International Women's Day Rally for Dr. Aafia at MIT March 8, Boston

Our America: Boston 

http://newtrendmag.bmetrack.com/c/v?e=906195&c=131B8&t=1&l=189890F&email=8pIT9wlLCJXXlm51ccjGg5q4wOJ2jUnu&relid=4833283A

On March 8, International Women's Day,  a Rally was held  for Dr. Aafia at MIT where she Studied. 

 

Photo of Aafia rally. Sis. Karin speaking [right].

Among the numerous Speakers was Sis. Karin. This is what she said: 

  

"My name is Karin Friedemann also known as Maria Hussain. I was an active member of the Muslim Students' Association at Wayne State University [Detroit]. serving as Publication Secretary from 1995-1996.I did not know Dr. Aafia Siddiqui but she was an activist at MIT around the same time as me.

Dr. Aafia's sincere and humble enthusiasm for promoting Women's rights in Islam - the Rights of Muslim women to Education, to earn and keep their own money, as well as the protection of Motherhood. She argued that a woman must be educated in order to be the best mother for her children, because an ignorant mother would raise ignorant children. 

Dr. Aafia also cared deeply about the suffering of Muslims in war torn areas around the world. She viewed the Global Muslim Community as one body. And if even one small part of the body is in pain, the entire body cannot sleep. [Hadith.] This point of view that emphasized empathy and action has since been demonized by the powers that be, causing many good people to live in fear. 

However, during the 1990's, Muslims in America experienced a sense of self-confidence, idealism and freedom that can even be compared to the 1960's. American Muslims were filled with faith in themselves and the hope that we could make the world a better place. 

With this level of enthusiasm, Dr. Aafia told the Boston Globe during Islamic Awareness Week that, "If Americans were to learn about the beauty of Islam, they would all want to become Muslims!" 

Dr. Aafia and I were also both very active in the Muslim Students' Association, raising awareness about the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya. I feel a deep sisterhood with her because we both went door to door collecting boots and winter gear to send to Bosnia, where many people were made homeless by the war. Both of us collected so many donations that boxes were stacked to the ceiling in the Muslim Students' prayer hall, leaving hardly any room to walk, inspiring many brothers to drive vans full of donations to the charity foundation in Chicago, from where the boots etc. would be shipped by container load to Bosnia.

Nobody knows exactly why Dr. Aafia Siddique was targeted by US 'intelligence' to be abducted and disappeared, but her student activism may have played a role, to send American Muslims, and Muslims in America, a chilling message. That they are not considered equal citizens, that they are not granted Constitutional freedom of speech or free travel. That Muslims are not free to do fundraising campaigns, that their charities would be closed down and their assets frozen if they tried to participate in political activism or humanitarian projects. 

After 2001, Islam in America entered a dark period in history from which we have not yet emerged. It even seems that the forces of hate and destruction are growing more entrenched in the US political establishment and media.

There is one thing we can do to turn things around and bring us back to a time when Muslims didn't have to be afraid to get on an airplane or afraid to donate money to a political cause. We can and we must free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui . We must show the world that Muslims in the US are equal citizens that should enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of travel, freedom to promote their beliefs, just as any other group is free to promote their interests and their beliefs and to donate money to causes they care about. 

We need to demonstrate that it's not acceptable for the US government to kidnap people and hold them for years in secret prisons being raped and tortured, without any charge against them. The America that I am working for is not one that makes an example out of student activists by concocting contrived allegations of terrorism against them. Our country's freedom and integrity requires that we free Aafia." 

Until we truly understand "la ilaha," how can we understand "il Allah"?

[Note to my Beloved Readers: I posted this a few months ago. I re-post it as a way to let everybody know that I am now all caught up in past postings and now we are back to business. Love you all so much.]


Every single person born on this earth is a Divine Being. While Christianity teaches that all human beings are born flawed, Islam teaches that all human beings are born perfect, sinless.

All human beings have access to their Higher Self if they choose to seek it. Seeking refuge in your Higher Self does not mean that your Lower Self is not real. It just means that your selfish or satanic urges are less important to you. When you sprinkle a teaspoon of salt into your drink, it will take away the sweetness, but if you put a teaspoon of salt into your bath, it will not affect much. Imagine if you put a teaspoon of salt into the ocean, nobody would notice it at all! The best way to deal with evil in your personal life is to make it a very small part of your life.

Instead of worrying about our problems we have to get used to dealing with them and even planning ahead for them to arise.

"Those who are first on the battlefield and await the opponents are at ease; those who are the last on the battlefield and head into battle get worn out. Therefore good warriors cause others to come to them, and do not go to others," wrote Sun Tzu in "The Art of War," a Japanese classic from around 500 BC.

This could mean many things on different levels but those who are at peace with the concept that life is all about struggle are at ease, while those who delay are unlikely to attain any victory.

I open a page of the book by Lao Tzu named Tao Te Ching. "It is easy to maintain a situation while it is still secure."

Lao Tzu is said to be an older teacher of Confucius who was a Chinese philosopher also around 500 BC. Totally different country, same insight. We are most at ease when we are maintaining a situation or position, whether it's military, financial or emotional.

It's not that Asian knowledge is so unique or special but rather that it just makes sense when you think about it. Presumably, these sages were drawing upon centuries of past teachings.

The same thing when we read from the Quran. Although this book is only 1400 years old, it discusses stories and concepts that go back to the BC era. A very large portion of the Quran is dedicated to discussing the Laws of Moses and the Teachings of Christ. I think Moses was supposed to have lived about 2000 BC and Jesus around the year 0. The Buddha is also said to have reformed India from its paganism around 5 BC. The scriptural teachings of the Buddha and Jesus tend to overlap. The spiritual goal of selflessness seems to be the common path.

Shaykh Hakim Moinuddin Chishti writes in the book, "Sufi Healing," that "In its progression through life, the physical body passes through stages from infancy to youth, adulthood and old age. Similarly, the soul passes through specific evolutionary stages or stations."

These are described as the Station of Egotism, the Heart, the Pure Spirit, the Divine Secrets, the Proximity to Allah, and lastly, the Station of Union with the Beloved. There is some philosophical overlap between this and the 7 chakras, which are physical energy centers along the human spine. Knowledge of the chakras is essential for directing healing energy into specific realms. Direction of light into the crown chakra is said to be equivalent to spiritual enlightenment or God-consciousness.

Nowadays people are trying to find spiritual meaning beyond what their parents thought they should strive for. Even if they all agree that Paradise is the goal, their plan of action may differ.

"O chivalrous youth! If tomorrow you go to paradise and you look at it from the corner of your heart's eye, in truth, in truth, you will have fallen short of Adam's aspiration. Something that your father sold for a grain of wheat - why would you want to settle down there?" writes Said al-Din Farghani, a disciple of Ibn al Arabi's stepson, Sadr al-Din Qunawi, in the 13th century.

Therefore our entire idea of paradise could be suspect. We need to let go and experience something like spiritual exile and abandonment, until we find our true home. We can only do this by disbelieving all that we have ever been told. "La ilaha" means rejection of all false gods. It means repudiating this world and all its glittery offerings and falsehoods.

Until we truly understand "la ilaha," how can we understand "il Allah." The Asian concept of Taoism, for example yin-yang, gives us the language of balance and opposites. 'There is no god' is like the night. 'except Allah' is like the daylight. You need both for the 24 hour cycle to exist. It is just as important to doubt everything as it is to believe. Otherwise, your belief has no meaning.

Whether we are doing yoga or doing salat, the aim is spiritual Oneness. May we all be strengthened in our spiritual practices however small, so that we may see the Great.

Boston Muslim Shot and Killed & then Convicted by the Media

June 7, 2015
http://www.newtrendmag.org/ntma1605.htm


At 7am on Tuesday, June 2, a black Muslim man, Usaama Rahim, 26, was shot by Boston FBI and police in front of the CVS in Roslindale, a relatively nice area of Boston. His brother, Ibrahim Rahim, who is an imam in California, stated that Usaama was waiting for the bus to go to work when police and FBI approached him for "questioning." The police claim he wielded a knife, which left them no choice but to shoot him dead.

Not a single community organization in Boston from the Green Rainbow Party to the Muslims have made any kind of immediate attempt at organizing a demonstration or making a statement as one would expect. The news reports that the man was "under investigation" (as we all are). This alone is enough for them to say the authorities killed a "terrorism suspect." There are some reports the man had made some statements online supporting the Islamic Caliphate. He had been trailed by government agents for the past 6 days 24/7 and was said to be visibly nervous.

This event is even more alarming than your average police shooting because, like the case of Ibrahim Todashev, who was killed by Boston police and FBI in his Florida home in 2013, the murder appears to be premeditated. Todashev is also said to have lunged at officers, which somehow resulted in him being hit in every major organ and a final kill shot to the back of the head.

"CNN already has the black Muslim killed by Boston police convicted as "part of terror network" - a "source" said so!" opined Glenn Greenwald that day. "1) Police kill a black US Muslim on the street; 2) anonymously claim he follows ISIS on social media; 3) case closed."

