The Love of Your Child

There is nothing more intimate than the love between mother and child. Marriage is an interesting learning experience, but it cannot compete with the total human sacrifice it takes to produce a child. After bearing the stress in one’s womb for months and months, feeling the weakness and hunger, and finally the labor which cannot ever be described, a new human being arrives. This being suckles on you until your bones ache so that you cannot sleep at night, and yet you long for another one. This is love. This is true love.

“What is love? Does anybody love anybody anyway?” sang Howard Jones, a UK artist, when I was in Junior High School. I still don’t know the answer to these questions.

“The mothers shall give such to their offspring for two whole years, if the father desires to complete the term. But he shall bear the cost of their food and clothing on equitable terms. No soul shall have a burden laid on it greater than it can bear. No mother shall be treated unfairly on account of her child. Nor father on account of his child, an heir shall be chargeable in the same way. If they both decide on weaning, by mutual consent, and after due consultation, there is no blame on them. If ye decide on a foster-mother for your offspring, there is no blame on you, provided ye pay (the mother) what ye offered, on equitable terms. But fear God and know that God sees well what ye do. (Quran 2:233)”

He shall bear the cost of their food and clothing on equitable terms. No soul shall have a burden laid on it greater than it can bear. No mother shall be treated unfairly on account of her child. These are actually reasonable requests. God laid it down.

So now that we have got that straight, what have we now? A financial exchange. But is there more to life than that? I don’t know yet. But there are people who go through this life never knowing what it was like to fall asleep at their mother’s breast. There are so many of us, especially children of the 70’s, who just never knew that. When we had a nightmare, we had to “understand” that no one was going to cuddle us. We faced this world alone, without any sense of having any rights.

Even the most emotionally detached mother could fall asleep with her child, and this skin contact could even save a child’s life. For life. A scientific study in Brazil showed that mothers who “wore” their premature babies under their clothes with constant skin contact (instead of keeping them in an incubator) were rewarded with higher rates of weight gain and overall health of their babies. Love boosts the immune system. And if you don’t know how to love yet, the first step is lots of long hugs to increase the sense of emotional security, which gives bursts to all the healing hormones your body can release.

Close physical contact is part of Islam. I invited some neighbors to a local iftar and my friend’s husband, who was from Spain, commented that, during the prayer, he had never been so physically close to other men in his entire life. He kind of liked it.

There are so many things we could do wrong in our lives, but if we could at least give our children the emotional security of skin contact at a very early age, we could do well. Even if we are not nursing, how about putting your arm around your child? If you give it a few minutes, he or she might even fall asleep. What’s most important, even more important than the mother’s milk, is knowing that somebody cares. Somebody is there.

We come into this world alone, and we will leave it alone. Nobody will be able to help us. We have only a short time to love one another. Whomever we love, they may be gone tomorrow. We might be gone tomorrow. We need to set boundaries against disrespect, but we must keep an open door policy for those whom we love.

We should never think that our actions will not affect another human being. If we let a child cry himself to sleep, we might think he’ll never remember, but in fact this might be the deciding factor in whether he believes in himself or not. It actually takes someone else to help you realize that you have the right to take up space in this world, when you are new here. No one can do it alone. People who are mistreated or neglected all their lives often curl up and die. In any case their immune system takes a hit.

Christians and Muslims have a dispute because Christians say, “God is Love,” whereas Muslims say, “God is the Lover.” This is a grammatical problem, not a basic issue. There are so many beautiful people out there. Why not love them all?

Love comes from Allah alone. You can never force or will someone to love you back. It is entirely out of your hands. And there is a certain element of comfort in that.

There is somebody who will never refuse your love. That is your child.

Making sense out of Christian Evangelism

There are many Christian missionaries that are trying win souls to Christianity. One of them is Rev. Hicham Chehab, head of the Chicagoland Lutheran Muslim Mission Association (CLMMA). He is based in Chicago and is heading a campaign to convert Muslims in to Christianity. I have not been able to easily uncover any Zionist connections, which are obvious in the case of several other “former Muslim” spokespersons for pro-Israel organizations. In his facebook bio, Chehab does not state the Lebanese militia to which he belonged (or for which he was trained). It is critical information, and its absence could make all his claims dubious. It is certainly profitable to claim to be a former Islamic extremist now taking shelter in Christianity. However, nothing that I can find in the immediately accessible data can prove that his conversion was not sincere. His problems with Islam seem to be a result of upbringing and are very similar to other complaints among Muslims in Muslim cultures throughout the world.

Chehab attended the Islamic and Arab/Lebanese Nationalist Makased school system. His main issue with their approach to religion was this:

“After a few weeks in my Muslim school the teacher started giving us books that today we call political Islam. They said, the world is divided into two parts, the world of Islam and the world of Infidels.”


To be honest, it's kind of hard to argue with this because there is at least one hadith saying as much. The issue of concern is interpretation and context. In my experience with Arab immigrant Muslims, their cultural interpretation of such verses tends to be vastly different than the way a college educated American Muslim would interpret it. It is possible, within the context of his political and educational status, that this type of teaching could have been perceived negatively by a sensitive person seeking higher truths. He may not have realized that there are other ways to interpret Islam.


When we hear about a Jew, who is tired of the “us versus them” mentality of the synagogue, accepts Islam, we rejoice. And yet, when a Muslim, who is tired of the “us versus them” mentality of the mosque, accepts Christianity, we grieve. I am not sure that we are in a position to judge in these matters, in many cases. If the person's personal healing path leads them in a certain way, and inspires them to be a better person, only God truly knows if that is the path most suited to accessing God, given that person's personal peculiarities. Chehab was clearly an emotionally conflicted individual, who made a choice to reject what his parents taught him and embraced a new spiritual path as a conscious choice. Maybe the version of Islam that his parents taught him was worthy of rejection. We can't know. What we can't deny is that Muslim activists study Bible verses to help them approach Christians with the intention of converting them to Islam.


I think every Christian has the right to preach the Gospel to anyone that is willing to listen just as every Jew has the right to preach the Ten Commandments and every Muslim has the right to preach that there is no god but Allah. We argue with the best of arguments, and he who makes the most sense will gain the largest following.


The issue with this Muslim-Turned-Christian-Minister is that he was given a job to train immigration officials and also taught an anti-terrorism course to the Army Reserve. His connection with the government creates questions as to his actual motives. I think, as a majority Christian nation, it probably does help the US understanding when a former Muslim can explain Muslims to Christians using Christian language. But if you truly want to understand Islam, you also have to talk to someone who believes in it. That is where the CAIR complaint comes in. Maybe it's not so much an issue of getting rid of the evangelist but of including more voices in the debate.


Islam is a beautiful religion. Christianity is also a beautiful religion, and they are intertwined. The interesting thing is, when you go to Palestine and observe the oldest Christian community in the world, you don't see these boundaries between Islam and Christianity. Muslims and Christians intermarry, they give each other gifts on their respective holidays. When the Christians parade down the street in honor of the Virgin Mary, their Muslim neighbors join in. The Christians are as happy on Eid as anybody else. There is no conflict. Christianity is a very broad belief spectrum, in fact there are sects of Christianity that believe like Muslims do, that Christ did not die upon the cross. He lives forever, because he taught us that love is so important. Christ is a beautiful figure. He is our Messiah.


It is so important for Muslims to embrace Christ. There is no other prophet who can heal your heart like Jesus, the son of Mary. There is no other prophet who never died. He is still alive. That is why he is different than all the other prophets. Muslims have to realize that there is no alternative to Christ. He is the one that is coming back. He is the one we await. He is the one who can cure our world. No one else. We have the guidance from our holy Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) but he's not coming back. Our hope is in Christ. He is our only hope as a nation and as a planet. We should not fight with the Christians.


I write this not to confuse but to get people to see that there is no conflict. We are all working towards the same goal: Paradise.

Fulfilling Our Destiny is Like Surfing the Waves

Every living thing has an ideal destiny, because God created us to grow, learn, enjoy life, and improve our intellect, so that we may understand Reality, just like He wants the flowers to bloom. God made every living being with a blueprint of its true nature within its DNA. Sometimes flowers wilt, sometimes people become depressed, but that is not their true nature. Some kind of deficit has occurred, like lack of rain prevents the flower from living up to its natural potential. Unlike flowers we have choices, and the moral responsibility for those choices. We also have human rights.

In Islam, a woman has the moral responsibility for the spiritual status of herself, and her children. On the Day of Judgment a man will however be asked about the level of his wife's faith. A woman will not be held morally responsible to the same degree if her husband went astray. That is because man has a degree of power over his wife that she doesn't have over him, by nature. A parent only has moral responsibility up to a point. When the child becomes of age, he is responsible for his own choices. Prophet Noah (pbuh) had to go through the heartbreak of enduring a disobedient son and then, he had to live with the knowledge his son had drowned in the Flood. What a terrible burden! But Allah relieved him of that burden. Allah actually told Noah he was acting out of ignorance to pray for his own son to be forgiven and saved.

He (God) said, “O Noah, in fact, he (your son) is not a part of your family. Indeed, he is (a man of) bad deeds. So do not ask Me something of which you have no knowledge. I exhort you not to be among the ignorant.” (Quran 11:46)
Allah said it is ignorance to love and consider as family a man of bad deeds. The most sacred bonds such as between a parent and a child can be destroyed by bad deeds. When we continue to pray for something in a relationship that is not possible, we are living in ignorance. Yet, at other times, when we should be doing something quite possible, but we did not make the effort, we are also living in ignorance. How do we know if a situation is salvageable? How do we know when to give up on a person or whether to try harder to reach them? As long as we are acting from ego, we will never know.

