We are going to fight on……I hope it will be a wake-up call to all the citizens of this country that you can't lock up lawyers…you've got to let them operate…." (www.democracynow.org)

Lynne Stewart's troubles began when she bravely undertook the defense of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman some twelve years ago. That blind and diabetic Muslim cleric was finally convicted with nine others in connection with a conspiracy to bomb landmarks in New York City. The Sheik was sentenced to life in prison in solitary confinement though he was NOT found guilty of involvement in the bombing plot.

Attorney Lynne Stewart who felt strongly the Sheik Rahman had been wrongly imprisoned managed, along with Ex-Attorney-General Ramsey Clark the Sheik's appeals, appeals eventually turned down by the appellate courts. Stewart continued to visit the Sheik, hoping to achieve a retrial or transfer to Egypt to serve out his sentence.

As David Teather remarked in his column (www.guardian.co.uk 2/11/20005) Stewart " had built a fierce reputation fighting for the poor, the dispossessed, radicals and revolutionaries over her 30-year career." Prior to her legal work Stewart had been a teacher in the NY school system,. She is the mother of three, ( a lawyer, a teacher and a physician), stepmother of four and grandmother of seven.

Stewart's meetings with Sheik Rahman in the Federal Prison in Minnesota to which he had been transferred, had not escaped the prying eyes of the Bush Administration, and its Attorney-General John Ashcroft, and every effort was made to delay and interfere with this attorney-client relationship. Ashcroft's Justice Department, as columnist Jaret Decker put it, was: " pursuing a course that threatens the Sixth Amendment right to legal representation, and exposes... any attorney who represents a suspected terrorist to the risk of prosecution" (www.reason.com/0406/fejd.criminal.)

The blind and diabetic Sheik Rahman, confined in solitary, was barred from contact with the outside world beyond his immediate family and attorneys. Lynne Stewart was not only closely guarded while meeting with her Sheik client, (which meetings required an interpreter), but restricted by having to sign an agreement to abide by Special Administrative Measures (SAMS) imposed by the Bureau of Prisons. These measures included the right of prison authorities to capture on camera and tape her conversations with the Sheik; measures which , by permitting a third party to intrude, SAMS not only defied her Sixth Amendment rights to consul but also infringed on both lawyer and client's Fifth Amendment right NOT to witness against themselves.

Captured on tape sometime in May 2000, Lynne Stewart may have violated her SAMS obligation by acting as a conduit between the Sheik and his followers in an Egyptian Islamic group. The Bush government's heavy-handed response may well determine how Lynne spends the remainder of her life.

Zionist plans to weaken the power of Islam and retain land seized during the 1967 war surfaced at Camp David during Jimmy Carter's presidency when Egypt's president Sadat was seduced into splitting the Arab league by making a separate peace with Israel. Sadat was later murdered for this betrayal. Sadat who succeeded Nasser led a more independent Egypt until his murder, after which the U.S. helped a secular Husin Mubarak into the presidency. Shiek Rahman's capture and imprisonment in the US was intended to further weaken the strong anti-Israel Muslim constituency present in Egypt, which explains the intense Zionist interest in the Sheik's trial.

WHAT DID THE SHAIKH PREACH?

Back in the early 1980s in Cairo, an Egyptian imam, or holy man, quietly moved from mosque to crowded mosque, preaching the tenets of Islam while condemning the corruption of his government. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a Ph.D. from Al-Azher University, denounced the plundering of Muslim lands by Israel in Palestine, as well as President Mubarak's treachery in cooperating with Israel and the U.S. to support repression of both the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and his own people. The Sheik commanded his followers to stand up against Mubarak, "a military dictator whose prisons brimmed with 70,000 of the nation's best sons and daughters" . In his country where ideas were censored by Egyptian " Thought Police", Sheik Rahman had been jailed by Mubarak for his political activity in the early 1980s, released in 1984 only to be imprisoned again in 1985, 1986 and 1989.

At each trial he was acquitted of wrong-doing, and continued to advocate the values of Islam and to protest against government corruption.

When Sheik Rahman travelled to this country in 1994, Egyptian foreign minister Amar Moussa and U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Robert Pelletreau, connived to have him arrested under the pretext of "violating immigration laws." American Zionists, including US Senator Alphonse D'Amato (D-NY) and Assemblyman Dov Hikind (NY), made it their personal business to reinforce the indictment. Egyptian secret police spy Emad Salem was sent to the U.S. with specific instructions to keep close tabs on the Sheik. After some months of imprisonment in solitary, this blind and diabetic cleric was finally brought to trail in what was to become one of the most corrupt legal procedures in U.S history. Ex Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, famous for defending the politically-targeted, assisted Attorney Lynne Stewart in managing the Sheik's defense.

