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Zulhijja 10, 1425/January 21, 2005 #6
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January 21.
New Trend
wishes its Muslim readers Happy Eid Al-Adha.
On
Eid,
remember the leaders of the Muslims of America, such as
Dr. Omar 'Abdel Rahman,
Imam Jamil al-Amin,
Siddique Abdullah Hasan who are in U.S. prisons.
Make du'a for their health and safety.
Also pray for the release of Muslim innocents like Prof. Sami Al-Arian,
Masaud Khan, Hammad Abdur Raheem and many others.
We are very worried about 'Ahmed Abdel Sattar, Lynne Stewart and
Mohammad Yusry whose case is now in final deliberation by the jury.
May Allah save them from further persecution.
--------------------------------------------
Jamaat al-Muslimeen
News [2 items]
P. O. Box 10881
Baltimore, MD 21234
Jamaat al-Muslimeen's
National Shoora
will meet, inshallah, in Greensboro, North Carolina on
January 29, 2005. If you would like to participate as observer or to
present an issue, get an invitation from:
ksidd37398@aol.com
badi323@aol.com
Pradia2@aol.com
Policies to be discussed:
-
What should be the role of Muslim men and women in
America
after the re-election of President
Bush?
-
Renewal of campaign to support Muslim political prisoners.
-
Evaluation of the
boycott
against businesses which support
Israel.
-
What should be done to motivate Muslims to help Tsunami stricken
families and to give relief to the stricken people of Haiti.
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The American People Should be Told Truth about
Iraq:
Dr. Siddique's
Latest Radio Interview
On January 18, 2005 Dr. Kaukab Siddique was interviewed by 850 KOA
News Radio, the major news outlet in Denver, Colorado. In the brief
but very condensed interview, Dr. Siddique made the following points
in answer to the questions he was asked:
-
The American people should be told the truth that we are occupying Iraq,
not liberating it.
-
Elections held under occupation do not have relevance to democracy.
-
What we are doing in Iraq amounts to killing our opponents and
then getting those persons "elected" who support us. These "voters"
are America's people, not the people of Iraq.
-
Recently we destroyed an entire city which opposed us. It's meaningless
to talk of democracy after that.
-
Elections under occupation have been carried out by the
Russians
in
Chechnia
and by the
Indians
in
Kashmir.
Both have been miserable failures.
-
We are banking on the Shias of Iraq but the Shias themselves are divided.
-
It's futile to keep referring to the Shias as 60% of the population.
No such census exists.
Other estimates may be nearer the reality which speak of 40% Shia,
40% Sunni and 20% Kurd.
The interviewer was distressed by Dr. Siddique's answers and said:
"You seem very pessimistic."
-----------------------------------
Thousands of Americans Hold "Anti-Inauguration":
Ramsey Clark Renews Call for Impeachment of Bush: Has 500,000 Signatures, Wants Five Million More
New Trend Report
Washington, DC: January 20: Tens of thousands of people protested
against President Bush's inauguration and held their own
"anti-Inauguration" up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. The pro-government
media
admit a figure of 10,000 protestors. Organized by the
A.N.S.W.E.R.
[Act Now to Stop War and end Racism] coalition,
the rally was at one point addressed by the leader of the anti-war
movement Ramsey Clark.
Mr. Clark called once more for the IMPEACHMENT of President Bush for
the crime of violation of the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Clark called on
the American people to take back the Constitution usurped by the Neo-Cons.
He condemned the killing of 100,000 Iraqis by the U.S., the destruction of
Fallujah
and the shame of Abu Ghraib. He pointed out that the Bush administration
from top to bottom has been condoning torture.
Mr. Clark announced that he has already received 500,000 signatures
for the impeachment of Bush and is looking for 5 million more to
start the process.
There was a long line up of speakers from the grassroots of America.
The meeting in below freezing temperatures continued unflagging
owing to the efforts of moderators like the fiery young
African American woman Peta Lindsay.
HAITI came into focus in the speech of Kim Ives from the Haiti
Support Network who gave a graphic account of the suffering of
the Haitian people under U.S. occupation. He said that owing to
lack of troops, overextended in Iraq, the U.S. is using Brazilian
and other troops in Haiti. Colin Powell has been pressurizing the
Brazilians to crack down on the Haitians. Condileeza Rice threatened
the Jamaican government because it invited President Aristide, the
elected Haitian leader who was kidnaped by the U.S.
The speakers showed support for
PALESTINE.
A Mexican woman said that she considered the Palestinians her
own people. Another speaker said that the Chiapas people of Mexico
support the Iraqi struggle and call their own land western Iraq
[where Falluja is located].
A couple of interesting slogans chanted at the rally:
-
"Occupation is a Crime/From Iraq to Palestine."
-
"Bush/Chaney What do you Say? / How many Kids Did you kill today?"
Some poignant movements came when the mothers of two soldiers killed
in Iraq spoke to condemn Bush's Iraq policies.
---------------------------------------------------------
Bush-Cheney Re-Crowned in Fortified Capital
by William Hughes
[Special to New Trend. The writer lives in Baltimore, MD.]