Even a prophet can never be sure if he was acting out of ego or not. Prophet David (pbuh) used to follow his prayers with supplications begging forgiveness for the inadequacy of his previous prayers, in case there was any pride mixed in for having performed them.

Every struggle, whether a relationship problem, cancer, or a war, presents us with opportunities to learn and grow, and to purify our souls. There is a special dwelling place in Paradise for those who are able to praise God in every circumstance no matter what. We will always experience hardship and loss and fear. Our ego can get in the way and make us afraid to take risks or conversely, make us react emotionally and destructively. Real devils will interfere in our lives and zap our ability to understand what's going on.

Everyone has something that they are destined to fulfill in this life. Sometimes we stop the process of our own growth and degrade ourselves; sometimes we allow someone else to degrade us – because we have been allowing our ego to cover up the Truth deep inside that God wants us to be happy and healthy. It's a delicate balance we must maintain, and it has to move with every wave, like a surfer. But if we can maintain that balance within, we can then with a clear head make the best decision for what will help us blossom in our true lives.

The Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) said the struggle will go on until the Day of Judgment, like the ocean waves. There will never be a time when we don't have to face trouble and make decisions about how to deal with these challenges. Until we get our own egos under control, we will face the same trouble over and over and over, regardless of how many times we run away from our problems.

All human beings are in a state of total confusion until we accept Grace. Verily all men are in a state of loss! Except those who accept that sunshine and rain from the sky, and share this Truth with others. They are the ones who can bloom. They are the ones who have learned to collect Power from the universe, circulate it within, and emit Light. They are the glowing ones.

When you see someone who is glowing, you know they are not wasting their day nursing resentments, you know they are keeping their minds clear and clean. They probably have a regular spiritual practice, because glowing takes regular practice. It doesn't just “happen” just like music doesn't just “happen.” Unless a musician regularly exercises the tiny muscles in his fingers, he will not be able to play you a song, let alone put feeling into that song. We must constantly work on perfecting ourselves, but we will never be perfect. We can never give up trying to be the best we can be, because that is the whole point of our life's journey.

Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer.

God’s Word Against Israel

Zionist Judaism claims that the Covenant of God is a real estate deal. An “eternal” real estate deed given to the Jews unconditionally by God. Their claim to the “Land of Israel” is based on one or two verses in the Bible cited out of context, although throughout the many centuries of pre-Zionist history, Jewish scholars never understood those verses to call for a nation state “For Jews Only” in Palestine.

Fortunately, the Zionists are as wrong as the American white slaveowners who justified slavery using the Bible. The Covenant of God is not a real estate deed. It is a contract made between people and God, wherein God says, “I created you, therefore follow My Laws,” and the people reply in fear, “We hear and we obey.” God does not care where you live. He cares how you live.

When making the moral argument for Palestine with Jews, one often reaches a dead end: There is no conceptual framework in Judaism that provides any moral guidance on how to run a nation state.
The Jews by and large understand that Israel was created by ethnic cleansing. They understand that Israel’s existence is dependent on past and future displacement and disenfranchisement of Palestinians. They call this “Redeeming the Land of Israel.” According to the Covenant as Zionists understand it, the property of Palestinians belongs to Jews, and God commanded the Jews to kill the Palestinians.

Zionist Jews imagine themselves as Joshua’s army. Joshua, in the Bible, was an Israelite prophet that commanded a mass execution of all the Canaanites at the behest of God. According to the Bible, the reason was because the Canaanites were idolaters who practiced child sacrifice. Hence, the frequent references by Jewish pseudo-intellectuals to the Palestinian religion as a death cult of child sacrifice; overlooking the obvious fact that it is Israel who has shot thousands of Palestinian youngsters. Palestinians are not murdering their own children. Furthermore, it is simply intellectually dishonest racism to suggest that Muslim and Christian Palestinians are pagans.

The Muslims have always been very clear that they do not approve of child sacrifice. When the Muslims under Caliph Umar came to Egypt, they learned that the Egyptians used to throw a virgin girl into the Nile every year to appease the goddess of the Nile because they thought this would prevent it from flooding too much. The Muslim government applied some pressure and convinced the king of Egypt that next year he should try writing a prayer to Allah on a piece of paper and put that in the Nile instead of a virgin girl. He actually did it, and it worked. And that is the story of how the Egyptians, after so many centuries of paganism, finally gave up idol worship and accepted the religion of Moses!

The Caliph did not use a moral argument, which would have been as ineffective against the Egyptian pagans as with Zionists, who are themselves idolaters worshiping a death cult called Blood and Soil Nationalism. It is most commendable that the traditional Islamic approach to a real, existing culture of idolatrous child murderers was not “Kill them all!” but a process of gradual deprogramming through the use of intellectual reasoning.

Zionism is a racist movement. But Jewish ethnic nationalism was never part of orthodox Judaism, which teaches that God had put the Jews out of Palestine on account of their sins, and therefore they ought to repent and wait for the Messiah in a state of humility. Jewish theology has simply been thrown out of the window as if it were irrelevant to Jewish understanding. Zionism is now championed as the true spirit of Judaism. And perhaps the Zionists are right in this regard.

Throughout the centuries, Jewish thought evolved from a childish conception of “my God is better than your god!” to a spiritual maturity based on universal moral ethics. Much of the moral content in rabbinical Judaism, which was written after the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, is borrowed or learned from Islam. Now, the Zionists, the “true Jews” are rejecting this injection of foreign intellectualism and going back to the true Judaic spirit of tribalism and war. Indeed, Zionists say that their God is a deity other than Allah.

Zionists find it frustrating that Muslims reject the Bible as a final authority and use it more as a cross-reference to the Qur`an. Even if we were to accept the Bible verses they quote as true, Muslims don’t accept the Zionist interpretation of the Covenant. We rely on moral reasoning to analyze the Bible, and come up with a universal ethical principle using the Children of Israel as an example for all nations. For example, when Zionists read the story of Moses they get something out of it like this: Israelites = Good. Egyptians = Bad. In the Islamic reading of the same story we get a warning from Allah to all human beings to remember that Humble Servants of Allah = Good. Haughty Rejecters of Truth = Bad.

Anyone who has opened the Qur`an must agree that Prophet Muhammad (s) is prophet to Jews as he is to all humanity. In the Qur`an, God addresses the Children of Israel directly and confronts them about racist tribalism, employing references from the Torah and Bible to support His arguments. God admonishes the Israelites, accusing them of lying about the Covenant by claiming it applies only to themselves.

“Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby… Say: “Have ye taken a promise from Allah for He never breaks His promise? Or is it that ye say of Allah what ye do not know?” (2:79-80).

The religion of Abraham is not something to be bought and sold for a price. The Qur`an is the Book of Allah bearing witness against the Children of Israel. God Himself calls them to give up their ethnic superiority complex and commands them to bow down with those who bow down, to pray side by side with their Arab brothers and sisters in worship of the One God. Allah invites the self-proclaimed Chosen Ones to join the Ummah of Islam.

There are no moral guidelines in Jewish Law, other than genocide and enslavement, for the treatment of conquered peoples, as one would find in Islamic Law. While Islam views Muslims as God’s appointed defenders of religious freedom for people of all religions, Judaism neither proclaims respect for other people’s prophets nor guarantees any respect of other people, except in so far as they are useful to the Jewish community. This fact alone makes it clear that if the principles of individual liberty, majority rule, and world peace are to prevail, then it would make far more sense for the Jews to live as minorities in an Islamic state where they would have legal protection backed up by threats and warnings from God, rather than forcing the Arab majority to live as if they were minorities within a Jewish state which has no legal nor any moral qualms regarding the lives and property of non-Jews.

Islam, Muslims, and Cancer

Something pretty important has come to my attention that probably should be discussed among Muslims. The sun. Admittedly, the sun is pretty central in our existence in this world. It has been found that most Americans are deficient in Vitamin D, which is obtained in its natural form from sunshine. Medical science has found that people who are deficient in Vitamin D are more likely to become ill – in the long run, with cancer. In a way, humans are like plants. We will wilt, wither away, and eventually die without attention to certain physical things like adequate sunshine, water, exercise and of course nutrition.

The Muslim community has been very strict and frowning upon those who drink alcohol or smoke. But many public functions feature soda in place of water. After low levels of sunshine, a high level of sugar in the blood is the second top cause of cancer. Soda in fact actually dehydrates you as it contains salt (sodium). Drinking soda is like drinking sea water in terms of how it replenishes you. It does not.

But getting back to the sunshine issue, how can Muslim women who wear hijab prevent themselves from wilting away from lack of Vitamin D? Fair women need to apply sunscreen to their faces to prevent redness, moles and brown blotches. Some husbands are so “sensitive,” they won’t even let their wives go out wearing sandals. It may be necessary for Islamic scholars to convene to discuss this issue that is causing widespread death in our community, which is the lack of sunshine, whether it’s because of too much computer use or because of women having nowhere to go outside in privacy.

In the medieval times, wealthy Muslims used to build a tall wall around their home so that the womenfolk could go outside in the garden uncovered without strangers passing by. But what about today? What about those of us that don’t have that kind of money? How do we get our Vitamin D? Surely a vitamin that is given off by the sun is a blessing from Allah that it would be a sin to deny. From personal experience I know that staying “in purdah” too long results in such Vitamin D deficiency. The immediate effects include erratic heartbeat, aching in the bones, and the vague panicky feeling that one is about to die, without knowing why. Even ten minutes a day inside a car will improve these types of symptoms, but surely Allah wants us to thrive, not just survive.