Local clergy were invited to view the videotape of the event. Imam Farooq Abdullah, who is a highly respected local African American leader, stated that the footage was very distant and inconclusive as to whether or not the man had brandished a knife but it was true that the police backed up several yards before shooting him in the chest. He was not, as his brother Ibrahim was told by their father, shot in the back, nor was he talking on a cell phone at that moment.

Nevertheless, there was no need to kill him. The story about him planning to behead a police officer sounds far-fetched, though if true, would indicate that he was either mentally unstable or just making a joke about smoking pigs. If the authorities actually had any evidence of this plot, they could have easily obtained a warrant for his arrest. Approaching him in the street to intimidate him was certainly not the appropriate way to deal with either a dangerous terrorist or a mentally ill person. They could have left their card at his house or called him.

The most worrying aspect of this entire story is the complete silence of the usual activist crowd.

What is the matter with this town? They stopped traffic when police killed a black man elsewhere, but when it happens here at home they don't care? Why, because he is Muslim? I posted a comment expressing concern on Mayor Walsh's Facebook page and was deluged by hateful comments, mostly from Irish people, who are convinced the police must have been justified in killing a terrorist and that by killing him, they saved a lot of taxpayer's money.

Most likely, public sentiment against Muslims has been stoked by the Boston Marathon Bombing trials, which are all winding down this month. On Tuesday, June 2, Dias Kadyrbayev, the Kazakh friend who threw away the backpack, was sentenced to 6 years by Judge Woodlock after agreeing to plead guilty. Azamat Tazhayakov of Kazakhstan and Robel Phillipos of Ethiopian heritage, who both plead innocent but were found guilty, and Khairullozhon Matanov of Kyrgyzstan, who agreed to plead guilty because he knew he would not get a fair trial in Boston, will be sentenced within the week. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's official sentencing is scheduled for June 24. Dias, Azamat and Khairullozhon are expected to be deported after serving out their sentences. Stephen Silva, who sold Dzhokhar the gun, got 7 years. Silva is being held in general population and Robel is under house arrest while the Asian kids are all in solitary confinement. After sentencing they will be moved to other prisons. I pray they will be safe.

Helping Political Prisoners is Part of our Faith

The National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF) has announced their Fourth Annual Ramadan gift campaign for Muslim prisoners, who have been the victims of overzealous pre-emptive prosecution, entrapment, and false charges. NCPCF was created "to educate the public about the erosion of civil and political freedoms in our society, and the abuses of prisoners within the U.S. criminal justice system especially after 9/11." It is a collection of weak organizations, which need our help to grow stronger and advocate more effectively.

Dozens of American Muslims are living out long prison sentences under abusive conditions and solitary confinement. These are people who are so beloved to Allah that they are being tested. And we ourselves are being tested in relationship to them.

It has been narrated by Saeed through his chain from Hibban bin Jabalah, that the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) said: "Indeed it is obligatory upon the Muslims to free their captives or to pay their ransoms." It is not easy for us in America to pay for someone's freedom - or even pay for their lawyer fees - but we can still make a huge difference to the life of someone caged and helpless.

Those prisoners who have no family in the US, nor a network of friends, may have no money in their commissary. Prisoners need money to be able to make phone calls, or buy razors, toilet paper, toothpaste, stamps and paper as well as snacks.

"The Federal Bureau of Prisons allows for special purchase of Ramadan items (such as dates) during this holy month and NCPCF would like to send the money as soon as possible so the inmates can receive them before mid June."

This Ramadan, NCPCF is seeking 180 individuals to donate $105 to a Muslim in America's prisons. The $5 would pay for the money transfer fee. This is an opportunity to help someone you don't already know about, to go beyond the high profile cases that already have a lot of supporters taking care of their everyday needs. But even the high profile cases, after some time, the world forgets about them. I wrote to one prisoner at CMU after about 8 years of incarceration, who told me that although he used to be well known and respected in the community, nobody but his mother corresponded with him anymore. He had even stopped receiving photos of his children. He requested me to send money to another Muslim prisoner who did not even have shampoo.

If you already have a previously established relationship with a prisoner, please consider them also when you are calculating your zakat. If you don't have the money at least send them a card! There are also volunteer organizations which drive children to visit their parents in prison.

Other ways to help prisoners is to make dua: "ALLAHumma fukka qayda asrana wa asral-muslimeen (O ALLAH! Break free the shackles of our prisoners and the prisoners of the Muslims)." This dua is important because we also need to care about the prisoners in Muslim countries too. The goal of Islam regarding captives is to free them and integrate them into society.

Please send your check to: NCPCF, Ramadan Gifts Program, P.O. Box 66301, Washington, DC 20035. When you make a donation please email them at donate@civilfreedoms.org and tell them that you have sent a donation.

Abu Dawud mentions the hadith narrated by Abu Talha Al-Ansari and Jabir Bin Abdullah, that the Prophet Muhammad (SA) said, "No man forsakes a Muslim when his rights are being violated or his honour is being belittled except that Allah will forsake him at a place in which he would love to have His help. And no man helps a Muslim at a time when his honour is being belittled or his rights violated except that Allah will help him at a place in which he loves to have His help."

Marathon Bombing Case: They Forgave the killer of 9 in Charleston, but not Dzhokhar.

On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, Dzhokhar "Jahar" Tsarnaev finally spoke.

"I would like to begin in the name of Allah, the exalted and glorious, the most gracious, the most merciful, "Allah" among the most beautiful names. Any act that does not begin in the name of God is separate from goodness."

The victims, the jury, nobody was expecting this religious sermon.

"He did crack up and pause a few times, it sounded like he was trying to compose himself," stated a courtroom observer.

Before thanking his attorneys, he invoked the name of Muhammed. He thanked those who testified on his behalf, he thanked the jury for their service, and even the Court.

"The Prophet Muhammed, peace and blessings be upon him, said that if you do not show mercy to Allah's creation, then Allah will not have mercy on you, so I'd like to apologize now to the victims, to the survivors. Now, I am sorry for the lives that I've taken, for the suffering that I've caused you, for the damage that I've done. Irreparable damage."

What he said satisfied neither the victims nor those who continue to believe that he was framed.

"Immediately after the bombing, which I am guilty of - if there's any lingering doubt about that, let there be no more. I did do it, along with my brother."

Those who were hoping he would 'do a Tarek Mehanna' political speech got instead a speech on forgiveness that sounded at once sincere yet highly scripted, but answered nobody's questions like why? or how?

"Now, I am a Muslim. My religion is Islam. The God I worship, besides whom there is no other God, is Allah. And I prayed to Allah to bestow his mercy upon the deceased, those affected in the bombing, and their families. Allah says in the Quran that with every hardship is relief. I pray for your relief, for your healing, for your well-being, for your strength. I ask Allah to have mercy upon me and my brother and my family. I ask Allah to bestow his mercy upon those present here today. And Allah knows best those deserving of His mercy."

This convoluted sort of apology left everyone scratching their heads.

Why would he wait until AFTER he was found guilty and sentenced to death to apologize? And why, how, what the heck - and how is it that he is suddenly speaking with a thick Arabian accent? Not a Russian accent. He sounded Middle Eastern, two different observers told New Trend. It really was him, they said, but strangely out of character. He used to talk like "Yo what's up."

The most bizarre part of it is that not only Carmen Ortiz the lead prosecutor, but Judge O'Toole made public statements condemning Jahar's interpretation of his own religion.

"You did it on purpose... It is tragic, for your victims and now for you, surely someone who believes God smiles on and rewards the killing of innocents believes in a cruel god. This is not and cannot be the god of Islam," said the judge right before condemning Jahar to death. So is he being executed for murder or for a politically incorrect interpretation of Islam?

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office prosecuted Tsarnaev, said she was "struck more by what he didn't say.

"He didn't renounce terrorism, he didn't renounce violent extremism, and he couched his comments in line with Allah and Allah's view, which gave it a religious tone, and there was nothing...about this crime that was Islam-associated."

Tsarnaev adhered to a radicalized version of Islam was not in line with the faith's "peaceful and loving" roots, Ortiz explained.

"The youth will not stay quiet while America is killing the innocent Muslims. As my sons there will be many many many inshallah! And I will die with my love towards them," texted Jahar's mother to a supporter.

"Your country kills the brothers and sisters and those good hearted and beautiful souls like my sons who love their ummah cannot see the conspiracies of your government towards our ummah and things like that happen! For example if someone kills my brother or my sister I will not blink and destroy whoever killed them - why?? Because I love them...Everything is by Allah's will... Allah knows the intention and the purity of it and what was the intention for!" concluded Jahar's mother.

I am worried that they are going to execute Jahar before we learn the true story. His statement created as many questions as it answered. This is quite a decade, quite a century, already. However, Jahar has been moved to a prison in Florence, Colorado. It is nearby but not the same place where Imam Jamil al-Amin is being held in Supermax.

Everything is Rainbow Gay this Week

Why not Legalize Polygamy? Sodomy can be a Healh Hazard, Islam Forbids it.
2015-07-06 
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1609.htm


In the 80's, the Rainbow Flag meant the Rainbow Coalition, which was a black anti-racism campaign that eventually morphed into the Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, and other paths. It could also refer to the Rainbow Family, which is a group of anti-war hippies, mainly white Christians. But somehow it got associated with Gay Pride. There doesn't seem to be anything else being discussed on anybody's newsfeed, including that of my children, other than this, lately.

