Reconstruction of Gaza?

Becoming aware of one’s reality and surroundings, not only within ones arena, but also in and ‎around the world is vital and indispensable to a healthy future of any country.‎

Many leaders all over the world and through history have been trying to mask reality from their ‎people in an attempt to attain their own personal goals and ambitions.‎

Hence, raising awareness, as much as it is essential for dignity, freedom, and autonomy, is as ‎difficult to achieve, yet never impossible.‎

Muhammad Hasanain Haikal ‎ ‎, an Egyptian journalist, author, and politician, gave a talk on ‎television about the war on Gaza and the surrounding political back staging operations that took ‎place before, during and after. The following is a summary of his talk. ‎

The Arab world is on the brink of a new phase on the ground. It is in the throes of a very painful ‎phase, or one of transition, because the US and the West reached the conclusion that, it was no ‎more important that Arabs agree or object, or say yes or no, because they became highly ‎dispersed. Moreover, the most dangerous thing about this dispersion is that there is no longer a ‎party on the ground that could exist for negotiation.‎

In the midst of what was happening with the plans for the reconstruction of Gaza, there was a ‎visit by the European leaders to Israel, which was, at the time, a tantamount to save Israel from ‎the international claims seeking to put the Israelis on trial for what they have committed in Gaza. ‎The intent was to provide a sort of an “instrument of forgiveness” to Israel. ‎
‎ This came in response to Israel’s worry about voices calling to bring Israeli leaders to ‎prosecution, while others called for a trial by The International Criminal Court for the war crimes ‎committed in the Gaza Holocaust.‎

Mr. Haikal said that he was worried that all such preparations for the reconstruction of Gaza ‎would divert all attention to an entire and different arena in place of the political one dealing ‎with the Palestinian problem.‎

While former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was being awarded a medal of honour by G. W. ‎Bush, Blair advised Bush to forget about the concept of spreading democracy among the Arab ‎countries. He further explained that the Arabs in the Middle East are far from understanding it, ‎not to mention accepting such concept because of their economic and social problems.‎

In the year 2006, there was an American planning set in place to get rid of Hamas (incidentally, ‎this was published in American newspaper). T. Blair requested from the Palestinian president ‎Mahmoud Abbas to work on the implementation of such plan. The failure of this plan caused ‎Israel to carry out the task of toppling Hamas itself, and to make the Palestinian arena filled with ‎emptiness.‎

At times, the US tempts us to pounce at that that we imagine is a risk to us, and when we ‎remove him from the scene, we become increasingly vulnerable.‎

Mr. Haikal is urging all Arabs, especially youth to open their eyes, be on the alert, and start ‎thinking about the US and European plans to dominate the Middle East, but in a new and ‎unfamiliar way.‎

Any Arab country would be wrong in thinking that any other than the North Atlantic Treaty ‎Organization would oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. A political process of an utmost ‎importance, is that there are large amounts of reconstruction would be allocated, and would not ‎be given to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.‎

The Treaty Organization would govern all the allotted monies; NATO is coming to the region ‎strongly. We have to be aware that Israel exists as an associate member in the European Union ‎‎(EU). Mr Haikal added, “Here I say that the engineer of this movement is the European Tony ‎Blair, former British Prime Minister.”‎

Eliminating Hamas is not entirely accomplished yet. The signed treaty between Condoleezza ‎Rice (on her last days in office) and Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, was about the ‎preparations in the area without the consultation of the concerned parties, aiming at imposing ‎some effects there.‎

There will be a backlash against Hamas, when such stage comes about and the awakening (after ‎the terrible nightmare) takes place and that is when Hamas will face its great losses.‎

Mr. Haikal ended his talk by referring to a new book called “A World of Trouble”, by Patrick ‎Tyler. The author “draws on newly opened presidential archives to dramatize the approach to the ‎Middle East across U.S. presidencies from Eisenhower to George W. Bush.‎ ‎” ‎

Understanding what is happening around us makes us recognize the need to become aware of the ‎much deviant propaganda that minimizes Israel’s war crimes by turning the world into spectators ‎looking at the crime scene merely as an amusement park, where the Arabs are regarded as ‎terrorists worthy of execution.‎