A scientific study in India showed that women who rarely leave their homes are deficient in Vitamin D, despite the fact that India is a very sunny country.

A shaykh I know used to tell women who felt a strong urge to go to the beach and swim, that they should travel to someplace where nobody knows them, wear a bathing suit just like everybody else, and therefore attract less attention to themselves.

For those of us not ready for this level of liberalism, perhaps it would be a good time to travel somewhere away from the city, where there are not a lot of people, take a walk on some nature path, and remove the hijab and long sleeves. In America’s vast and beautiful National Forests you can find secluded rivers in which to bathe unwatched, where you can commune with nature.

Now that the American Muslim community has come to terms with the importance of protecting reproductive health through modesty, we are hopefully also ready to come to terms with the fact that a woman cannot live her life never knowing the feeling of wind blowing through her hair. This is a human right, not just a desire. Science has proved it. If we don’t spend some regular time outdoors uncovered, we will die. This is the top cause of cancer, not drinking or smoking.

Another strong factor in the escalating cancer rate in America is use of cell phones. All cell phones emit radiation, as do the wireless phones inside the home. In fact, anything emitting electricity causes cancer. I know it’s hard, but we have to look at these factors. Maybe we should use cell phones for auto emergencies only and keep them turned off most of the time if possible. At the very least, we should keep them away from children, even when they are not in use. Within five feet of a cell phone is the most dangerous zone. We have to be aware of the dangers of cell phone use by children, because brain cancer is now the top cause of death in children, second only after accidents.

We have to be aware of so many things. Even worse than cell phones, pesticides cause cancer in humans. We must give up spraying the grass now! And try to avoid eating food that has been contaminated with pesticides, especially when it comes to dairy and meat products, because the cows collect all that poison within. Since the halal meat system is separate from the regular grocery store supply system, this could easily be accomplished – once the Muslims decide this is important.

Avoiding the immorality of television lifestyles is key to personal dignity. Yet, Muslims have a long way to go when it comes to demonstrating that our lifestyle is the most healthy lifestyle.

Jury Duty in the US

Jury Duty in the United States of America
Karin Friedemann


This week I served on a jury for the first time. It was an extremely boring and annoying experience, but at the same time surprisingly pleasant. I am happy that I live in a country where a jury of one's peers decides your guilt or innocence, not just the arbitrary decision of a judge. The jury system dates back to Islamic history – it was a basic Muslim belief that a group of people deciding about the truth and falsehood of various testimonies would be less likely to be in error than a single person. “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all the time,” to quote Bob Marley. The more people you have observing a situation, the less likely that the general opinion will be in error, especially when the group is given an opportunity to discuss what they saw.

In this case, a black man was accused of dealing a very small amount of drugs to a couple white men from out of town. If true, he was a very stupid drug dealer doing his business in front of the train station which is swarming with police cars and undercover police officers. The police were watching the car for a long time, which was parked with two white men inside. These men were clearly waiting for someone, for one of them kept getting out of the car and walking to the corner, using his cell phone. Eventually a black man arrived, got into the car, and the white men drove him to a restaurant a mile away. The undercover police followed the car. After the white men drove away, the police stopped them and arrested the white men for possession of crack cocaine. Then the police went to the restaurant, pulled the black man out of line, and arrested him under suspicion of having sold them the drugs. He had on his person $227 dollars in cash and two cell phones. He was cooperative with the police and maintained his innocence.

The prosecution however, went overboard to the point of annoying the jury. They brought so many expert witnesses to testify on irrelevant topics, in order to enhance the credibility of the police. We learned about how government spies working with FBI informants gain access to the drug world. We learned how drugs are packaged. We learned how the chemistry labs analyze drugs to determine what they are. They totally avoided the central question, which was: did this particular man sell drugs to those particular individuals? Clearly it was not an important case in the minds of the police. No fingerprints were taken, the cell phone calls were not even traced. There was zero evidence other than the hearsay of the police about what they saw. The men parked. Someone got in. They drove him to a restaurant. The police never witnessed any drug transaction. They just assumed. By the end of the day, listening to hours and hours of boring expert testimonies, the members of the jury themselves were joking that they themselves needed to do some drugs to cope with the torture!

What struck me was the dishonesty of the prosecuting attorney in his excitement to win this case. While the police officers testified that they saw the car parked for 5-10 minutes, the attorney in his closing argument embellished this time to 25 minutes. One of the expert witnesses estimated the worth of the drugs at up to $200, to match the amount of money in the man's pocket, even though I am pretty sure that two rocks of crack cocaine are worth maybe $20-40. The prosecuting attorney claimed that the man was coming out of the train station but the police only claimed he was walking from that general direction. The police said they saw from a distance, in the dark of night, a large black man. But this man was not large. As a jurist, I felt that the prosecuting attorney was trying to insult my intelligence.

It is very probable that this man did do what he was accused of doing. However, there was no evidence. Not enough to convict him without a “reasonable doubt.” How do we know the white policemen even got the right guy? After observing the black man in the dark from a distance, they arrested him inside a Jamaican restaurant filled with black men with the same hairstyle. I was anticipating a heated argument among the jury, because on face value the man did seem guilty. I was surprised.

I had reservations about white police officers following a car just because there were black people and white people in the same car. I had doubts about whether this is even the police's job description, to follow people around who didn't disturb the peace nor bother anybody in any way. I personally feel disturbed when I see white police officers arresting an entire group of young black teenagers who were just sitting there for “loitering” in front of the train station. On a personal basis, as long as it doesn't disturb nor hurt anyone, it doesn't bother my day if someone gets into a car and the car drives off. The aggressive police presence in my neighborhood is far more annoying.

The jury voted unanimously “Not Guilty.” We all privately thought he probably was guilty, but there was no evidence other than the hearsay of the police about what they saw. I am proud of my fellow Americans. I feel good that we were able to keep one man, who had no previous convictions, out of prison. We were able to put the Constitution first. The Constitution guarantees the right of free public assembly. If there was no obvious crime being committed, the police should not follow people around.


Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based freelance writer, focusing on Muslim and US affairs.

Be Yourself

A friend is someone who gives you strength. A friend is someone who makes you feel better after you see them or talk to them. A friend is happy because you are happy and a friend is upset when you are upset. So why is it so hard to find a friend in this world? Why is it so hard to give and receive love?

I have been communicating with a large number of women who are in despair because they feel like they invested so much – or gave up so much – for their marriage relationship: dropped out of college, quit their job, had X amount of kids, cleaned the house, cooked the food, did the bookkeeping… You would think that the least her husband could do would be to love her back!!! Flow some love, man!

Why does the dream of love appear so unattainable, even though it is as vital to our survival as food? It seems like the harder we work to please someone, the more sacrifices we make for someone, the less they love us. We get stuck in this situation where we are trying to be with someone, while they are judging us about whether they think we are good enough to merit their affection. This type of unhealthy dynamic is not limited to marriage. It can happen at work, at school, and in our social lives.

Some people start to think that it’s not even worth trying to love anyone anymore because no one ever loves you back – even those who are way too young to give up hope. Many of us at the prime our lives waste our youth and middle age in despair. Reality check: Either try something new that you haven’t thought of before, or else just give up for now and be patient. Be yourself. “Let them come to you,” said a very wise Iranian woman on Facebook.

If someone stresses you out to the point where you are becoming overwhelmed, just stay away. If you can’t avoid them, try to dwell on other thoughts. Make them a small part of your life. You can’t let other people “get to you.” If someone is upsetting you to the point where you cannot eat or sleep or concentrate because you are so upset, this is a sign that this is not a healthy relationship.

The Prophet Mohammed (s) advised that we should go towards a situation that gives us inner peace, and stay away from a situation that creates huge fluctuations in mood. When we become emotionally attached to someone that repeatedly causes us to have great hopes, and then totally disappoints us, this is a huge emotional drain that will affect not only our mood, but our ability to provide for everyone who depends on us. If we are clinging to such a person, we will become completely debilitated and useless.

When we try our best to be what someone else needs, we become less of ourselves. Less of a person to love. Sometimes we even become resentful. Ultimately, we become less lovable. We are not being the best we can be for the sake of God.

You can only be truly loved if you are totally being yourself. You can never truly love someone else unless you look at the other person as a unique person within their own unique situation.

A lot of people have a list of criteria for their potential mate. But our neediness gets in the way of true love. This list of wants gets in the way of viewing the Other as a human being. Because guess what. There is no human being out there that was specifically created to fulfill your needs. Human beings are not commercial products or drugs you can buy in order to solve your problems. Every person has their own Path they need to walk. God gives us what we need. No single person or situation can ever do that for us.

Choosing a mate or friend is not the same as looking for an apartment. If you look at someone else as a means to need-fulfillment, they will feel exploited. Likewise, if someone came up to you and said, “This is what I need. This and this and this. Can you do it?” – you would hardly fall in love with them.

We have to be ourselves, and let other people be themselves, and observe. Does it make sense for us to spend more or less time together? Do we enhance each others’ strengths or exacerbate each others’ weaknesses?

We can never have a true friendship or find true love unless we go beyond the question of “Do you meet my needs?” On the other hand, if we are getting nothing out of a friendship or marriage other than anguish, it may be time to detach. It must be a matter of the balance of respect for each other. It takes two people making an effort to have a relationship.