"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its
institutions or its officeholders..." - Mark Twain
Washington - Jan. 20, 2005 - Welcome to the quadrennial circus -
"The Presidential Inauguration." This was a $40 million show funded
by fat cat contributors to the GOP. Package deals for the four days
of partying, including hotel accommodations and tickets to one of
the nine inauguration balls, cost participants as much as $250,000.
However, the massive security operation for the re-crowning of
George W. Bush as President and Dick Cheney as V.P., also hit the
taxpayers with a $17.3 million bill.
After arriving early by train at Union Station, I made my way to
Pennsylvania Ave. & 4th Street, NW, on the north side of the
official parade route. The parade route ran for 1.7 miles from
the Capitol to the White House. The ANSWER coalition had secured
a permit to stage a counter-inauguration protest there. As an irony,
the plaza where they gathered to protest is named after John Marshall,
one of the greatest chief justices of the Supreme Court and a
champion of the U.S. Constitution, who strongly believed in the
"sovereignty of the people."
Brian Becker, a national coordinator for ANSWER, revealed how the
permit rally process had been rigged by the President's Inaugural
Committee and the Interior Department to exclude from Pennsylvania Ave.
individuals who weren't on a Republican Party-donor list. He said the
GOP wanted to "sanitize the coronation," and create the false image
that Bush & Cheney have "a green light" from the people to run the
country for four more years. He said they had to "file a lawsuit" to
get to the bottom of the matter.
Not since WWII has the nation's capital experienced such a pervasive
police/military presence, with over 13,000 cops/soldiers, from 60
different agencies, most in uniform, and some armed with assault
weapons. They patrolled the skies in helicopters, the Potomac River
with Coast Guard vessels, and the streets on foot. They blocked
off pedestrian traffic and designated seven areas as "Free Speech Zones."
To get close to the Capitol itself, where the swearing-in ceremony was
held, required an ID pass, going through metal detectors, gated
checkpoints, passing around police dogs, and being subjected to
uncounted surveillance cameras and a body search, too.
Police blamed
9/11
for all the extraordinary security measures, but not everyone
attending this affair, with the temperatures hovering just above
freezing, bought that dubious excuse. The parade route on
Pennsylvania Ave. was made practically inaccessible to most
protesters, especially if they had supports for their signs or
posters. The plan of some activists to turn their backs on Bush
and Cheney, as they passed by in their limousines, didn't fully
materialize either. Many were blocked, via barricades and police
lines, from any possible viewing point.
Ramsey Clark, the former U.S. Attorney General, also spoke at the
ANSWER rally. He called for the "impeachment of Bush and Cheney
for high crimes and misdemeanors committed while in office."
Clark argued that the Bush Administration has conducted "a
war of aggression against the people of Iraq that has taken
over 100,000 lives." He said that under International Law,
and the precedents set at Nuremberg, that Bush deserves
to be indicted by an international tribunal, as a "war criminal."
A regime that has approved torture, repeatedly deceived the public,
imposed assorted police state laws on its citizens, polluted the
environment, cut taxes for the elite, exported jobs overseas,
shredded the Bill of Rights and destroyed Iraq was literally
being protected from experiencing the justified outrage of its
own people for its four years of reckless wrongdoing. Everything
that happened in D.C. today: from the wasting of the taxpayers'
money; to the shenanigans with the rally permit process; to the
arbitrary corralling of the protesters; is connected to the evil
mindset of the Bush-Cheney Gang, that has spilled the blood of
thousands of Iraqis and 1370 U.S. troops. They were all sent to
their deaths for lies.
There were many other anti-Bush demonstrations held around the city
during the swearing in ceremony and official parade. Some of the
other sponsoring groups were: DAWN, Critical Mass, Anarchist
Resistance, the Green Party, Turn Your Back on Bush, the National
Mourning Day Project, Redefeat Bush and Billionaires for Bush.
There were reports, too, of some arrests and that the police had
used pepper spray against a few of the protesters.
Additionally, as a result of this administration's abysmal record
on Constitutional issues, and its recent appointment of the
crypto-Likudnik, Michael Chertoff, as Czar of the Department of
Homeland Security, (DHS), civil liberties will remain under siege.
Chertoff authored the Patriot Act. Putting him in charge of DHS,
is like placing the fox in charge of the hen house. Also, he was
the Rasputin behind many of A.G. John Ashcroft's mad cap schemes.
I suspect that a copy of every file now held on Americans by DHS will
end up sooner or later in the database of Israel's Mossad.
Finally, Sara Powell spoke up for the Palestinian people at the
ANSWER rally. She is the PR director for the highly respected
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Magazine
(wrmea.com),
one of the most authoritative journals in that specialty. Powell
demanded a "Free Palestine." She also exposed the fact that many
voters in the recent disputed election for a new president in
Israeli-Occupied Palestine were "disenfranchised." She predicted
that the presidential winning candidate, Mahmoud Abbas, will probably
be "marginalized" by the ruling Zionist clique in Israel. Powell
told me that the next issue of the WRMEA will spotlight the
"disenfranchisement" issue.
I sensed at this inauguration that a sea change has taken place.
Instead of the government being a servant of the people, I see
it emerging as a tyrant. And, representing all of that collective
evil, are the prime subverters of the U.S. Constitution - George W.
Bush and Dick Cheney!
© William Hughes 2005
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