I explained to them that in Islam, if two women are married to the same man, they are allowed to be naked together. But sodomy involves mixing poopoo germs into the mouth or the vagina, which is very disgusting and leads to diseases, which could even involve death of a fetus. In my opinion, the preference of the people of Lut is very harmful to both men and women. This taboo is important to my culture. Some other cultures view sodomy between man and wife to be acceptable, but I do not personally feel comfortable accepting it. In my opinion, regarding religion, I think that sodomy should be avoided by both males and females.

Even though homosexual practices are against my religion, I am not going to raise a voice against gay marriage because I believe that freedom of religion is very important to this country and also to religion itself. If a person wants to practice homosexuality, this means they are essentially a pagan. But pagan beliefs should not be criminalized any more than any other religious belief. Also, normalization leads to more stable relationships, which will significantly reduce the spread of disease.

In the same vein, I would like to see more activists lobbying for polygamous marriage legalization. In Canada, I have heard (please correct me if I am wrong) that a man or a woman can marry as many as will consent to the marriage. It is very important as Muslims to understand the value of the contract. It is far superior to the chaos of desire and fear mixed with freedom.

In my personal life experience, gay partnerships that I am acquainted with are the bedrock of artist and gardening communities because they do not dissolve in the way that heterosexual marriages so often break up. Decades go by and you can visit their home and nothing has changed.

Politicians love the gay community because they have expendable income - they have no more children, so they invest in property and pets. They have professional jobs but no heirs. They are like a priesthood. For those who view gays as a threat to society (which they are in many ways), we can only try to demonstrate that we do better with our own families and communities.

Tonight, which is July 3, Boston is so noisy with loud explosions from fireworks. Just like the starlets outside my window that chirp so loudly at 5am, the Boston Marathon trial seems to have resulted in unprecedented experimentation with explosives. However, despite the very very loud booms coming from all directions, there is an absolute silence of police sirens. It is midnight and I am hearing explosions echoing through the sky from all directions and a complete police absence.

At exactly 1am there is total silence.

I was driving down my own street at 11am and the sound of the explosions were very loud! I felt scared. But also I feel safer knowing that my neighbors hopefully know how to defend us! Now I am hearing a loud helicopter and the explosions stopped for like 45 seconds but then continued.

The local Dorchester radio station, 105.3 plays reggae and promotes a Christian/Rastafarai agenda. The theme that they were promoting I agree with. They said, "We do not curse our enemies. We pray for their redemption." Honestly, I think this is the best way.

Unmet Relational Needs in Muslim Culture

One of the most astonishing things I am noticing about Muslim culture is the widespread tendency to marry a woman and then physically and emotionally abandon her. Men are now using a new excuse:

"It was just an arranged marriage."

Abandonment, whether or not required by economic necessity, is reinforced by shame related to divorce, and the belief that 'good' women don't remarry.

"She is just someone my late mother chose."

A married woman becomes property of her in-laws, as opposed to a life partner of her husband, who feels no shame leaving her alone and pregnant. She is merely a tool to provide his parents with grandchildren.

The cultural taboo against divorce even after abandonment often assumes that a 'decent' woman would never consider gainful employment. So even if a marriage is totally unsatisfactory, the woman would beg the husband not to divorce her. She would pretend that she is still in a marriage, even when the husband has clearly moved out forever, or visits only every few years.

Muslim men seem to think that marriage is defined purely by financial support. There doesn't seem to be any awareness of the relational needs (including sexual) of women. While men are encouraged to marry as many women as they need to make sure there is no buildup of semen, women seem to almost happily consent to the degradation of their internal organs through non-use, as long as there is money coming in, and even when there is not. While financial support is better than no financial support, what is the deal with a man deciding that any woman has no right to have sex, ever again, in her life? He can divorce her and pay child support, maybe alimony.

Surat al Baqara, Verse 229 states: "either you retain her on reasonable terms or release her with kindness."

There is a lofty egotism that says, "as long as I am paying her bills I own the non-use of her body."

We know from hadith that the early Muslims did not have taboos against divorce and remarriage. If Hussain (RA) were alive today, he would be considered quite the gigolo. Pre-Islamic pagan Arab women could initiate divorce merely by turning their tent so that the entrance was facing in a new direction. The newly instituted Islamic concept of marriage was primarily a contract to make sure that parental lineage and responsibility were never in question.

The influence of Hinduism and Christianity added to Islamic practice the concept of shame in remarriage, which is based on the assumption that sex is purely for procreation and not a human right in itself, which is based on the idea that women are innately filthy, that men should try to avoid women, and that a woman should only ever taste one husband, even if that means she spends the majority of her life alone.

The book, "Law of Desire" by Shahla Haeri is based on a study of marriage practices in post-revolutionary Iran. It describes many instances where wives are divorced by their husbands and become destitute, even homeless. Because remarriage is very rare in the culture, this creates an underclass of women who are essentially prostitutes, except that they have to wait 2 months in between sexual encounters, during which time they are merely beggars in front of the shrines. There is such a gross class difference between "kept women" and "husbandless women" that women will compete with each other for dominance instead of welcoming second wives as sisters.

Interestingly, the women most likely to be free to remarry, even if impermanently or non-residentially, are those who have a bad relationship with their parents. This would imply that the parents themselves are preventing the 'good' divorced daughter from meeting a man, because of fears of disgrace overriding their concern for her health.

I'll never forget the day when I was trying to discuss our relationship or the lack thereof with my Pakistani husband, and his solution to the problem was to "send me back to my parents." As an American woman over the age of 30, who had worked in jobs and rented her own apartment before marriage, this sounded completely absurd. I will go to my parents if I decide to go to my parents. I am not a parcel to send somewhere! I was completely baffled that he really viewed me in such a dehumanizing way, as a person without personhood?! He eventually became the perfect ex-husband, but I now notice more and more how people think this is a "man's world."

I do not wish to conclude that non-Muslim culture is superior. I notice the politics of greetings in American culture, where men always greet each other while women are usually mute on the side. While laws do not prevent non-Muslims from marriage and remarriage, gainful employment of the woman seems to be a prerequisite, and her ability to get time alone away from her children. In other words, the man either wants the woman to pay half the bills or else he only wants to visit her when she is alone. He is not volunteering to be the head of a family. This usually requires a third party to be available to take care of the children so the woman can date, which means that the woman owes someone, rather than the man providing for her and her children.

It is hard to know which situation is more humiliating. There are pros and cons to each situation: the man providing for an estranged wife vs. the woman being financially independent. Divorce is never an ideal situation, especially when children are involved. It is a wonderful gift of this century from God, to have the opportunity and freedom to be able to pick and choose wisely between religious and legal laws, to provide the best possible security and outcome for families.

Native Americans challenge Corporate & government greed.

On July 21, 2015 a convoy from out west calling themselves the Apache Stronghold traveled first to New York City and then to DC to protest the giveaway of their sacred lands - National Forest land - for copper mines. It is very important to understand the historical importance of this event. The American Indian Movement took hold among student groups in the 1970s but it took until now for the message to go forward, regarding indigenous rights and protection of the environment.

Photographer Kimora Merritt Brass took an iconic photo of a native woman wielding a traditional bow and arrow in Times Square, standing up for the sacred Oak Flats.

Members of the Apache Stronghold marched from Lafayette Square on Tuesday morning to the West Lawn of the US Capitol to mark the end of a spiritual journey across the country to protest a bill snuck in as a rider in the National Defense Authorization Act by Senator John McCain, and Arizona's junior Senator Jeff Flake, which was approved by Congress in the closing hours of its last session. That rider traded away Apache sacred land to allow a massive copper mine.

The caravan left Arizona in early July, traveling some 2,000 miles as part of a growing movement to save Oak Flat, where native people have held religious and coming-of-age ceremonies for generations. The copper mine would leave a huge crater - 1.8 mile wide and wipe out streams, springs and wildlife habitat. The caravan was in New York City's Times Square on Friday and arrived in Washington this Monday evening. The Apache Stronghold caravan arrived at the U.S. Capitol to conclude their spiritual journey on July 21, 2015.

Tuesday's event marks the final destination of the convoy's journey from Mt. Graham to Oak Flat in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona to Washington, DC. Apache Stronghold stopped at Native American reservations along the journey gathering prayers and strength, arrows and eagle feathers, building awareness of the Oak Flat issue as well as recognizing that many Tribes have the same or similar issues with the protection of their sacred sites. More than 480 Tribes and many environmental organizations, outdoor recreation enthusiasts, animal rights groups and religious congregations support saving Oak Flat. The group hoping to Save Oak Flat is supporting a bill introduced by Congressman Raul Grijalva to repeal the awful bill passed in December.

On July 22, Wednesday, a group of women including grandmothers went to the capitol building to talk to Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, who has "a record of intolerance and saying vicious things against Native Americans," about statements he made in a letter.