Drugs and Medicines in Historical Context

The Muslim Observer


Did you know that George Washington used to grow marijuana on the White House lawn? America’s first president often spoke fondly of “female plants,” pointing obviously to marijuana’s medicinal uses. Benjamin Franklin, who avoided alcohol, was an ardent marijuana smoker. Did you know that up until World War II, American farmers could pay their taxes with hemp? Hemp, the mother of marijuana, is a native plant of every continent, and has been used during all periods of history to create rope, paper, cloth, oil, fuel, fiber, and medicine. Avicenna, the medieval Arab author of medicinal textbooks recommended marijuana, the hemp flower, for stomach ailments and many other health problems.

American, European, Asian and Arab-Islamic civilizations combined efforts during the 19th century to upgrade the standard of using drugs. The American Indians introduced the idea of smoking tobacco in a pipe to the world. Until then, Muslims had been using medicinal plants including hashish and opium by cooking them in food. The Arabs were so inspired by the New World to invent the water pipe. Using American tobacco, the Orient supplied the herbs, and a new world culture, a new economy began.

What does Islam say about drugs? According to hadith, if a person is ill, there is no sin on him whether he takes medicine to feel better, or if he chooses not to do so. During the 4th Caliphate, Muslims were introduced to drugs in the far regions of the expanding Islamic empire. But because of the deep fear of the sin of misinterpreting or over-interpreting scripture, there was no punishment for any medicinal plant other than fermented alcoholic beverages. Muslim governments never even destroyed vineyards. Even while wine is haram, grapes are not haram. Plants are protected by God.

Obviously, we have to give the Muslims credit for this. The use of the syrup from the poppy flower could kill a person’s pain making an amputation without huge physical trauma possible. Smoking marijuana could give a person dying from cancer the strength to write a book about his life. There is nothing more precious in this world than the ability to physically kill pain or nausea. God gave these things to us. Sometimes we can copy these medicinal effects in pill form. But the fact is, human beings want and require medicine. God gave us plants to reduce suffering. It is a crime against God to make a plant illegal. These plants save lives. These plants save the quality of people’s lives as well.

During World War II, the US used hemp fuel for their airplanes and tanks. Henry Ford actually created a car that was made entirely of cellulite from the hemp plant as well as ran on hemp fuel. It is an amazing idea, that American farmers could actually attain financial security growing the fuel that runs our cars! However, after the oil companies won the war, plant-based fuel became obsolete. The reason was because of Lobbyists.

Around the world today, you will still find many countries such as Canada, Indonesia and Malaysia growing hemp for industrial purposes such as oil or textiles. And it is an unspoken fact that marijuana is the top cash crop in the United States, year after year. People might pay up to $90 for 1/8 of an ounce of these flower buds. That is way more than any farmer could ever hope to get from parsley or chives.

When the Roman Emperor offered Maria and her sister to the Prophet Mohammed (s) as gifts, also included in the gift was some medicine. The hadith does not say what kind of medicine but it was probably opium or hashish given the time period. The Prophet Mohammed (s) returned the drugs and kept the girls. He freed from slavery and married Maria the Copt, who became his youngest wife, and he married her sister to one of his companions. This is the only hadith translated into English that specifically mentions drugs. In this hadith, the Prophet (s) said, “My Sunna is the best medicine.”

In a true Islamic society based on historical norms, drugs would not be illegal. They would be used for positive purposes. We would not distinguish between herbal vs. chemical versions of a medicine. People should be allowed to have access to whatever drugs make them feel better. This is a human right. Modern laws making all drugs illegal are neither halal nor beneficial to society. God gave us so many plants to help alleviate our suffering. It would be a rejection of His Mercy not to fully explore the medicinal properties of all the plants we have on earth.

Parenting in America

The Muslim Observer

There is a lot of uncertainty within the Muslim community about how to raise righteous children, given all the choices available within American society. How do we raise children who are honest, responsible, well mannered, never use bad language, are faithful friends, get good grades, and are not only polite but helpful with authority? Is it possible to raise children without any emotional problems and without any interest in drugs or alcohol or sex?

Sometimes immigrant parents try to be too strict, and then when that doesn’t work out, they simply give up and let their children be free like an adults. But did they even try to give clear guidance?

Children learn mostly through observation. The most important time to give a child a sense of moral responsibility is before the age of 5. After that, it’s all talk.

The “attachment parenting” philosophy of parenting gives babies their full Islamic rights. Two years or more of breastfeeding, and sleeping with the mother until weaning time. It is a huge personal sacrifice for the adults involved, but this will give children the foundation of confidence. No matter what else we did wrong, we can know that our children had plenty of skin contact with their mother at the most important time in their lives. They never have to doubt whether or not they are loved.

Skin contact with the mother at an early age will help prevent promiscuity in preteens and teens. I believe that most young (and older) people who irresponsibly search for a “friend” to give them comfort were denied a sense of comfort within their home life. If their parents’ love was conditional, they will search for unconditional love anywhere they hope they can find it. But if they don’t have a healthy example, they will likely never find true love.

Feelings do matter. If we cross the boundary of respect with our children (yelling at them), it is vital to always apologize and make friends again. It is emotional abuse to let children go to sleep feeling hurt and angry. Never expect them to just cheer up and accept abuse. Never call names.

Some children have strong fears of death due to emotional isolation and deep thinking. It is scary to imagine not existing anymore. Studying religion can just make them even more afraid of death and hell. Yet, it is so easy to help a child overcome this fear. If a child is having panic attacks, give him a hug!!! There is only one cure for fear. LOVE.

Truth matters. Never lie to your children. Don’t promise them things you don’t deliver, and that includes threats. Don’t make empty threats. When you promise something good, do it. If you cannot do it, apologize and explain. Be consistent. Don’t create surprises.

If we don’t give our children clear rules, it will be hard for them to take us seriously. We cannot leave our children alone to deal with this total emotional crisis of living in this world! If the child is seriously confused and then breaks the rule, he won’t understand the punishment. After that, we still have to protect the child in every way! We have to talk to our children about how to behave appropriately, and why.

If you want your children to be different from most children, never allow any TV station in your home. They will be exposed to TV programs at other people’s homes and this will help them keep in touch with what other people are thinking, but if they are not exposed to the continuous advertising and moral corruption of the TV at home, they will possess freedom of thought. They won’t have this need to be “sexy” or buy certain things, that young people usually learn they need to attain in order to be acceptable to society.

Above all, be home. Make huge personal sacrifices in order to be at home despite all odds. Being home makes a huge difference in children’s lives. If you are simply there, but teach them that you are not always available to serve them, they will have to learn how to cook and clean in reasonable amounts in order to help you get your work done. Any work they do adds to the strength of their family and home. This gives them a sense of accomplishment. The family must operate as a team effort!

This is so much more important than making huge demands on children that are often not moral or practical demands. Many parents waste huge amounts of money and energy forcing their children to learn how to ice skate (for example) instead of giving them the choice about whether or not they even want to ice skate.

Structured activities are not always necessary. Children really need time to do whatever they want to do. One must to steer them away from computer games and cartoons, of course; but once we deny them those options, they start being creative. They start making things with Lego’s or planting seeds in the garden or reading books. Sometimes they choose to do chores for small amounts of money.

Children suffer a lot when their parents are always driving them from this place to that place for all these structured activities. They need time to be left alone to do what they want in the home. Many children become exhausted from all these activities that are based on giving parents more free time without them.

Post-Mother's Day Musings

Spring comes with it the exorcism of demons. Singing out loud. Dancing in the kitchen. Cleaning out the house from dirt. Digging ourselves out from under the mess. Yes, it is important. If we don’t do it, nobody else will. Going for long walks. I love the community that has a spring festival. Let’s all put flowers in our hair and wave at our neighbors. Let the Dandelions Live! At least until my toddler gets to them. The young leaves are tasty, nutritious, and help with ailments such as arthritis. If you go to Europe they will serve you dandelion salad at the restaurant. Anyway, we all know that spring is a time to enjoy the sun, the rain, and the wind with those you love.

All I ever wanted for Mothers Day was for my children to clean their rooms and by God they did it. They even mopped the kitchen too. My daughter gave me a lipstick for a gift. I totally needed this, since my younger ones had destroyed any cosmetic item I had before their birth. Hallelujah! There is nothing better than children. I always wanted a houseful of them. They are baking brownies right now. Can I hear another Hallelujah? Well, let’s hope they clean up after themselves.

Given the amount of work that the younger generation requires, it seems to be a miracle that the human race survives. It is amazing, how women take this burden upon themselves, with or without the help of a husband. I mean, it’s wonderful if a man can come home from work and read his children a story, but we are talking about a half hour of teeth brushing, prayers, and water refills. What about the other 23 ½ hours? Either these children have a mother at home, or she paid for child care.

Caring for children is a full time job. A 24 hour a day job. Those of us who work day jobs realize that after we come home, at least 50% of that remaining time belongs to our children. There isn’t anyone else around to pick up our slack. We cannot call in sick just because we have the flu. If our child has a bad dream, throws up, or feels cold in the night, we wake up and we deal with it. Even after the child has long gone back to sleep, sometimes we lay awake, wondering about all the problems and uncertainties of life. Even the worrying is part of being a parent.