Clearly, what all this boil down to are two main problems; one is that some people, calling ‎themselves leaders of the superpower and the “advanced” countries, are playing games to see ‎who wins and keeps his presidency and popularity the longest. They are playing the weaker ‎countries as marionettes in their hands, believing that such third world and backward countries ‎are idiots and that with propaganda they would easily turn those Arabs into pallid clones of the ‎West.‎

The second problem is that the leaders and many of the people in the Arab world, especially from ‎among the youth find it somewhat appealing to be dominated, and thus accepting being ripped ‎off their dignity, in order to keep their power, position, image and all false and old myths about ‎the West being their idle and even their saviour.‎

In the end, the only way to counteract all such problems would be a unified awakening; that is to ‎spread awareness and that all Arabs would unite under the same goal and adopt the propaganda ‎that neutralizes that of the superpower.‎

{Quick Reflections 44} Corrupted Islam 3

To set the records straight and make sure we are all on the same page I would like to reiterate the following.
Islam is a very practical and realistic way of life. Nothing in its teachings or directions is theoretical. Definitely any topic or issue that is managed theoretically is not Islamic and if it is said to be then it is part of the corrupted Islam.

To understand in depth the difference between theory and practice and hence between corrupted and authentic Islamic topics or authorities I will relate a couple of experiences I went through. Each one of them could be considered a phase in my life that lasted for several years in my journey in trying to understand and filter through the ruble the diamond from the brass. After that understanding we will be able to recognize whom to trust and whom not to in terms of Islamic authorities or leaderships with a very high accuracy. Once we reach that stage of recognition we can then start believing and thinking about a plan for reform. Until then the corruption will further erode through all of us lead by the fifth column (whom we will extensively talk about at a later stage if God wills).


The first phase was experiencing “Islam the theory” which started as early as I can remember until college, around 18. The second phase is what I call “Real Life Islam” or “True Islam” that has started since then is on going until now.


Phase I: The Genius of Muhammad (Peace be upon him)

Unfortunately adults often underestimate children's memory and understanding. Hence many talents and potentials are buried underneath heaps and heaps of stereotyped school curricula and an unending list of meaningless do's and don’ts being learnt either at home or in school. Even worse they are usually misused to serve the most shallow meanings or causes. In the few instances that parents have recognized and well directed their children how to think and believe those children grew up to be great men who have a noble mission and a smart cause. For example Ralph Nader’s father, when he was 10 he asked him: “Well, Ralph, what did you learn in school today? Did you learn how to believe or did you learn how to think?”
That is not what I intended to talk about here, perhaps later!

When I was 4 years old I remember hearing my father discussing with my mother how they want to raise my brother and me. I remember him focusing mainly on morals and ethics. He continued to raise us in a “protected environment” where almost everything was perfect and there was minimal chance for any form of corruption or evil to cross our path until I was 12 years old. I did not realize that I was raised in a protected (unreal or theoretical) environment until years later when I went out to the “Real Life”. At that point I was reading the series of the “Geniuses” by Abbas el-Aqaad like, “The Genius of Omar”, “The Genius of Khalid” and others. The most intriguingly simple of which, at that time to me, was “The Genius of Muhammad” (peace be upon him). Of course Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has the most humanly perfect manners. However the way el-Aqaad presented it, in light of being raised in a protected environment on the same concepts, it seemed simple.

Phase II: Morals of the Muslim

After I was released from my protective cage to the real world, every day and every encounter with others was a test to all what I had learnt. I was around 18 when I started reading “Morals of the Muslim” by el-Ghazaly (may God’s mercy be upon him). It took me almost 2 years to finish the book. After each chapter discussing one moral or another I would stop and evaluate myself to see where I stand from that based on my daily interactions with others. After some achievement on the relevant moral in real life I would then move to the next chapter. It was the simplest book and most difficult one I have ever read in my life. Only then I started to realize the genius of Muhammad (peace be upon him) and that I know nothing and understand nothing. I had to start learning for real….