The group of women journeyed to Washington, DC to voice their displeasure on the add-on legislation tugged into the $585 billion National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 that gives land at Apache Leap and Oak Flat in southeastern Arizona to Rio Tinto, foreign mining company, to mine. Part of a larger group called Apache Stronghold, the women earlier rallied on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol to call for the reversal the add-on legislation.

Rather than speak with Mrs. Cassadore and the other ladies and Apache Stronghold members with her, Rep. Gosar responded by hiding behind a locked door and calling the Capitol police, threatening to have Mrs. Cassadore and her friends immediately arrested.

Apache Stronghold spokesperson Wendsler Nosie, Sr. told the press, "There is no excuse for his mistreatment of the Apache grandmothers and young ladies who came to his office. Cowering behind a locked door, refusing to come out, and then calling a squad of policemen to sweep those gentle ladies away is just terrible. Rep. Gosar should apologize for that, as well as for his strange and insulting 'Dear Colleague' letter."

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1612.htm

Natural Health Care Practitioners Murdered, Disappeared

When I first read the news on June 23, 2015 that renowned autism researcher, Jeff Bradstreet, MD was found face down in a river with a gunshot wound to the chest and that it had been ruled a suicide, I was skeptical but could accept that the "vaccines cause autism" doctor could be driven to suicide in the same way that the "germs cause infections" doctor was committed to a mental institution where he killed himself after being scorned by the medical establishment.

Bradstreet had dedicated decades of his life to treating autism as a vaccine injury caused by mercury poisoning. Later the FDA tried to tote thimerosal as a safe alternative to mercury, but Bradstreet debunked their claim in his practice, which successfully helped many people with autism through chelation, a nutrition-based way of helping the body expel the mercury.

Dr. Bradstreet faced professional scorn as a result of his research and practice. In 2004 his work was dismissed by the Institute of Medicine, which was paid by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to produce a report rejecting any association between autism and vaccination. He was also ridiculed for mercury detoxification treatment by a special master in vaccine court.

The Epoch Times [ TheEpochtimes.com/n3/blog/doctor-vaccine-injury-ies-60 ] reported that "shortly after an FDA and DEA raid on his clinic in Buford, Georgia, Dr. Bradstreet suddenly died. The FDA - which continues to maintain that thimerosal is safe despite contrary evidence produced by him and other researchers - would not comment on why its agents visited his clinic.

An investigation is ongoing and a fundraising effort has been set up by his brother "To find the answers to the many questions leading up to the death of Dr. Bradstreet, including an exhaustive investigation into the possibility of foul play."

The doctor's wife does not believe it was suicide. Lori Bradstreet writes on their gofundme page that her husband "was tirelessly dedicated to his family and treated his patients as family. He was a champion for the truth. He was a fighter and would never just quit. His desire to be "the voice for those had no voice" was evident in all he did. What we were told happened really does defy all reason. Thank you for all your help to find the truth."

It stopped looking like suicide to me after several other natural health doctors also mysteriously died in the days following. It has started to look like doctors who question the safety of vaccines are being systematically murdered. Other doctors have also gone missing the past few weeks too.

Dr. Bruce Hedendal, DC PhD, died suddenly on June 21 in Boca Roton, Florida. He had had a recent meeting with the feds, was investigated and charged shortly before he mysteriously died. This doctor was healthy and fit, friends say, with a thriving practice. Hedendal, also an anti-vaccine advocate, was found dead in his car, but there was no accident nor was the car running.

Then on June 29, popular holistic doctor Teresa Ann Sievers, MD in Bonita Springs, Florida was gruesomely murdered while she was home alone. Neighbors reported hearing her scream. Lee County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday they were pursuing several leads in connection with the slaying. They reassured locals that no threat to the general population exists and that the murder was targeted, not random, but remained "tight-lipped" about their investigation.

Around the same time, on June 19, three Mexican doctors, Dr. Raymundo Tepeque Cuevas, Dr. Marvin Hernández Ortega, Dr. José Osvaldo Ortega Saucedo and their attorney, Julio César Mejía Salgado, were found dead in the back of a pick up truck in Acapulco. The doctors worked at a community hospital. Hours before their deaths, the Mexican doctors had also been in contact with government officials. The Mexican government is also acting strangely. Family and friends are demanding full, transparent investigations. Cecilia Ortega Solórzano, mother of Hernández Ortega, says officials returned the wrong corpses, too eager to close the case.

"The day we were told about the bodies, we went to identify them, but they didn't belong to our relatives, who have been missing for four days. These corpses were decaying as if they have been dead for 15 days," she said.

Dr. Deborah Gilmaker, is another alternative doctor who was murdered five months ago had told people she was being covertly targeted, and was pleading for help from the government.

Also mysteriously missing as of June 29 is physician and preventive health advocate Dr. Jeffery Whiteside, in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Door County Sheriff's Department is reportedly looking for Dr. Whiteside, last seen in the Ephraim area at a family vacation home.

Dr. Patrick Fitzpatrick, 72, a retired opthalmologist who had practiced in North Dakota, went missing in Montana around July 3rd. NBC reports that the vehicle and trailer of Dr. Fitzpatrick were found abandoned next to a pea field Saturday.

Right now, there are laws in most states allowing parents to exempt their children from being vaccinated but certain lobbyists are clamping down trying to change laws and create public drama.

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1613.htm

Encounter Groups Organizing Students: Muslims and Zionist Jews

I have for a long time advocated that there is no better way to encourage revolutionary thinking except through student groups, especially nowadays when we have long established student organizations plus new technology to link everyone in the country and abroad on social justice issues. The enemy such as Hillel has top down command structure to organize and energize every Jew in the country to care about any cause even as obscure as "slavery in Sudan" or "sweatshops in Pakistan." As soon as one of their leadership comes up with a game plan, every related student organization is going to get active in trying to convince church and synagogue of the cause they want to promote.

Communist Party groups have a lot of activities that a person could join if they enjoy going to protests or political history group studies. Student groups define public opinion.

The student organization structure is the most important and efficient political organizing tool available for anyone with a cause. The YMCA obviously caught on to this line of thinking because they actually funded my 16 year old son to go to a social justice leadership training program this summer for free, staying in the college dorms of Nazarene College. Naturally they spent one out of five days defining gender as a continuum but what my son understood of the discussion was that you should not be mean to confused people. They also discussed racism, sexism, classism, etc and defined the terms so that the young people could understand the linguistics of their approach, which seems to be leftist.

My son's basic experience of the summer camp was a lot of emotional support to get the kids to express how they feel about themselves, their background, experience with racism, sexism and so on. It was a chance for them to say what they have never been allowed to say before, in a group situation that was very encouraging. My son felt he broke some boundaries past his fear of public speaking. I learned from hearing about it that he feels that he does not know enough about his ethnic background to even try to represent what people think when they look at him and might want to ask about it. The experience of being expected to explain who one is, can be stressful especially to young people who are still searching for the answer to that question.

Even though I appreciate the goals of race and gender politics, we have to realize that America is like a garbage dump of people who left their country. We are the riff raff of global society. The most important part of being American and coming of age is realizing that nobody cares about you. You are totally on your own. There are beautiful merits to that approach to life too. Think of how much the sea cares about the fishermen catching the food you will later buy. The sea does not care about you and nor does politics. All a person can do is gain skill riding the waves.

Those who feel they benefited from this week long emotional and learning experience are now invited to attend weekly meetings with the goal of establishing student organizations in their various learning institutions, including high schools.

When I was in college, I belonged to the Muslim Students Association. At Wayne State University in Detroit, we had our own mosque, our own building on campus to make wudu, attend jummah, and hopefully organize. The Board of Directors was overseen by the older generation of Egyptian and Pakistani Muslim Brotherhood alumni but completely was run by the students, who even vacuumed and cleaned. toilets. But it was not only about having a place to pray.

The MSA always required a handful of students to volunteer for roles like President, Vice President, General Secretary... I was the Publication Secretary one year late 90s.

The thing with the MSA is like the Green Party today. All you have to do is show up at your first meeting and they want to appoint you to something. They really need fresh blood. Once you have a position you will be affiliated with an organization, which means you have common ground to communicate with other chapters and also you can state that you legally represent your members.

For example, you could send off a fax to your local Representative saying you represent the Muslim Students Association or any organization you decided that you belong to, and you might likely get a meeting to discuss issues with some person representing the government. You cannot do this unless you represent an organization. That is why you must join, or create one.

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1615.htm

Dr. Dhafir Helped Iraqi Orphans. He got 22 years for "unauthorized" Charity.

I was very honored to have met with Dr. Rafil Dhafir on Saturday August 15, 2015 at the Federal Medical Center prison in Devens, Massachusetts. Dr. Dhafir is the founder of the former Islamic charity, Help the Needy, which supported orphans in Iraq during the brutal post-Gulf War time when Iraqis were literally starving to death. Even though Christian organizations were also accused of breaking the sanctions on Iraq, Dr. Dhafir, now 67, was criminally charged for running an unauthorized charity and sentenced to 22 years in prison, 13 of which he has already served. His current release date is April 26, 2022. He has been at Federal Medical Center at Devens, MA for the past four years, I just learned. I decided to pop by for a visit.