Mothers Day is a beautiful day, but we must also give strength to all who give strength to the Mother. Do these people even exist? What will it take for us to will them into existence? Ultimately, we are all talking about loyalty to Our Mother, the Earth. Can we make things right by her? Can we help each other not to harm others? Can we stop trying to define and control other people?

There are so many beautiful women raising families in our community. Some of them have emotional support; some don’t. Some of us are enjoying life, yet some of us are merely surviving. Within our circle of influence, is there more that we can do to help children feel welcome in the community? It is impossible to separate women from children. You cannot insult the mother, yet praise the child, without putting the child in an ethical dilemma. If there are shortcomings in the mother, usually she needs help. We have to find ways of strengthening women’s participation in the community while allowing her children to tag along. So many political causes require adult participation without children.

Except in rare cases, women are the primary caretakers of children, and in fact, of the entire family. How can we make this job easier for them? Because our communities need these giving people to contribute their creativity, not just their daily survival abilities. Can we create a world where these people with so much life experience can still contribute to the community? Can we create a forum where these people’s opinions are welcome and their advice is heeded?

Some of the women in our communities are so intelligent, so empathetic, so clearly able to see the future. We need to listen to them. We need to find a way to make them feel like their contribution is valuable. We need to care about how they feel. We need to take their advice.

The most important thing you can do to validate a woman is to respect her opinion. When you do that, she becomes energized. Once a woman becomes energized, there is no stopping her. She will lead the way. This spring, let us validate the women in our lives and give them the energy to continue the struggle.

Advice to My Daughter

The Muslim Observer
May 5, 2011


Recently, I found myself sewing an old purse that my best friend gave me when I was 15. I’m really glad I still have it. When I was in my twenties, I took up sewing to help myself quit smoking, to give my fingers something to do. Sewing is more difficult with small children, as they are very attracted to the thread and the needles. I had to put my creative life on hold for a while.

Still, I love being forty. I finally feel like I am pretty. I know it sounds dumb, but it means a lot to women. I told my ten year old daughter some advice that I wish someone had given me when I was young.

Save everything you purchase. When you are a teen or in your twenties, money seems plentiful because mother and father are paying all your basic expenses. You begin to collect things like clothes, purses, shoes, scarves, and hats. Winter boots, gloves, towels, sheets and blankets. Keep all of these things. Do not give them away. Never underestimate your future needs.

When people are young, it often seems like the comforts of daily life will last forever. Trust me, they will not. By the time you are forty, the used sofa you inherited from your uncle at age 20 will have taken the final assault from your latest toddler’s pee or kids jumping on it, and it will be on the curb. Then you will not have a sofa. So even now, when you are 20, you should realize that there will come a day when sofas do not grow on trees, believe it or not. Neither do paper towels, though they are indeed made of trees. But you still have to pay for them. It will be embarrassing if you are still “liberating” rolls of toilet paper from your parents’ bathroom or God forbid the chiropractor’s office at 40.

The clothes are important. I stopped growing when I was 15. Blame it on caffeine, but I can still wear clothes that I bought in the 1980s. God praise polyester. It will outlive the human race. When you wear vintage clothing, people assume you must be a poet. This comes with its own rewards. Never throw or give away a beautiful dress or a comfortable pair of pants.
There is nothing more important in America than a good haircut. Where social acceptance is concerned, you cannot show any weakness! The key to classic beauty is to have the most socially acceptable haircut at the most expensive price. I am not entirely sure why this is true, but this rule of thumb applies even if you wear hijab. Maybe even especially if you wear hijab.

One time, I was walking through Times Square and some people from MTV interviewed me, asking me what is my advice for the youth?

I said: Give people a chance to believe you are normal. Don’t wear trendy clothes that will look stupid in a few years. Wear classic styles, and t-shirts without slogans.”

The MTV journalist was baffled that I didn’t say, “Just be yourself.”

Yet I have learned the hard way that anybody hoping to succeed in high school should at least at first strive to appear normal. If you wear hijab, combine it with loose clothing. Otherwise you will look strange.

Don’t let people label you as ‘weird’ before they have even talked to you. You can express your individuality in so many other ways. Your clothes should communicate respect for yourself and others.

And never, ever kiss a boy unless you are ready to get married. Otherwise it’s a complete waste of time. Don’t bother “falling in love”

in high school because the statistical probability of you marrying your high school sweetheart in this day and age is practically zero. If there is someone you really like, and he is a truly worthy human being, maintain a friendship with his entire family until you are old enough to discuss marriage. The longer you stay away from romantic drama, the more time you will have to concentrate on your dreams without wasting precious energy healing from the emotional traumas that are inevitable in a love relationship.

If you choose a career and go forward on that path, even if you change your mind later, you will still be way ahead of those who had no goal.

Train for a job such as Beautician or Electrician while you are still in high school. This will enable you to earn a real income immediately upon graduation, which will help you pay for college. Anything you want to do in your life, such as travel the world to see the sights, learn how to shoot a bow and arrow, or volunteer for Food Not Bombs, do it now, before you have children. Your life will never be the same again after you have children, so if there is anything you long to do or see, now is the time to start planning. When you live spiritually, you will be surprised how little travel can cost. Start saving as soon as you are old enough to earn money doing teen jobs, then invest the money wisely. My mother told me when I was a girl, which fortified me against the anxiety of facing the unknown:

“Everywhere you go, God is there. Nothing can happen to you without God knowing.”

Hold on tight to your faith, because God guides those who listen to the best path. Your path might be a little bit different from someone else’s path. Listen to your heart, pray, and choose wisely.

Beyond that, I would say, keep your hair clean. You may have to shampoo more often, once you have reached a certain age. Keep your nose clean, especially if you are a tall person (short people can see straight up your nostrils)! Keep your bottom clean, of course. Keep your clothes on.

You will know when you cannot delay marriage any longer without becoming distracted. If you are still in college, do not let this prevent you from marriage. You will have an easier time concentrating on your homework and job if you have a stable married life than those young adults who are single. Just use birth control. When you are ready to have children, you will know it.

Who Was Osama bin Laden?

Whoever the poor soul was, whom the US assassination team “buried at sea,” it most certainly was not Osama bin Laden. Still, now would not be a bad time to lay to rest our questions about the Grandfather of Islamic Internationalism. The FBI admits that they have no evidence that bin Laden had anything to do with the 9/11 attack. There is also no clear evidence that he was involved in earlier bombings in East Africa. He left Sudan because the US threatened to bomb if they did not expel him. Why were the Powers-That-Be so afraid of bin Laden? The US was afraid that he might unite more people around the world with his humanitarian projects and ability to internationalize causes by addressing "the Ummah." This was an entirely new approach to fundraising at that time. Osama was owner of a construction company. He rebuilt war torn and underdeveloped countries. He was in Sudan at his own expense, building infrastructure for the poor and oppressed, with government permission.

It is important to understand this great historical figure and his jihad mission. Osama bin Laden was a close associate and student of respected Palestinian theologian, Abdullah Azzam, who coined the term “al-Qaeda.” Azzam's work elaborated upon the ideas of Sayed Qutb, the Egyptian founder of modern Arab-Islamic political religious thought. Qutb is comparable to John Locke in Western political development. Both Azzam and Qutb were serious men of exceptional integrity and honor. Qutb predicted that the struggle between Islam and materialism would define the modern world. He embraced martyrdom in 1966 in rejection of Arab socialist politics. Drawing upon Qutb's ideas, Azzam preached mutual responsibility for each other among all Muslims worldwide. Azzam successfully organized an international volunteer effort to defend Afghanistan from the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s under the banner of Islam and with the US as an ally. He was killed in 1989.

The 1980s and 90s were a magical time for Muslims. Invigorated by this new philosophical international unity of Islamic causes, and with America's blessing, an international financial system of Islamic charity was created. All of us who were alive at that time remember how we cried for the Afghanis and opened our wallets, we cried for the Palestinians and opened our wallets. We cried for the Bosnians and opened our wallets. Some of our husbands even left us to become martyrs. The nationalist boundaries between Muslims were erased. Foreign Muslims and Black American Muslims were educating each other about politics and history. On an international scale, Muslims were competing with Jews over the international financial system and the outcome of world events. A true pan-Islamic internationalism was created. We were the kings and queens of the world, to quote the Titanic.

A new, multicultural Islamic culture was born in America. When Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, he left behind the hope of multicultural, international Muslim unity. As long as American Blacks remained isolated, they would still think like oppressed people. But when they went to Mecca and prayed side by side with a world community, they came in contact with all of human civilization. During the 1970s, Islam took a stronghold in America. Halal meat shops were opened, Islamic schools were created. As more foreign students came to America for education they mingled with each other and with the locals. African Americans adopted the Arabian style niqab and the Pakistani shalwar kameez. Pakistanis adopted the Arab style hijab and jilbab, while others adopted the Euro-Turk skirt with blazer look. Because Islam was such a fun social unifier in college, young people brought their enthusiasm to their cousins back home, who then started to cover more and pray more. We all wanted to make huge personal sacrifices to save the world.

To a large extent it was America's support of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan that created the spiritual fire behind the Islamic Renaissance of the 1980s. In the Battle of Jaji in May 1987, Osama's Muhajideen army of only 50 members resisted 200 Soviet and Soviet-backed Afghan troops for one week, taking 12 losses. Under the watch of the Arab media, the Mujahideen protected their complex system of tunnels and caves near the Pakistani border, named al-Masada, from Soviet capture. Osama bin Laden became an internationally respected war hero, while the Afghan freedom fighters became revered in America as “the bravest men in the world,” according to former CIA agent and author, Eric Margolis. Every Muslim in the world, it seemed, wished they too could die for the sake of Allah. Every girl wished she could marry Osama bin Laden, even if he was already quite busy.