The Sheik's trial was corrupted at every turn by America's Jewish organizations. Jury selection began on January 9, 1995, at which time the Zionist media began an assault on this Muslim scholar. The day before the jury date, The New York Times led the attack with a defaming article. Prior to this, the prosecution had published excerpts from the scholar's 22-year-old PhD dissertation, taking bits and pieces out of context to bias potential jurors.
Even NPR (National Public Radio) joined the chorus on January 9 with a lengthy news report by columnist and author Judith Miller who claimed the case against the Sheik "was strong." Judith Miller has been a militant anti-Muslim writer and biased reporter on the Mideast for The New York Times.

At the beginning of the trial, the Sheik's lawyers had demanded the strongly-biased Zionist Judge, Michael B. Mukasey, recluse himself from the trial. Mukasey, a committed Zionist and long-time supporter of Israel whose wife was active on Zionist issues, refused. ( Federal Law requires a sitting judge to recluse himself where his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.)

Sheik Rahman was first denied the lawyer of his choice by Judge Mukasey, and when he asked the court to permit an expert to explain the practices of Islam to his ignorant American jury, he was refused this due process. Eventually after a long and biased trial,, on January 17, 1996, Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman was sentenced by this Jewish judge to imprisonment for life plus 65 years." The extra 65 years were added under the court's Count #3: Conspiracy to murder Hosin Mubarak (Egypt's president). Those 65 years added to the sentence were related to the "conspiracy theory," and the judge's interpretation of conversations Sheik Rahman had had with supposed international terrorists. Both judge and court were strongly influenced by an inflammatory and largely fictitious documentary, JIHAD IN AMERICA, produced by a Zionist Jew, Stephen Emerson, and shown nationwide on PBS. The prosecution and the judge employed guilt by association in their judgment. The prosecution had also presented to the jury, as evidence of his terrorist links, recorded phone calls to the Sheik supposedly made by Muslim militants , but provided no translations to the jury.
The prosecution's conspiracy theory was supposedly supported by the testimony of Abdo Haggag, an Egyptian, who quoted an unrecorded conversation he allegedly had with the Sheik. At the trial, Haggag admitted under oath to having received $100,000 for his testimony, plus another $60,000 for " his children's education." The Sheik was NOT, however, convicted of implication in the 1993 New York Trade Center bombing.

After receiving his lifetime sentence, this elderly, sick and blind sheik, standing before the Jewish judge, spoke quietly and at length in Arabic, " Sheik Rahman debunked the prosecution's theory that he heads an international terrorist organization, noting that he was in jail in Cairo in the early 1980s at the time the so-called "international terrorist group" was allegedly being formed. Judge Mukasey, visibly irritated by the Sheik's remarks, interrupted the scholarly cleric repeatedly and rudely. Columnist and author Edward C. Coughlin, Jr., noted in an article in New Trend (January/February '96): "Since the days of the 'Star Chamber' proceedings in England, governments have used the conspiracy laws to destroy their political enemies. In an America controlled by the Zionist Gang, a decision was made at the highest level "to get" Sheik Rahman... The evidence against the sheik … was purely circumstantial and built on the most dubious kind of foundation. His trial in Zionist-dominated New York City in front of a card-carrying Zionist jurist and in a society swarming with an Islamic-bashing media and pro-Zionist tabloids and news readers, guaranteed his ultimate conviction."

The Sheik's imprisonment, isolated from his fellow prisoners continues to be cruel and physically threatening. Amnesty International reported the Sheik was not allowed to join in Muslim prayers with other Muslim prisoners, was deprived of his prayer rug and allowed no short-wave radio to hear Arabic news (his only language). He was subject to frequent strip searches. Amnesty International pointed out that under Articles 7 and 10 of the International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights: "All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person." Attempts by the Stewart-Ramsey Clark team to return Sheik Rahman to his native Egypt to serve out his sentence were denied by the court.

In attacking Sheik Rahman, our Zionist lobby effectively silenced a protester against Mubarak's suppression of political dissent, along with a voice supporting a Palestinian state. Twelve years later, US Attorney General Ashcroft's abrogation of Lynne Stewart's constitutional rights under the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments was supported at every turn by our Zionist-influenced media, so that Stewart's conviction became "collateral damage" in a political arena where Washington's support of expansionist Israel is endangering the political rights of all Americans.

Writer David Cole in THE NATION ( March 7th 2005) notes the prosecution's use of fearmongering and guilt by association. Stewart was tried together with Ahmed Sattar, an Egyptian-born American citizen against whom thousands of hours of wire tap conversations with a so-called " terrorist group" included a "fake fatwa unging followers to kill (Jews) " had been recorded by the government. Though Stewart had no relations with Sattar and no knowledge of these communications, the prosecutor in his closing remarks repeated Sattar's " kill the Jews" fatwa more than seventy times.

On March 19th demonstrations in support of Lynne Stewart will be held in cities across the country. See (www.lynnestewart.org)
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2005-03-11 Fri 19:34ct
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