For those wanting some background information on the charity doctor's case, I recommend: http://www.dhafirtrial.net/about-the-case/dhafir-sentencing-tatement/ where he proclaimed:


"The day will come when people will realize what we did in managing HTN. They will realize that this is the way a relief NGO should be run, selflessly, by dedicated people who will not milk it, work tirelessly and frugally, literally saving every cent that they receive and spend it only for its intended use and on top of that give their own money to facilitate its functions...

"After learning that the government had illegally spied on our most intimate lives, I told my wife that I feel like a naked man walking along Main Street. She in return told me that she feels like she was in a fish bowl. I will never forget that day when she was, in this court, describing how she was attacked by over 80 agents with guns to her head threatening and terrorizing her, some heartless people from the government were laughing and giggling in the back of this court. My Quran tells me about these people "Those who were wicked used to laugh at those who were righteous. And whenever they passed by them, used to wink at each other in mockery. And when they returned to their people, they would return jesting. And whenever they saw them, they would say, "Behold! These are the people truly astray!" But they have not been sent as keepers over them. But on this Day the righteous will laugh at the wicked. On throne of dignity they will command. Will not the wicked have been paid back for what they did?"

In a Dec. 18, 2006 letter to author Katherine Hughes, Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir wrote about his previous incarceration in CMU Terre Haute:

"No one seems to know about this top-secret operation until now. It is still not fully understood.The order came from the Attorney General himself. The staff here is struggling to make sense of the whole situation. There are 16 of us, all Muslims but two, with one non-Arab Muslim. We are housed in what we are told was the holding area for those on death row!!!!! We are told this is an experiment, so the whole concept is evolving on a daily basis." http://www.wrmea.org/2007-may-june/dr.-rafil-a.-dhafir-at-tere-haute-prisons-new-communications-management-unit.html


My visit with Dr. Dhafir was brief, under one hour, but great. He looks waaaaay better than I imagined he would look after so much time. In fact he looks better than most of the other inmates half his age. Whatever his health problems are, he comes across as a strong person, and with sound and sharp mind.

I was not able to press for a lot of details and he seemed like he didn't want to be a complainer, so he only briefly explained that he had been sent to SHU for no reason, in the past, and that he had filed complaints. And now the prison is claiming that they have no paperwork or documents about his complaint that he submitted. He is determined to keep complaining. I am not clear on the details of who he is going to complain to about his original complaint being "lost." It sounded like he had legal representation handling that. I did not ask, and he did not offer any information as to whether he had fears for his physical safety or if his main fear was being sent again to SHU.

There was some general discussion of the thin line between killing people and medical neglect. He said the prison doctor was coming to work drunk and nobody was reporting him. The place is run by incompetents. There is one prisoner there who is 100 years old. People in wheelchairs. As a doctor he feels very frustrated about how much better this medical institution should be run and organized.

Dhafir last got a visit two weeks ago. He is allowed 8 visits per month. Visits are not timed. So whether you arrive in the morning and stay all day or you stay for one hour, it's counted as one visit. The visit took place in a noisy and crowded room full of other prisoners visiting their loved ones, and some snack machines.

He comes across as very sincere and polite as well as religiously observant. A mutual friend who spent time with him at CMU recommended to me to seek him out for spiritual knowledge. I will definitely keep that in mind for future conversation topics. I told him everyone who knows him is very fond of him.

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1616.htm
2015-08-23

Syrian Migration to Europe Could Have Positive Impact.

Europeans have recently been forced to acknowledge the genocide going on in Syria because of dead bodies washing up on their beaches. Europe is experiencing the Syrian war on a level that is far removed from the American left's blind theorizing about what foreign powers are responsible. When one mentions the bombs come from Russia and the pilots are Iranian they short-circuit because the Americans really only get their alternative news from leftist, pro-Assad sources.

A certain photo of a little boy who had drowned got past the censors and went viral, as well as the story of an entire container load of corpses, many children, that washed up on a beach in Vienna. Germany made the first move to accept ten thousand refugees. However, there are more than ten thousand refugees so other European countries are being pressured to help out. So far all of the refugee burden is on Italy and Greece due to their proximity to Syria via the Mediterranean Sea. Fascist Hungary is building an Israel-like wall on its border with Serbia, to keep the refugees out. There are reports of Serbians welcoming the Syrian refugees, but there is historical anti-Turk bias.

As a result of not wanting to repeat the Holocaust, and genuine humanitarian concern, hundreds of demonstrating Austrians held signs reading "Refugees Welcome" this week. They must have been moved to the depths of their being because my experience of Austria was that they were quite xenophobic and openly hostile towards Turks. I was denied service there while wearing hijab. However, not in Vienna. Vienna is a very open-minded city with a long intellectual history.

While there are complaints about Arab and Muslim countries not doing enough for the Syrians, and those countries who do try to help are accused of harboring terrorists, it makes sense for Europeans to shelter this sudden influx of new talent. Countries such as Germany and Austria are so desperate for young people to fill their employment vacuum that they already offer free university tuition and serve as a destination for foreign students from Gaza, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Syrian immigrants may perhaps be valued above others because of their colored eyes.

Iceland, the most racist country in Europe, well shall we say the least diverse, offered 11,000 homes up voluntarily to house Syrian refugees. This is a profoundly anti-immigrant state.

According to census polls, the white race, in other words colored eyed people with blonde or red hair, are becoming an endangered species, after World War II caused them to kill each other off. In Europe and America, the inability to replace the population lost in WWII was caused largely by the personal choice to become gay, use birth control, or delay marriage until after menopause. Prior to the Syrian war, the Syrian population was considered the top producing country of whites. Even despite the war and refugee status, they continue to multiply. If it were not for the Syrians, the white race was due for extinction within the next century. The war happened after these population statistics were released in 2010.

Desperate for a global population to represent, white rights leaders such as David Duke expanded the definition of "white" to include Italians, Greeks and Syrians, calling them "Mediterranean whites." Dr. Duke visited Syria on multiple occasions as a guest of Assad, who is ironically now mass murdering the last of the blue eyeds.

With the Syrian war not likely to end soon, Syrians will probably become a permanent part of Europe, which already has twice the Arab/Islamic presence as the United States enjoys. This may have long lasting consequences on support for Israel, but at the same time, European housing of the Syrian refugees helps Zionism attain its goal of clearing that entire area for "Greater Israel."

According to Zionist plans that began to be discussed in the late 1800s in Switzerland, Iraq was supposed to become like an American Indian reservation for refugees, while Syrian land would become suburban luxury homes for foreign wealthy Jews and collaborative "investors."

Time will tell how that plot pans out, but Allah may have other plans. Syrians are a family oriented society and other than hygiene needs, they are not likely to cause instability in Europe. Rather, they might actually cause stability. They are bringing in a much needed homogeneous population of literate, well-mannered and hard-working people that will be able to assimilate very quickly. By expanding the definition of "whiteness" to include Arabs and Muslims, Europe will be in a stronger negotiating position worldwide, than in the outdated past when Christianity represented Europe.

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1618.htm

Syria: First UK drone attack on British citizens

The UK just created history on 21 and 24 of August 2015 by committing targeted assassinations of British citizens residing in Syria using drone strike.

"Cardiff-born Reyaad Khan, 21, and Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, died last month in Raqqa, alongside another fighter, in the first targeted UK drone attack on a British citizen, Cameron told MPs," reported the BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34178998

The British government claims the lads had been plotting "barbaric" attacks on UK soil and they had no other choice but to kill them just in case. The media called Junaid Hussain a "cyber jihadist" and pictured him with a rifle in a photo.

Both Khan and Hussain had been involved in actively recruiting IS "sympathisers" and plotting to attack "high-profile public commemorations" taking place in the UK this summer, the prime minister said.

"There was a terrorist directing murder on our streets and no other means to stop him."

This makes no sense. He was overseas. They could have just prevented them from returning to Britain, arrested him and given him a trial. And what do they mean by attacking? Like he might have gone there to pass out flyers about the Syrian situation? What exactly. I guess we will never know since he's dead. God rest his soul.

"Khan was killed in a precision strike on 21 August by a remotely piloted aircraft, "after meticulous planning" by the UK government, while he was travelling in a vehicle," reported BBC. Another British national, Junaid Hussain, 21 and from Birmingham, was killed in a separate air strike by US forces in Raqqa on 24 August.

Two years ago, Britain refused to enter the war to help Syrian refugees but last September approved British participation in air strikes against IS targets in Iraq only. This recent action is the first time Britain has droned anyone at all in Syria, so it is interesting that their first choice as a target was their own citizens. To spare themselves the hassles of being prosecuted or retaliated by a foreign government, the UK has simply taken to using their own citizens for target practice overseas. I guess that would limit the legal repercussions!

We do not know enough information right now to determine whether the UK was just practicing their weaponry on some soft targets or if any of the victims were potential political activists in some way. Officials told the media the UK would "act immediately [in Syria] and explain to Parliament afterwards."