In 2001, the US used napalm and oxygen-sucking bombs to “smoke out” Osama's “Lion's Nest” of tunnels. They even sprayed acid from the sky to disfigure the faces of the martyrs afterward.

Hundreds of pilgrims visit Kandahar’s Arab cemetery daily, believing that the graves of those massacred in the 2001 US bombing of Afghanistan possess miraculous healing powers.

2001 was not the end of the Muslims, but it was the end of a glorious era, where martyrs competed with one another for bravery and ordinary people competed with each other with charity. We were going to defeat evil in this world today, we thought. Now we know this is only the beginning of the struggle.

Family Planning in Islam

The Muslim Observer


In every bed, there is a promise. – Nathaniel Hawthorne


Politicians like to talk about “freedom of choice.” They are talking about abortion. The assumption is that if a woman chooses not to have an abortion, then the blame, and thus, the financial and emotional responsibility for the child, rests squarely on her shoulders.

Yet, others take another approach. I’ll never forget my Italian teacher in college giving us undergrads a lecture on morals. She said something I’ve never heard anyone say out loud. “When you choose to have sex, you have made that choice.” God bless her for her audacity to speak out in the face of the victimization of women and children!

Does anyone have any idea how many poor yet honest men all over the world are living without love for months and years at a time, often going to another city for work so they can send money home to their families?

Can you imagine the terrified lifestyle of a typical Afghani woman existing on a couple bags of rice, taking care of her children alone, in the middle of a violent war, waiting for her husband to come back with some groceries in a few months?

Many families who are blessed to be together are very much together. As in, living in one room. Sharing a house with their siblings and their spouses and their children. Many families, even in Europe, live in a one room apartment. During the night, the living room becomes the bedroom.

If you have never witnessed childbirth, let me explain something to you. It really hurts. It turns your body inside out. For a woman to choose to let a man put his “gushing fluid” inside her is the voluntary personal choice to go through an experience that feels about as pleasant as having a bus roll over your body very, very slowly.

Pregnancy is a time of such sickness that if she were a man, he would choose not to work that day. Childbirth can last for days. It takes a woman three years to get back the full use of her body after having a baby, if she exercises daily. No matter what, she permanently loses the strength of her eyesight and teeth. What an unthinking man might have thought was simply a beautiful moment, for her it was a life investment. There is no such thing as “accidentally” getting someone pregnant.

In Islam, men are the maintainers of women. There is none of this weird American marital squabbling about who pays what. Motherhood is a full time job. A loving woman carries the child in her womb for nine months and then nurses the child for two years, sacrificing her calories, her strength, and her free time. A mother cannot come and go as she pleases. She cannot fall asleep whenever she feels tired. And it’s not a question of whether she wants to do it or not. Women are biologically programmed to suddenly wake up on emergency alert if her baby so much as coughs in his sleep.

Full responsibility for a baby deprives the caretaker of REM sleep.

People who are deprived of sleep for a prolonged period of time spend a lot of energy merely “coping.” But somebody has to get the bills paid while someone maintains the living standard of the home. That is why parenting is a shared responsibility. There should be no burden on the woman in addition to the full time job of raising a child in a clean and safe environment. The least a man can do is pay all her expenses.

If he cannot afford to buy his family a house, his wife and the kids can share one mattress like the majority of people in the world. Even if a man is sleeping outside, he can put a tarp over his family’s head.

Because every soul born is someone that God commanded to be born and a man must take full responsibility for his family. Anything a woman spends on household expenses is rewarded by God like donating to charity, while anything a man does to help in the home is rewarded by God as charity.

In Islam, even if the marriage does not work out, the children are still the man’s full financial responsibility. He has to keep them alive and well – not just send their mother a “donation” per month.
Women have to start taking themselves more seriously. Motherhood is a full time career worthy of a six digit income. Find a man who will do everything he can to find a way to love the mother of his children, provide them with food and a roof over their heads, and if they cannot work things out he would be aware of what it costs to raise a child.

This is what you need to be thinking about on your first date. Does the man value his future offspring? Does he have a sense of personal honor?

A man must provide for his children, not only out of some ambiguous and fluctuating emotional attachment but because they are his flesh and blood, part of his lineage. A good man is looking for a good woman who has the qualities he wants in his descendants. He is always thinking long term about how to put his DNA to proper use. The sure sign of a no good man is a man who just lets things happen. Some men think that a crime is less criminal if it’s done in the heat of passion. Yet, the act is still a deliberate act. Don’t do it without getting married first.

Imam Yassin Aref Transferred from CMU

The Muslim Observer
April 21, 2011


In a surprise move by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Albany, New York's Imam Yassin Aref, who was serving a ten year sentence inside the Communications Management Unit (CMU) in Marion, Illionois, has been moved to the general prison population. Aref stated in an email to his friends dated April 13, 2011:

"Finally and thankfully they accepted my request and agreed for me to come out of CMU. Now I am just a regular human – I mean regular prisoner! I am no longer in CMU, so if any of you come and visit me I promise I am going to hug him! Hopefully after six months they will transfer me to somewhere close to my family so I can see my children but as for why and how? Believe me I don't know anything more than you! They just told me to pack up. 25 days before that I had a team review. I asked for transfer as usual and they told me they would do the recommendation for me but the decision its not theirs. When I called my son Salah, he told me, "Daddy how is it they let you out?

What has changed?" I told him I am still Yassin and they did not tell me anything. However, I am very thankful they allowed me to be in the regular general population."

Aref was inside the CMU in Terre Haute, Indiana from May 2007 until March 2009,
when he was transferred to the Marion CMU. As of April 10, 2011, Aref is in the same prison building but in a different unit. Now he has more space to walk and more recreational activities. He has more lenient social, visitor and phone call rights. There are some African American Muslim brothers in his new unit and they pray the Friday prayer together. Whenever he leaves his unit to dine, go to the yard or library, and to visit the chaplain, he walks by the door of the CMU. Imam Yassin describes his past experience:

"After spending about 20 Months in total solitary confinement at a county jail,
I arrived at CMU Terra Haute, Indiana to find a small Middle Eastern community
where inmates from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen among others were already there. In CMU, most inmates are Arab or Arabic speakers.

"We are separated because of our nationality and religion. Of course they deny that, but the reality in the CMU proves this segregation is the whole point of a CMU. Otherwise what did I do? Why am I classified as a high risk inmate? How can it be dangerous if they allow me to hug my children? Why do they need to limit my communication? Who I am going to call besides my family?

"All my life in Iraq I was treated as a second degree citizen and half human because I was Kurdish. I left my country to regain my humanity and live free, not to be targeted, imprisoned and placed in a CMU.

When I learned CMU prisoners don't have the same rights like other prisoners in the BOP, and I found that 65 to 75 percent of the inmates in CMU are Muslim and another 8 to 15 percent are Spanish speakers, I became sad and it seemed like this country is going backward to the dark days of its history when Black people were slaves or treated like slaves. Many inmates in CMU are not criminals. They are political prisoners and victims who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Some like me never committed any crime. Yet they treat us as the highest risk inmates!

"My youngest daughter is still a child and she was born while I was in jail. I never carried her or kissed her and I could never buy a candy for her. She doesn't have any memory with me. Until she was four years old she used to think `daddy' means the phone! That's because whenever I used to call home, her brothers and sister would run to the phone saying "Daddy, daddy!" So, she thought daddy means phone! Whenever anyone asks her, `Where is your daddy?' she would point or run to the phone and say, `That is my daddy!' It's heart breaking but I am laughing. In Arabic they say the worst trial is the one which makes you laugh!

"Thank God with all of these unjustices still my heart is full of peace and Love. My faith saved me from hate. I believe God allowed this to happen and that is why it happened. I look for His reward for all my pain and all of what my family going through."

Aref is involved with a civil rights lawsuit which questions why Muslim prisoners who are considered a low security risk are being put under high security communication restrictions without any legal recourse.

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Attorney Alexis Agathocleous told NPR, "Our clients were designated to the CMUs without due process or oversight, even though they have no significant history of disciplinary infractions."

However, Aref does not believe that his transfer has anything to do with the lawsuit.

So much for liberty...

16 March 2011
Khaleej Times


In the aftermath of 9/11 the US Department of Justice and especially the FBI have had a policy of rooting out a phantasmagorical worldwide anti-US terrorist conspiracy by arresting and prosecuting Muslim Americans on ridiculous charges based on a bizarre conspiracy theory that has moved from the Zionist Lobby to the highest levels of the US government.

Of all the political prosecutions orchestrated by the Neocons, that of Albany, New York’s Imam Yassin Aref is among the most outrageous.

Imam Yassin notes that his own preemptive prosecution is “a form of selective prosecution which targets certain individuals for prosecution for crimes not yet committed, based on their adherence to the Muslim religion, and that such unequal protection of the laws is prohibited under the Constitution.”

The US government claimed that Aref made 14 calls to terrorists in Syria, even though Aref was only keeping in touch with old friends at the general office of IMK (Islamic Movement in Kurdistan), a perfectly legal political party for which Aref had worked in Syria. The US government refused to hand over transcripts of these conversations that would have shown that there was nothing of alarm being discussed, claiming this evidence was “classified.” Aref’s conviction was based on the US government’s assertion that Mullah Krekar, who was later accused of forming a terrorist organisation, Ansar al-Islam, had also called that number in the past.