Only then I understood how easy it is to talk and preach and how difficult it is to practice what you preach in real life. Only then I slowly started to realize the difference between a preacher and a real practical Muslim living life at its fullest. Only then I realized the genius of Omar Ibn-el-Khattab as a man of actions not words.
You will notice that the most prominent companions of the Prophet (peace by upon him) and leaders of early Islam where not scholars and have not narrated many ahadeeth. On the contrary they all had tough jobs through which they earned money with which they helped Islam. They were not there all the time sitting at the feet of the Prophet (peace be upon him) listening to him. They would hear from him (peace be upon him) and be out there in life implementing what they learnt. That is how tough and strong they were. They were leaders from, and in, real life. They were not theoretical heroes and carriers of immense amounts of knowledge.

One of my best friends, who is a physician, was much stricter than me, in religious terms, when he was in a certain “research” position where life is easier and time is more abundant. Once he moved to another much more demanding clinical job with less free time and much more interaction with people he started to loosen up more and his views became more lenient, practical and applicable. Real life is not a protected environment like that entertained by most researchers and scholars.

It is easy to lock yourself up in a room amongst a pile of Islamic scholarly books and then come out every once in a while to tell people what to do and what not to do. After all you “learned” much more than them and they would not have the knowledge to argue with you. It is easy to direct people and judge them when you are living in a protected environment, where you receive your salary in a protected job, with everyone looking up to you and respecting you because of your knowledge. However that knowledge is mostly theoretical. You have not experienced the hardships of true life that an average man faces. Accordingly your “opinions” and “directions” to the poor average man are not practical or realistic.

With time the rift between the “theoretical scholars” and the “average Muslim” widens because most what the former directs to the later is not applicable and does not address real life. After a while some average people who try to listen to the theoretical scholars lose balance and become extremists in one part of the religion or another and totally abandon another part. The majority of other people lose interest in whatever those theoretical scholars say and slowly sway away from religion. After centuries of that practice you end up with the current situation of corrupted Islam. You have “knowledgeable unrealistic scholars”, “extremists to one end or another” and a majority of Muslims losing trust in Islam as a whole because of the 2 other groups.

However that is not the whole story. There is a very important fourth group that ensures the maintenance of the status quo; the hypocrites or the fifth columnists.

Relief is only but near...

It was cold and raining. Even though one tends to looks forward to these sudden and 'freezing' conditions after nine months of intense sunshine, or rather, sweltering humidity and heat, it did look kind of grim outside. It was cloudy and the sun was just setting and to top it off I was told that our whole building at home had a power cut. There was no indication that it would be fixed tonight. My car was away at service so I also had no comfortable means of transportation. As the car I finally got into weaved its way in and out of traffic I was getting used to the idea of studying and living it off on candlelight for the night. Surely it can't be that hard. After all it's only a few hours. What about those the world over who don't have the luxury of electricty! My thoughts went to those in Gaza. Images flashed through my mind of the destruction and horrors there. Oh what luxuries we seem not to be able to do without.

I finally got home but that was only half the journey. Ten flights of stairs waited for me in pitch darkness, save for a few tealights that someone had kindly placed at the corner of each of the floor landings. Fitness is indeed a hidden blessing 'in times like these'.

It wasn't really something worth fussing about but being used to something for so long can really let you take it for granted. It was cold and I was dying for a cup of cocoa or even better a steaming bowl of soup. I couldn't heat up my soup in the microwave. No, I would have to use the stove, and it's a good thing we use gas and not electricity! Going to the bathroom in candlelight was interesting. It's just like being at the spa I kept telling myself. No tv, no radio, no entertainment, no Internet even, no communication. All that just because of a simple power cut? I guess there can be no other means of procratination and I have to succumb to making the acquaintance of my fat books.