The strike on Khan was "the first time in modern times that a British asset has been used to conduct a strike in a country where we're not involved in a war", said Cameron. "Britain has used remotely piloted aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan but this is a new departure and that's why I thought it important to come to the House and explain why I think it is necessary and justified."

Interview with Ali Randall

Government Surveillance, Constant government Pressure and the Trauma of his Wife.
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1620.htm


I spoke by phone this week with Ali Randall, who is a member of Jamaat al Muslimeen, about his life, and his experiences dealing with government surveillance and questioning. He is a self-employed diesel mechanic. He married his wife Aisha in 2011.

Since government spying agencies prefer to operate in the shadows and specialize in intimidating people into silence, my observation in various cases has been that a person is safer when their situation is made public.Therefore, Br. Ali agreed to speak with New Trend about these disturbing, personal matters.

Ali told me that at age 19, he committed a bank robbery for which he received a ten year prison sentence, which he served in Louisberg, Kentucky. His actions were not politically motivated. The money he got was immediately squandered for his own personal pleasure. The beauty of the unfortunate situation, however humiliating, was that while in prison he got to meet several high profile Muslim long term prisoners, including Jihad Abdulmumit, whom I interviewed a couple years ago at the Jericho Conference [http://karinfriedemann.blogspot.com/2013/06/exclusive-interiew-with-jihad.html].

He also met Sheikh Omar Abdurrahman's co-defendant, Tariq al-Hassan of Sudan in prison, as well as Al-Sayed Nuseer, who had killed a rabbi. Life behind bars and learning about Islam was not without its moments. In 1996, white prisoners stabbed to death, 30 times, a white man who took shahada at the Kentucky federal prison.

Ali met Imam Luqman in the 1990's, who was leading group study sessions in the prison. Imam Luqman is the brother from Detroit who was murdered by a team of FBI and police. Being from there myself, I knew one of Imam Luqman's wives, who went by Sister Malika. I was there when she came to the masjid as a homeless woman with two kids. I watched, astonished, as sisters competed with each other trying to convince their husbands to marry her. The sister told me she was so overwhelmed by proposals she didn't know which one to choose, so the imam seemed like the safest choice to provide a stable situation for her. His death was a huge shock.

Ali also met Dr. Kaukab Siddique in prison. Brother Kaukab was serving as a visiting minister to federal prisons. The resulting friendship has now become interesting to the FBI as a result of the media attacks on the professor, drawing attention to his personal opinions.

In February 2015 the FBI started following Ali around with 1-5 vehicles. In May, they surrounded his house but they didn't come in. They knocked on the door and asked questions about "Who do we listen to?" They also asked if he had any plans to go to Iraq or Syria to join ISIS. The answer was no. Ali's parents in law were also being followed and visited at their home.

Br. Ali was questioned again and again in May, June and July. They asked him if he knew certain people, about whom he had no idea. "Someone told them I was a terrorist," he said.

The FBI wanted to know why he was sending Imam Badi and Kaukab articles on ISIS, which he had forwarded from the internet by private message on Facebook. When Br. Ali went to Baltimore after the riots, he and also his wife and a friend were being followed 24 hours a day.

"They need to investigate more before harassing people," Ali told New Trend. "I thought they would kill me."

February 2015 the FBI started following him. He started noticing it for sure by March. By April and May they were openly parking outside his window. He contacted ACLU, but they couldn't help. Ali would approach vehicle and ask, "Why are you following me?" and the man would always say, "I'm not following you." He said he would never see that person again but another one would replace him.

At one time he heard the FBI agent say, "Subject approaching" on his walkie-talkie.

As recently as last week, Br. Ali was interviewed for 3 hours by the FBI, who told him, "We need your help."

"They asked if I knew someone who would do an act of terror," Ali told New Trend. He said they were asking about the entire Muslim community.

In June 2015, Ali was arrested for Xanex and spent 55 days in a city jail. While he was in there, the prison got a call from the FBI asking for information about ISIS and why Kaukab was representing them. The whole thing has been extremely stressful for Ali and his wife, whose health problems are flaring up probably as a result of the relentless political harassment.

"I lost money (on lawyers). I couldn't sleep in my house except with the lights on. After they surrounded my house I could never sleep there again, I couldn't even sleep at my mother's house," he admitted. Ali's mother in law continues to have problems with her job now.

I asked him, "If you were to disappear, what would you want to tell everyone?"

Br. Ali said, "Don't give up the fight of standing up against injustice. Speak out. You don't have to commit violence but speak out."

When he went to Baltimore he went there not representing any organization, and without any protection. He just wanted to see what was going on. He walked through areas inhabited by what he called "the scum of the scum." People on drugs, walking and nodding off at the same time. Gangs, abandoned buildings. The people living in these areas are tired of being beat up and harassed by the police. They are trying to speak out.

He spoke of the HIV rate in Baltimore. He also noticed that, compared to the 90's after Rodney King, when people were smashing store windows to steal TVs, the more recent social upheaval in Baltimore saw people looting toilet paper and soap. Things they really must need.

Taliban prison break supported by locals

On September 14, 2015 at 2:30am Taliban fighters liberated hundreds of prisoners from a prison outside the city of Ghazni, killing four policemen and wounding seven. 148 of the 355 freed prisoners are said to be milit.ants charged with "national security crimes," including a few local Taliban leaders. 80 prisoners were left behind, and three escaped prisoners were recaptured.

"Around 2:30am six Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms attacked Ghazni prison. First they detonated a car bomb in front of the gate, fired an RPG and then raided the prison," deputy provincial governor Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told the Associated Free Press.He also said one militant blew himself up at the prison gates, allowing others to force open cells.

Three of the attackers were killed, one of whom was a former inmate who had been released. The prison raid was one of ten other Taliban attacks on the city that same night.

"We are the Taliban. We have come to free you from this jail," shouted the six men who entered the compound after breaking the locks. The attack lasted several hours.

Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, a member of the provincial council, said that there had been indications that day that the Taliban were preparing to attack. The Afghan intelligence service was trying to move 20 senior Taliban prisoners to Kabul, but they protested and wanted more time in Ghazni.

"The prison does not meet even 10 percent of standard — it is soft, old and built of mud," Mr. Faqiri said.

Three years ago, 500 Taliban fighters were freed from Sarposa Prison in Kandahar through a tunnel dug from the outside, which took five months to dig and was equipped with electricity and piped in air. In 2008, militants released 1,200 inmates from the Kandahar prison in a double suicide attack where two explosive trucks were driven into the entranceway, killing 15 guards.

These prison break stories are the stuff of legends. These brave men risked and even donated their lives for the sake of their fellow man, to help their brothers escape from the torturous conditions of Afghan prisons, which make the holocaust look like a birthday party! Freeing prisoners of war is one of the most important aspects of true faith.

The fact that only three of the 355 released prisoners were recaptured demonstrates that the general population must be hiding them in their homes. The general public is actually aiding and abetting the fugitives. They are not calling the police to turn them in. The Taliban prison break clearly has widespread popular support. Even though most of the released prisoners were not even political prisoners, instead of fearing the criminals on the loose, the locals seem to be more offended by the use of the prison by an occupying government to oppress the population, keeping everyone living in fear. Though in truth, if the tables were turned the prison could possibly be turned into a torture den for anti-Taliban military men in a tit-for-tat situation.

In the absence of true governance, the powers that be can resort to kidnapping and murdering their political opponents or anyone they feel like kidnapping and murdering, or locking them in a dungeon. Once there, there is no due process. No way to get out. No lawyer who is going to get you off. No laws about treatment of prisoners. Even when the prisoner is an American-educated woman such as Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, there is no legal way to take her out of an Afghan prison except to isolate her in an American prison. Why? Is it because she has seen too much and could tell all to the American public if given a chance? In any case, the people who live around the prisons know all about what goes on in there and they are surely celebrating the release of their countrymen, in order that they can fight another day for the liberation of their country.

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1621.htm

FSA Making Strides Despite Russian Bombing

My primary access to information in the English language, other than New Trend, is from youtube videos forwarded by Syrian Americans of live war footage as well as Arabic news shows that have subtitles or at least give a summary of what is going on in the video. So I lack military knowledge, but I have grown up around the Arabs of Michigan.

My intuitive analysis is that the mainstream attitude of Syrian-American youth is represented by support for the Free Syrian Army. Al-Nusra's approach to politics represents the mainstream point of view of the Sunni religious conservative elders. ISIS represents or draws from the glorious End Times Prophecies, including the Return of Jesus (pbuh), that are described in some Islamic hadith and are very often quoted by South Asians. Some Muslims base a large part of their faith upon these prophecies while others view these hadith as weak and suspect that they were planted by the British Illuminati. Either way, these hadith are very important to understanding why people would leave their homes to go fight for an Islamic State as opposed to mere political freedom for the Syrians.

About one month ago, American journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem interviewed Shaykh Abu Firas [ YouTube.com/watch?v=0RIsR9LXiWU ] , member of Jabha Nusra's Majlis Ashura, regarding his group's stance concerning ISIS

Abu Firas stated that ISIS offered to join forces with al-Nusra, which is often called an offshoot of al-Qaeda. The US State department considers them as Islamic moderates affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The old bearded man said that they do want to establish Islam as the law of the land, that is their goal. However, al-Nusra is not comfortable with ISIS's approach, in particular their decision to declare the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as kuffar or infidels. ISIS leaders told al-Nusra that they would only be willing to work with them if al-Nusra would fight against FSA.