Imam Yassin had never once encouraged terrorism to his mosque congregation and had character witnesses to prove it. Yet, under government pressure, Judge McAvoy told the jury that the government had good reason to target Aref. This seriously swayed the outcome of the verdict despite the lack of evidence.

The US government had been trying to come up with a way to frame Aref for years before his actual arrest. There were a number of potential witnesses with very interesting stories who had been willing to testify. One was Abraham Youssef, who said the FBI had interviewed him before Aref’s arrest. Youssef was facing some potential felony charges. He said the FBI told him they could make these charges “disappear” if he would give a statement against Imam Yassin, “that one week prior to the September 11, 2001 attack, Ibrahim had seen two of the nineteen hijackers sleeping over at my house.” Youssef flatly refused their offer.

Another man, Ali Yaghi, was approached by FBI agents in Jordan and asked to testify against Aref in exchange for legal residency in the US so he could be reunited with his estranged American wife and their children. Yaghi also refused.

Imam Yassin Aref stated: “the testimony of Youssef and Yaghi were critical in showing that the government was attempting to frame me and were willing to give valuable consideration in order to get false but incriminating testimony.”

In 2004, the FBI targeted Aref in a sting operation, which was so farcical that it could have been a comedy. The imam had simply witnessed a loan transaction that took place between a member of his mosque and a paid FBI informant, who was apparently trying to avoid prosecution for his own criminal acts by setting up and framing Aref and pizzeria owner Mohammed Hossain in a fictional crime. As a result, Aref was charged with Conspiracy, Money Laundering, Material Support for a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, and Lying to the FBI.

Aref was sentenced in 2007 to 15 years of incarceration. His appeal was denied in 2008 while his petition to the Supreme Court was denied in 2009.

Developing a public consciousness of the issues is essential to prevailing in future political prosecutions. According to Aref’s lawyer Steve Downs, “I do not think the issue in sentencing is the ability of the lawyers but particular judges and the amount of community support that the defendants were receiving. Most judges stick to the guidelines. Some judges as in Aref’s case can be persuaded to deviate down, and some judges as in the Ft. Dix 5 are persuaded to deviate up.”

Sadly, Aref and many other wonderful people will rot in jail until American citizens are willing to battle the Islamophobic politics, on which the prosecutions of Arabs and Muslims have been based.


Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based writer on Middle East affairs and US politics, and Editor of World View News Service

US ‘gazelles’ need to think creatively

During the Bush Administration, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Justice Department started following a new paradigm of preventing terrorist attacks before they occurred, any Muslim who was ‘suspicious’ needed to be targeted and incarcerated. This practice has not ceased under the Obama administration.
“Predatory prosecution” is probably a better term to use for these political cases because the situation more closely resembles a community of gazelles munching on grass, who are then suddenly pounced upon and ripped apart by vicious tigers. American Muslims seem to have retreated more and more profoundly into the “gazelle” role. Nowadays American Muslims seem to find it normal to live in a state of nervous tension.

Gazelles are programmed to be gazelles. They have only one way of reacting to danger. The tigers chase them; they run away. After thousands of years, you will still find the gazelles running away from the tigers. You never see the gazelles band together to implement a more creative strategy to defeat the tigers.

However, humans are programmed to be flexible. While there is an appropriate time to run away from a tiger, humans have also learned how to call a village meeting to form a plan for getting rid of the tiger that is causing danger. Humans over time have become so good at hunting tigers that they made the tiger into an endangered species. So now, the humans are trying to save the tigers! Humans are not perfect, but they can change strategies when the situation calls for it.

The enlightened human being is neither a predator nor a victim. A godly person strives to perfect himself. Humans do not have to be stuck in one role doing the same thing over and over for millions of years like the mosquito. God gave us minds with which to view the entire landscape. We take into account both the minute details and what’s on the far horizon. We remember the past to make theories about the future. When humans can’t see the sky, we use airplanes or satellites to go above the clouds just to determine if Ramadan has started, or if a storm is coming. The human being has been created for nobility.

These humans that act like tigers are not really tigers just as the common people are not really gazelles. Those who are acting like tigers are covering up their weaknesses. They even manage to convince people that they are the innocent gazelles and that the others are the tigers.

We have to expect that they will do this, just as we expect a toddler to point to his brother and say, “He did it!” when their mother asks who spilled cereal all over the floor. Naturally the brother is going to come up with a defensive strategy. While that works fine for children up to a point, from the mother’s point of view, does she really care who spilled the cereal? Not really. The adult human being should be able to see beyond the “he said, she said” game and try to solve the problem. We have to have the intelligence to know what is a mistake and what is deliberate trouble making. We have to gear our reactions accordingly in order to get the best outcome.

American Muslims face a situation more serious than that of two kids that accidentally spilled cereal on the floor, and yet they even seem to believe on some level that there is a Mommy who is going to fix it all. Everybody already knows the Muslims are innocent. The problem we are facing is not spilled cereal but a scenario like Cain and Abel. There are people out there that don’t like to see others happy. When they see God smiling upon their neighbour, it makes them angry. They actually want to wreck innocent people’s lives. They want the opposition out of the way. It’s as simple as that. And it’s not even personal. They just want to score a political point – even when the point they are making is totally unrelated to reality.

People have to face the facts if they want to solve their problems. The American Muslim community needs to develop an “adult” response to Islamophobic politics and prosecutions in the USA. It is time to realise that the way Muslims have been approaching this problem has not been working. They need to analyse the entire picture, develop new strategies, and try some new approaches.

Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based writer on Middle East affairs and US politics, and Editor of World View News Service

Muslims in America are in need of help

KHALEEJ TIMES, UAE
1 January 2011


Since 9/11 hundreds if not thousands of Muslims have faced “preemptive prosecution,” where Muslims who are deemed “dangerous” are prosecuted before they commit a crime.

In these prosecutions, there are so many holes in the government’s theories that the case is nothing but a list of unsubstantiated accusations. When the defense asks, “Where is your evidence?” the prosecution says, “The evidence is “classified.” They argue that to give evidence of the outrageous statements they are making against this person would be a threat to national security! Consequently, the normal defensive legal strategy has not worked to clear Muslims of false charges.

American Muslims are like and unlike other immigrant groups to the USA. American Catholic immigrants often faced prejudice in the past, but American Muslims confront well-organised, wealthy and politically powerful American Jewish Zionists willing to do practically anything, including scare mongering and defamation of Islam, to prevent the participation of Muslim citizens in American politics, academics, charity or economic activities because these could enhance their political and social stature. In Islamophobic show trials prosecutors are well positioned to commit great wrongs due to existing attitudes against Muslims. To win in such a situation, supporters must present themselves as the last line of defense for the American way of life:
When American Muslims practice their religion, they are contributing to the strength of the United States. By defending the Muslim right to practice Islam, Muslims defend the American principle of freedom of religion. Those who falsely imprison Muslims are the true enemies of all Americans.

When the FBI and the US Attorney move to arrest, instead of engaging in apologetics as if the accused were already tried and found guilty, Muslim organisations need to make as much noise as possible about fairness and equal protection and to address issues of ethno-political agenda.

US laws should be enforced uniformly for Jews and non-Jews. Why do the FBI and the US attorneys only pursue alleged Muslim extremism and material support of terrorism when Zionist extremism and material support of terrorism are open and blatant?
Yick Wo v. Hopkins is as important today as it was in 1886 when the Supreme Court’s decision established that it was just as unfair to enforce laws unequally as it was to write racial inequality into laws.
Muslim organisations must take legal action against any government agency, whose improper or unequal application of US law and regulations is harming Muslim American citizens and residents. This should be accompanied by the identification of US government officials, who have engaged in the misuse or perversion of office in order to harm Muslims.
Muslim organisations should create international pressure by linking the release of political prisoners to better relations with the Islamic world. Obviously no Muslim country should trust the US as long as the US wrongfully incarcerates Muslims. Americans will have to reach out to Muslim countries that are being pressured by the USA to take action against alleged terrorist organisations or to aid US strategic goals. Turkey for example should start asking why the US is not arresting those that supported the IDF in killing US and Turkish citizens. Developing a public consciousness of the issues is essential, but pro-Muslim activists must have the ultimate goal of putting the real criminals into jail. Any lesser goal means Muslims will probably lose because the opposition is without doubt willing to do anything to put as many Muslims in jail as possible.

Legal defense teams, Muslim and civil rights organisations, and supporting political activists must act as a highly coordinated special forces unit much in the way that prosecutors and both left wing and right wing Israel advocates coordinate their efforts. The larger Muslim community should give them all possible material support.
Uncovering a conspiracy involving infiltration of the government requires a full-scale investigation on the level of a “witch hunt” to find out who decided to target whom and why. Who sent out the press releases to the media making false claims to sway the jury against the defendants? Who advanced the plans to destabilise the US by using false intelligence to cover up their own crimes? This can only be done by initiating aggressive discovery lawsuits, because you need exact names and evidence to accuse people of treason or seditious conspiracy.

Because the FBI or Homeland Security are infiltrated by the very people committing financial and political crimes against the US, these agencies themselves have a vested interest in cleansing themselves of this corruption.

There is no magic bullet that will fix the US justice system. It will take thousands of lawsuits over both large and small issues, and lots of PR to pressure the US to prosecute Zionist terrorism supporters in the USA. While it is no small amount of money that would be needed, it’s certainly less money than destroying and rebuilding country after country.
Once American Zionist leaders realise that they are vulnerable to terrorism prosecutions, they themselves will use the full extent of their power to stop these trials as antithetical to fundamental Constitutional principles, to which they will suddenly develop a profound attachment.