In all seriousness and as I found myself praying the maghreb prayers and getting more and more used to my current situation, it was a case of inner acceptance. Acceptance and learning to be resourceful with what you have. I found my thoughts wandering again to those in Gaza - perhaps because the events are all still fresh in everyone's minds. Still, this was not only about those suffering in Gaza. It was about all those who have suffered at various times. Here I was trying to make do with a few hours without electricity - God forbid - when the people of Gaza and thousands if not millions the world over have no clean water, no proper toilet facilities, no switch that automatically gives them unlimited volts of light, no food, no home, no security, no warmth, none of the basics that we all take for granted day in, day out. It was humbling. There I was fussing about how I will be heating my soup, all snuggled up in my warm blanket when there are children at that moment without mothers to snuggle up to or shelters to protect them. I felt small and insignificant, ungrateful and spoilt. It was a case of pure acceptance and acknowledgment.

Suddenly and even before I had completed my last rak'a I was rudely interrupted by the healthy sound of the energy running through all the lightbulbs in the house. The power fault was fixed! I was only just getting comfortable with the idea of feeling a fraction of a percentage of perhaps what others experience on a daily basis. I was still on the prayer mat and it was a moment of graitude and another different sort of ackowledgment.

"So verily, with the hardship, there is relief ** Verily, with the hardship, there is relief (i.e. there is one hardship with two reliefs, so one hardship cannot overcome two reliefs)." [94:5-6]

It is only with strength of conviction coupled with a deep acceptance, acknowledgment and solid, silent patience will relief come rushing through. I knew and felt this. This then is the answer to everything. All the hardships and all the difficult times that hit us from time to time. Gaza and Palestine will find relief and all those who can find it in their heart to weigh that fine balance will find relief too.

Inauguation Hunger Strike

Gaza is dying. War crimes are being committed every single day, and the world is watching in silence. We have gathered, demonstrated and tried to make the world aware, but nothing is changing and the blood shed is not stopping. Let us unite on the American Inauguration day on a food strike, for a change that we can believe in.

We will not eat, will not drink, and will not stop until Gaza is healed.Please contact the media and tell them about our world-wide food strike. Invite your friends and make the world aware of the bleeding wound.

Gazans are starving, and I will not eat their flesh or drink their blood.

Gaza Holocaust - An online Museum

A group was made on facebook as an attempt of voicing the Truth about what is taking place in Gaza. If we cannot go and fight, let us show the world the reality that is being biased by the media and the political spokesmen:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58342007574The idea of this group is to post all the photos that we can gather about the crimes that are being committed in Gaza that defy the simplest human rights. Posting a photo is very simple, just add the photo with a short comment describing when the photo was taken and what is shows, and name the source for credibility whenever possible. Please join the group, spread the word, and invite your friends to visit the museum, especially the ones who may not know the truth. Your participation is the key to the success of this attempt.

SUPPORT GAZA

{Quick Reflections 43} Corrupted Islam 2

· Gaza and Corrupted Islam:

It is very sad and disheartening to watch the news and see our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers and children being killed in cold blood. Why is this happening? Not only because the Israeli occupier wants to crush the resistance, just like throughout history, but because Hamas is not just a resistance movement to occupation but even worse; it is an Islamic one. The situation is aggravated even further by the fact that the Palestinians dared to democratically vote for that resistance movement as their legal representation. Accordingly, they all had to be punished and slaughtered by the Israeli occupation in one of many holocausts against different Muslim populations across the world that the media chooses to twist and underreport.
Now the Gaza situation is not a unique one. Thousands of Muslims are being persecuted, jailed and killed around the world, in China, Burma, Philippines, Chechnya, Bosnia and elsewhere in an organized and steady fashion, but we don’t have enough media coverage to hear about the details. Gaza is not an exception or a transient situation. It is but part of a more global process.
Why is this happening to Muslims globally? It is because they are living, as a whole, a corrupted version of Islam that renders them weak and vulnerable. The Muslim response to daily events across the world has generally always (for almost 10 centuries now) been a short-lived reactionary one that barely does anything to fix the problem. Moreover, it, of course, has nothing to do with analyzing its cause and working on preventing its recurrence. Accordingly we live in a vicious circle of temporary reactionary responses that weakens Muslims more and more and deepens the corruption of Islam further.