The Shaykh said they could not agree to this because the FSA represents the vast majority of the local Syrian militia groups, most of whom are guarding their own town. FSA is a wide spectrum of people whose common goal is to topple Assad and to defend their homeland. Some of the fighters are sincerely religious Muslims who want to establish Islam as a way of life, while other fighters have a more secular mindset. Many even have family members living in the US. Al-Nusra refused to reject the FSA as allies or to declare them kuffar. This is why the two main Islamic fighting groups are not working together.

October 7, 2015 was a historic day for the FSA. "Let today be the day that it is recorded... The Assad regime with Iranian boots, Hezbollah mercenaries, sectarian militias, and the cover of Russian aerial bombardments.... Could NOT.... advance on the Free Syrian Army in Hama's suburbs....AND....That our freedom fighters were able to destroy 26 tanks (and others).... Seize two tanks a spoils... Take some POW's.... And much more...." was the news circulating on facebook. Other accounts place the number of tanks destroyed at closer to 15.

The Orient News [ YouTube.com/watch?v=wQFJFrx6Sys ] showed very exciting footage of FSA fighters shooting rockets at advancing tanks. One shot, and the tank is completely obliterated. They didn't just topple the tank over. BOOM! The tank is gone. The marksmanship of the fighters is impressively accurate despite the apparent clumsiness of the launching apparatus, while the weapons themselves must be very advanced, to cause such total damage. This is no homemade device. I am told the rockets are supplied by Libya or UAE.

"On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin's fighter jets rocketed an ammunition storehouse, destroying artillery, armored personnel carriers and even tanks belonging to Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, or The Mountain Eagles, a U.S.-backed brigade of the Free Syrian Army," writes Michael Weiss in the Daily Beast.

A video uploaded by the brigade to YouTube shows the burning wreckage of the Russian airstrike, in Mansoura, in the western suburbs of Aleppo, as the local commander known as Abu Mohammed taunts his enemy: "Thank God, we are all fine," says Abu Mohammed. "We don't fear Russia or anyone helping the Russians. Bashar, we will remain resistant fighting you even without any ammunition or bullets. We will fight you with knives. We don't need ammunition, Allahu Akhbar."

Weiss reports also that while the Russian airplanes were targeting Suqour al-Jabal's weapon depots in Aleppo and ISIS attacked the bases with explosives at the same time.

"In the last week, less than 10 percent of all Russian missiles (and now ship-borne cruise missiles) have struck ISIS or al-Qaeda-affiliated targets, according to the U.S. State Department. What is a consensus view among analysts is that ISIS clearly is not Putin's quarry in Syria, at least not yet, because he's too busy killing the anti-Assad rebels supported and armed by the Central Intelligence Agency. U.S. officials have acknowledged as much."

Further complicating things, Russian propaganda is stating that they are bombing ISIS targets when in fact they are bombing areas that are held by FSA. On October 5, 2015 Bilal Abdul Kareem reported [ YouTube.com/watch?v=tXy5vkPKw9g ] on site very close to the Turkish border. His interviewee, a fighter for FSA, said the Russian planes trespassed over Turkish airspace, flying over from the Turkish side before bombing.

Due to smart phones, the front lines of war are being filmed in action and watched online. Lighter videos involve fighters showing off their weapons and their prowess. The darkest documentaries show piles of dead children and total desolation. It remains to be seen if our ability to literally watch a war as it unfolds on the ground will result in anything but personal horror, or if there will be some ability for people to influence events due to their ability to communicate directly with the people involved in wars.

[New Trend comment: Daily Beast is a known anti-Islam publication. The editor of New Trend was subjected to slanderous attacks by the Daily Beast. The attacks were then picked up by all the Zionist media from the New York Times to the Washington Post. Secondly, the claim that some hadith were planted by the "British illuminati" is simply too ridiculous to require a response. Thirdly:The viewpoint of al-Nusra would be acceptable if ISIS' viewpoint were placed next to it. ISIS has set up a Caliphate and the debate should be within that context. Fourthly the FSA's viewpoint that the war is for secularist values must be rejected. Perhaps the conflict originally began for democracy and justice but Bashar Assad drowned the unarmed protests in blood and torture. It is now Jihad all the way. The Islamic resistance is the key to the struggle against Assad.]

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1623.htm

Rally against CDC Vaccine Danger Cover-Up

Atlanta, Georgia: On October 23-25, 2015, an interfaith coalition including Nation of Islam and the Church of Scientology join with Bobby Kennedy, medical doctors and community leaders for a Truth, Transparency & Freedom Rally in front of the Center for Disease Control headquarters to demand that the "CDC Whistleblower" Dr. William Thompson be subpoenaed to testify to Congress, following the revelation by Florida Rep Bill Posey (R) that CDC scientists were allegedly instructed to destroy vaccine research which revealed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, particularly in Black boys.

Their study claimed that there was no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. However, Dr. Thompson came forward last year with an unprecedented admission: he and his colleagues committed scientific misconduct. Thompson has since then been federally granted whistleblower status and immunity. In a statement released in August, 2014, Dr. Thompson stated, "I regret that my co-authors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics."

Dr. Thompson exposed a culture of fraud in the CDC, an institution with a built-in conflict of interest regarding vaccine profits versus vaccine safety. The CDC buys over $4 billion of vaccines each year from the pharmaceutical industry to distribute to the states' public health departments. US vaccination rates must remain huge for the CDC to get reimbursed for that purchase. Thus, vaccine safety scientists are under tremendous pressure not to link vaccines and neurological adverse events. The doctor stated that he was specifically told "point blank" from his superiors in multiple instances to not report such findings and to find ways using fraudulent statistical methods to obviate the results and falsely give vaccines a clean bill of health. Dr. Thompson stepped forward due to the agony of over 10 years of lying and covering up the real truth regarding vaccine injury.

The same weekend, on October 24, in Oakland California, Minister Keith Muhammad of NOI leads a solidarity protest against mandatory vaccination, which is being proposed as law in California. If the bill is passed, it will no longer be possible to claim a religious exemption allowing unvaccinated children to attend school. SB 277 removes the last "check and balance" in preventing vaccine injury in children- parental consent rights. Muhammad has been championing the effort to oppose SB 277 by doing outreach with members of the Legislative Black Caucus in California. Assemblyman Isadore Hall, III apologized for his previous vote on SB 277 and promised to research the matter and if necessary, write a letter to Governor Brown urging him to veto SB 277 if it passes.

At the recent Million Man March commemoration in DC, on October 12, Reverend Tony Muhammad accused CDC of intentionally doctoring vaccines to injure black and Hispanic boys. He claimed that the vaccinations were genetically modified to target children of color with deliberate injury. What the whistleblower actually stated was simply that evidence demonstrates that Blacks are more vulnerable to vaccine injury than whites. African-American babies who received the MMR vaccine before the age of three were more than 3.3 times as likely to be diagnosed with autism.Thompson further stated, "There have always been recognized risks for vaccination and I believe it is the responsibility of the CDC to properly convey the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines."

In a town meeting held in Los Angeles on June 18, 2015, Dr. Brian Hooker, whose own son was injured by a vaccine, stated:

"In terms of vaccine injury, the study by Gallagher et al. (published in 2010 in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A) showed that blacks were at significantly greater risk of regressing into autism after receiving the thimerosal-containing Hepatitis B vaccination series as infants. Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that is used in some vaccines in multidose vials and is still used in the flu shot, the tetanus vaccine and meningococcal pneumonia vaccine and is also in trace amounts (sufficient to cause harm) in the Hepatitis B, Hemophilus influenza B (HiB) and DTaP vaccines. The data show a 5.53 times greater risk of autism for black boys receiving the thimerosal-containing HepB vaccine series versus those black boys not receiving any HepB shot. White boys did not show a statistically significant risk."

The reason for this massive cover-up has to do with campaign contributions to politicians by pharmaceutical companies. "In an unexpected development, the Sacramento Bee published an article on June 18 by Jim Miller listing the politicians who had received the most money from the pharmaceutical industry in the 2013-2014 legislative session. Not surprisingly, topping the list at #1 was Senator Richard Pan who is the author of SB 277, with $95,150 and followed closely by Speaker of the Assembly, Toni Atkins, with $90,250. The article also reported that pharmaceutical firms and their trade groups had donated more than two million dollars to members of the California legislature in the 2013-2104 legislative session," writes Kent Heckenlively for ageofautism.com.

Furthermore, there is a False Claims Act lawsuit pending against Merck in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Case No. 10-4373 (CDJ). This case was brought by two former Merck virologists who were involved in the efficacy testing of the mumps portion of Merck's MMR vaccine. According to these scientists, Merck engaged in fraudulent testing and data falsification to conceal the vaccine's diminished efficacy. As a result of Merck's fraudulent scheme, the scientists allege, American children are being injected with a vaccine that does not provide the efficacy Merck claims it provides and does not provide the public with adequate immunization. According to the scientists, Merck's MMR vaccine contributed to the recent mumps outbreaks in the US. Late last year, the Court denied Merck's motion to dismiss the case and the case is in the discovery phase.