Accordingly the ultimate solution for the current crisis in Gaza, and elsewhere in the world, is a root cause analysis and a strategic view of how to reform the Corrupted Islam and come back to life with a proactive rather than a reactionary Islam. This is how this series relates to the current events in Gaza.

· Concepts:

Before proceeding with the analysis we need to recognize 5 basic concepts the middle 3 of which all human beings accept as facts.


Sources:

Most Muslims will agree that the only 2 uncorrupted sources of Islam that are 100% pure are the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). All other presentations of Islam have some degree of corruption or inaccuracy. The accuracy could range from 99% to 0% but never 100%. This is based on the fact that none of the presenters of Islam has 100% knowledge or 100% comprehensive view. No human being is perfect and hence all Muslims share in the corrupted presentation of Islam, albeit some more than others. Some do that out of ignorance, others out of arrogance and the majority out of narrow-mindedness. Some do that deliberately and others by virtue of their personal attitude in life in general. Accordingly besides the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) one can learn Islam through facts rather than through people. In other words, whatever is said or done in the name of Islam, be it by a scholar or an average Muslim, needs to be filtered and analyzed before reaching a sound conclusion. Human error and bias are always factors that should be on one’s mind when reading anything about Islam, or any other topic open for discussion that actually includes everything in life!

Starting Angle and Projection Line:

This will sound very childish and irrelevant in the beginning but please bear with me! Get a pen and draw a small bullet (point A). Extend a straight line from it to the end of the paper (point C). Now start another line 1cm from the original starting point but from the same line albeit with a very small deviation. In the beginning the distance between both lines is very small but as you get further from the starting point the distance widens. If you start at a bigger angle the distance between the new line and the original one increases faster with further projections of both lines. See below.



Now let us consider the original line the pure form of Islam along a time line starting from A and C being our current time. The distance from point A to B would be the life of Prophet Muhammad and a little less than 3 decades after that. At point B (and many other points along the road from the original line) different Islamic schools of thought came into existence with deviations that vary from minor to major. If one picks one school of thought and chooses to stick to it, with time and through centuries one will deviate further and further away from the original. However if you relate back to the A-B interval you will be sure to stay on the original line. If the A-B interval is not clear then the best thing to do is pick from contradicting schools (lines that deviated at opposite angles) and average them in order to come as close as possible to the original line (the summation of the top most and bottom most lines in the above demonstration will result in a line that is much closer to the original than any of the deviations.

Of course the above example is very simplistic and the issue of change and corruption (and hence reform) is much more complicated than that but it is based on the same principle.


On Going Process:

Complicating the above diagram further and further we can draw multiple lines deviating from the already deviated lines starting at different points along the time line from point B to our current time at C. Depending on which line you choose to look at you sill see a different version of corrupted Islam. Amongst the thousands of lines the vision will be very murky and it will become a struggle to see the original line. Corruption is an ongoing process until the end of time. Hence reform is an ongoing process of meticulous research and hard work.


Point of View: A shocking experience!

We are all familiar with the term “different point of view” but how deep do we realize and appreciate that meaning and apply it in any argument or discussion?
I was 10 years old when I was exposed to a very simple and not noteworthy event that to me was brain shattering. From my bedroom window in our apartment I used to talk with my neighbor in the building right next to us while he was standing in his balcony. This was almost a daily process for years and from my vintage point the view is engraved in my mind. After years I went up to his balcony and looked across to my bedroom window. I was shocked that in spite of sharing the same surroundings the view from his balcony was like seeing totally different surroundings! I had a hard time, for days, accepting that we were actually looking at the same objects albeit from different angles. From that day I understood that the simple change of “point of view” towards the same object could show you a completely different picture that you never thought existed.

The only comprehensive view that sees Islam from all angles at the same time was that of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). All other views are just part of the picture that need to be combined in order to see a more holistic and authentic picture. Sticking with one point of view is never comprehensive.


Who:

There are 4 main groups of people responsible for the corruption that I will elaborate upon later namely Islamic scholars, average Muslims, extremists and hypocrites.