Bobby Kennedy told The Blaze he is not against vaccines but he wants vaccines to be safe, especially "pediatric vaccines." The Atlanta event wraps up with an interfaith prayer at Muhammad's Mosque #15.

Britain secures release of Guantanamo prisoner Shaker Aamer

After more than 13 years detained without charge or trial in Guantánamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, 46, has finally been released! His plane touched down at Biggin Hill airfield Friday afternoon, October 30. He told supporters, "The very first thing I want is a cup of coffee, then for a doctor to look me over."

His wife, a British citizen, was pregnant with their fourth child when Aamer, originally from Saudi Arabia and a British resident, went to Afghanistan in 2002 to do charity work. He was captured by anti-Taliban Northern Alliance bounty hunters, who sold him to US troops. He was imprisoned in Afghanistan before being moved to Guantanamo, where he engaged in hunger strikes to protest his confinement. He was violently force fed through a tube up his nose. He was cleared for release in 2007 but the US continued to detain him.

His haunting voice could be heard on 60 Minutes in November of 2013, as he yelled, "Please, we are tired. Are you just going to leave us here to die? Tell the world the truth. Open up the place!" through the wall of his cell, knowing that newsmedia were there. The reporter (Barbara Walters?) seemed genuinely shocked that the detainee spoke perfect English, and at the level of his despair. [ YouTube.com/watch?v=HVDgz4v8WZY ]

As an English speaking inmate of Guantanamo, he served a valuable role in organizing prisoners and negotiating with the US government to end hunger strikes before people died. However, after gaining false promises from officials, Aamer was put into solitary confinement. His sudden release came as a blessed surprise.

His family eagerly awaits his arrival. His daughter, said to be an A level student, whom he has not seen since she was 4, turned 18 just days before his release. He has never before met his youngest child, a son who is now 13.

Amnesty International, which was supportive of Aamer's release, asks: "Why was he detained at all, and why was his release delayed when he was twice cleared for transfer out of Guantánamo, in 2007 and in 2009? And what role did the UK play in his detention and treatment? Shaker Aamer says he was repeatedly abused in both Afghanistan and in Guantánamo. His claims of interrogation and abuse in Afghanistan in the presence of MI5 officers highlight once again the need for an independent judge-led inquiry into allegations of UK involvement in torture and rendition."

On October 11, 2015 after the Mail on Sunday reported that Shaker Aamer had stated in a phone call to his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, that he was hunger striking to protest his constant and ongoing abuse, and his fears that, due to his weakened state, he wouldn't live to see his family again, We Stand With Shaker's directors, Joanne MacInnes and Andy Worthington, author of "The Guantanamo Files," set up a new campaign, Fast For Shaker, in which celebrities, MPs and members of the public were encouraged to show solidarity with Shaker by pledging to undertake a hunger strike of their own for a minimum of 24 hours, on a day of their choosing.

It could be that the UK really did not want to touch this issue of their involvement in the US torture rendition program, but this coalition of activists generated enough public attention to force their government to act decisively to return Aamer back home. Somehow, between October 11 and October 30, something magical happened. People suddenly passionately threw themselves into caring about this man, who has been simmering on the back burner for over a decade.

It may seem completely bizarre but the gimmick that proved so effective was a 20 foot tall blow up dummy with Aamer's smiling face, dressed in an orange jumpsuit. His shirt bore the words: "FREE SHAKER AAMER. CLEARED FOR RELEASE. STILL IN GUANTANAMO. WHY?" Many many celebrities and political officials posed with it for photographs holding signs saying, "I STAND WITH SHAKER" and "I FAST WITH SHAKER." [See photos at westandwithshaker.org] Maybe because this street theater tactic was so bizarre and comical, it made publicly talking about illegal rendition possible and gave the detainee a friendly funny human image.

Upon his release, Aamer made this public statement: "The reason I have been strong is because of the support of people so strongly devoted to the truth. If I was the fire to be lit to tell the truth, it was the people who protected the fire from the wind. My thanks go to Allah first, second to my wife, my family, to my kids and then to my lawyers who did everything they could to carry the word to the world. I feel obliged to every individual who fought for justice not just for me but to bring an end to Guantánamo. Without knowing of their fight I might have given up more than once; I am overwhelmed by what people have done by their actions, their thoughts and their prayers and without their devotion to justice I would not be here in Britain now. The reality may be that we cannot establish peace but we can establish justice. If there is anything that will bring this world to peace it is to remove injustice."

"We also recall the 112 other men still held at Guantánamo, and note that 52 of them have also, like Shaker, been approved for release by high-level US government review processes. We call for them also to be released as soon as possible," stated Andy Worthington.

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1626.htm

She Died Slowly in Prison so Assata Shakur Could Live!

Book Review of Poetry by Marilyn Buck


"do not sit idle, your path streams before you.

bank the raging fires and light laurel branches against the cold."

Sometimes, I used to blame my parents for forcing me to be born in this conflicted country when I could have had a normal life surrounded by cousins overseas. But once in a while I remember why I stayed in this country. I could have left. It probably had to do with hearing Ramona Africa speak in Detroit around 1990. I think it had to do with the movement in its many fragmented forms, one of the most powerful of which is poetry. Nobody in Detroit had any money, so our idea of a good time was to drink coffee and recite our poetry for one another. I don't know if such times have died, but I cherish the memory of artists, professors, homeless, seekers and rebels making sense of the world together. When I opened this book, I knew I was dealing with somebody very, very special and important to the history of America. I am proud to hope that when I die, my body would be buried anywhere near the same dirt as this great person.

I did not learn of her until she died, but thankfully I did learn of Marilyn Buck. Her political writing is beyond compare, as was her sacrifice. But I had not read her poetry before, until I decided to cruise Amazon one late night, and snagged the last available copy of 'Inside/Out.' I have never ever been moved so deeply by a book before. I hate poetry (other than my own)! I don't read books normally. But this woman's purity is so powerful that I kept having to put the book down just to calm down. Marilyn Buck is one of the top ten women who ever lived, and I include the Virgin Mary on that list. She gave her life for a friend, and she accepted the deep pain willingly. She held no grudge, she felt no anger. Though she was forced to live her life in prison, she continued to develop as a person of great station that few people are privileged to attain.

NAMES 

my movement led to a clandestine world where Marilyn spoken mustn't evoke even a startled eye... I collected other names sometimes more than one at once... like scarves draped over shoulders decorative concealing on capture an FBI man uttered Marilyn a question a victory shout named I had no option but Marilyn scarves stripped by howling winds of retribution

Marilyn Buck was imprisoned for her participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, the 1981 Brink's robbery and the 1983 U.S. Senate bombing. Buck received an 80-year sentence in federal prison. She died at home in Brooklyn on August 3, 2010, after friends campaigned for her compassionate release from the Federal Medical Center, Carswell due to uterine cancer.

"I went off to college, escaped my father's thunderstorms Berkeley. Rebellion. Exhilaration! the Vietnam war, Black Power, Che took me to Chicago... on to California, driving at 3:00 in the morning in the mountains I got it: what self-determination means a daunting task for a young white woman, I was humbled practice is concrete... harder than crystal-dream concepts San Francisco, on the front steps at Fulton Street smoking reefer, drinking "bitterdog" with Black Panthers and white hippie radicals, talking about when the revolution comes the revolution did not come... but later there was Assata's freedom smile then I was captured, locked into a cell of sewer water spirit deflated. I survived, carried on, glad to be like a weed, a wild red poppy rooted in life"

There are no words to describe the depth of gratitude our people owe to this woman who gave her life for Assata's freedom smile. It is completely incomprehensible what she did for us.

LOSS 

"my mother died at 74 I believed she would no, should live till 80 she was supposed to live till 80 so I could live till 80 so I would make it out of prison alive... my mother's anger swam in blue-water eyes a grief she did not want to bear her daughter imprisoned an enemy of the state she could not save me from vengeful-suited men nor from myself..."

Marilyn dedicated this book of poetry to her mother Virginia Grace, "without whom I would not have the grace to embrace life as it comes" and to Mtyari Shabaka and Kuwasi Balagoon: "embracers of life, fearless before death." According to wikipedia, Balagoon was a Black Panther involved in the Black Liberation Army Brinks robbery, who died in prison of pneumonia at age 39 in 1986. I wish I knew who the other person was.

Her description of incarceration is so accurate. "no grass no trees no children throwing stones into puddles no laughter no tears no peace no silence no world of colors no sun no moon no weather at all Living without blowing winds gentle rains day or night my internal clock is deprived of nature's power: There is only the beat of my heart."

While in prison, Marilyn earned a Masters Degree in Poetics from the New College of California. She wrote to her teacher David Meltzer:

"I feel the pain of every single day here. I regret and miss the simple things - family, children, a lover, comrades, and involvement in political struggle. But after each nightmare of a day passes, it is history and I look forward to what is to come." 

2015-11-08 Sun