Karin Friedemann is a Boston-based writer on Middle East affairs and US politics, and Editor of World View News Service

A New Strategy for Safeguarding Muslim Civil Rights in America

How we messed up

Since 9/11 hundreds if not thousands of Muslims have faced so-called "preemptive prosecution." Officially, a preemptive prosecution is defined as a case in which Muslims who are deemed "dangerous" are prosecuted before they commit a crime. Attorney Stephen Downs explains:

"In the Bush Administration, which insisted that the FBI and the Justice Department follow a new paradigm of preventing terrorist attacks before they occurred, any Muslim who was 'suspicious' needed to be targeted and incarcerated." [1]

Albany, New York's Imam Yassin Aref notes that his own preemptive prosecution is "a form of selective prosecution which targets certain individuals for prosecution for crimes not yet committed, based on their adherence to the Muslim religion, and that such unequal protection of the laws is prohibited under the Constitution" [2]

"Predatory prosecution" is probably a better term to use for these political cases because the situation more closely resembles a community of gazelles munching on grass, who are then suddenly pounced upon and ripped apart by vicious tigers. Muslims seem to have retreated more and more profoundly into the "gazelle" role, for they live with the fear that wherever they go, everything they do is being watched by the tigers hiding in the bushes and waiting for their next attack. Nowadays Muslims seem to find it normal to live in a state of nervous tension.

Gazelles are programmed to be gazelles. They have only one way of reacting to danger. The tigers chase them; they run away. The tigers chase them; they run away. The tigers chase them again; they run away again. After thousands of years, you will still find the gazelles running away from the tigers. You never see the gazelles band together to implement a more creative strategy to defeat the tigers.

In contrast, humans are programmed to be flexible. While there is an appropriate time to run away from a tiger (if you can), humans have also learned how to call a village meeting to form a plan for getting rid of the tiger that is causing danger. Humans over time became so good at hunting tigers that they made the tiger into an endangered species. Then humans felt ashamed that they had gone too far and realized they should protect God's creatures in their natural habitat. So now, the humans are trying to save the tigers. Humans are not perfect, but they can change strategies when the situation calls for it.

The enlightened human being is neither a predator nor a victim. A Godly person strives to perfect himself. Humans do not have to be stuck in one role doing the same thing over and over for millions of years like the mosquito.

Not only did God give us minds with which to view the entire landscape, take into account both the details or what's on the horizon, to remember the past, and to make theories about the future, but we can even learn to navigate by the stars. When humans can't see the sky, we can use an airplane to go above the clouds or even use a satellite to look at the moon, just to determine what day it is. Has Ramadan started? Is a storm coming? The human being has been created for nobility. [3]

Those humans that act like tigers are not really tigers just as we are not really gazelles. They are acting like tigers to cover their weaknesses. In fact, they even manage to convince people that they are the innocent gazelles and that you are the tigers. In the preemptive prosecutions of Muslims, there are so many holes in the government's theories that the case is nothing but a list of unsubstantiated accusations. Then when the defense asks, "Where is your evidence?" the prosecution says, "The evidence is "classified." They argue that to give evidence of the outrageous statements they are making against this person would be a threat to national security! [4]

We have to expect that they will do this, just as we expect a toddler to point to his brother and say, "He did it!" when their mother asks who spilled cereal all over the floor. Naturally the brother is going to come up with a defensive strategy. He might say, "I did not!" or he might say, "He bumped me." While that works fine for children up to a point, from the mother's point of view, does she really care who spilled the cereal? Not really. Her job is to make sure the mess gets cleaned up and to teach the children to be careful and perhaps most importantly, not to blame others for their mistakes. She can see how they are acting, and she knows why they are acting that way. They don't want to get in trouble. The adult human being should be able to see beyond the "he said she said" game and try to solve the problem. She has to have the intelligence to know what is a mistake and what is deliberate trouble making. She has to gear her reaction accordingly in order to get the best outcome.

The American Muslim community needs to develop an "adult" response to Islamophobic politics and prosecutions in the USA. It is time for us to realize that the way we have been approaching this problem has not been working. We need to analyze the entire picture, develop new strategies, and try some new approaches.

The defensive strategy has not worked because American Muslims face a situation more serious than that of two kids that accidentally spilled cereal on the floor, and yet we are acting as if this is the case. We even seem to believe on some level that there is a Mommy who is going to fix it all for us if we could just convince her that we are innocent. Your Mommy already knows you are innocent. The problem we are facing is not spilled cereal but a crime more on the level of Cain and Abel. There are people out there that don't like to see you happy. When they see God smiling upon you, it makes them angry. When they see your children, they don't think to themselves, "Oh how adorable." They think to themselves, "If I get rid of the father, still there are four more to replace him." Sometimes they even say this out loud. They want to wreck your life. They want you out of the way. It's as simple as that. And it's not even personal. They will wreck your life just to score a political point – even when the point they are making is totally unrelated to the reality of your life. We have to face the facts if we want to solve our problems.

The goals of the bad guys

Animalistic people think in terms of winners and losers. They think if they want to win, then you have to lose. So they dedicated this life to cheating, stealing, dominating, controlling, murdering and then lying about it, on purpose, because they have decided that they are going to destroy you. Even though we act in good faith in our dealings with others, we should not assume that everybody acts in good faith with respect to us. As soon as we realize that we are not being treated in good faith, then we will stop limiting our response to pleading our innocence. We have to realize that nobody cares that we are innocent. You are guilty of existing. The blame game is simply a game to keep us living in terror so we don't realize what's going on while they concentrate on consolidating their power, walling us in, and depriving us of our human rights.

Some Muslims have taken another strategy, which has also not worked. This is the dawah approach. They say, "Maybe we can convince them to be our friends. Maybe we can convince them that a win-win solution is preferable." Unfortunately, this strategy again is based on the false hope that we are going to be treated in good faith if we treat others in good faith. Because of our naivety our enemies say, "Sure, I'll be your friend," in order to get close to us and gain information about us that will help them destroy us. They will say, "Sure, let's cooperate," in order to distract us from the goal of protecting our communities. They will keep us busy with talking while they continue to do what they were doing all along. Even the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh)'s companions made this mistake out of the goodness of their heart, until Allah reminded him: "You love them, but they do not love you" (Quran 3:118-119).

Professional Islamophobe Daniel Pipes is so open and shameless in his overwhelming absence of good faith toward Muslims that he often publicly expresses his true goal, to dismantle America's Constitution-based legal system. In his mind, an accusation against a Muslim or organization is proof enough in itself because it "points to the urgent need that the FBI, White House, Congress, State Department, Pentagon, and Homeland Security – as well as other institutions, public and private, throughout the West – not continue guilelessly to assume that smooth-talking Islamists are free of criminal, extremist, or terrorist ties… Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers." [5]

Shortly after the release of her book entitled Mecca and Main Street, Lebanese American reporter Genevieve Abdo provided critical background information related to Islamophobic prosecutions. She explained that American Muslims are like and unlike other immigrant groups to the USA. American Catholic immigrants often faced similar prejudices in the past, but American Muslims confront well-organized extremely wealthy or well-funded and politically powerful American Jewish Zionists willing to do practically anything to prevent the participation of Muslim citizens in American politics, academics, and economics. [6]

As Arabs and Muslims become a larger part of the American population, Israel lobbying and advocacy groups have engaged in many conspiracies against rights both to prevent American Muslims from freely assembling to practice their religion and also to stop Arab and Muslim Americans from engaging in international charity and other activities that could enhance their political and social stature. [7], [8], [9]

When American Muslims practice their religion, they are contributing to the strength of the United States. By defending the Muslim right to practice the traditional form of Islam, Muslims defend the American principle of freedom of religion. Those who imprison Muslims for practicing their religion are deliberately contributing to the downfall of the United States as a Constitutional Republic. They are the true enemies of all Americans.

While numbers in a democracy are normally supposed to correlate with influence, pro-Israel activists fear what they see as a "Muslim-liberal coalition," for "if this coalition can be organized to act with any degree of coherence, it could indeed end up, through sheer numbers alone, wielding a disproportionate influence on American politics, to the clear detriment of the interests of American Jews." [10]

The standard modus operandi of the anti-Constitution conspirators has involved scare mongering and defamation. [11] The phony political prosecutions are likewise part of a deliberate strategy to bolster the subversive agenda of those whose ultimate goal is to dismantle the United States. Consequently, the normal defensive legal strategy has not worked to clear Muslims of false charges.

Of all the anti-Muslim anti-Arab political prosecutions orchestrated by the Neocons of the Bush administration, that of Imam Yassin Aref may be one of the most outrageous. Since his conviction in 2007, Aref has been filing appeals on technical legal grounds. Unfortunately technical arguments have never overturned a political conviction in the USA while the ideology remains dominant that drove the prosecution. Sadly, Aref will rot in jail until his defenders are willing to battle the Zionist ideology and politics, on which the prosecutions of Arabs and Muslims have been based.

In 2004, the FBI had targeted Aref in a sting operation, which was so farcical that it could have been a comedy, except that the jury was swayed by government manipulations during the trial. Government bad faith included the secret classification of the very evidence that would prove Aref innocent. All he did was witness a loan transaction that took place between a member of his mosque and a paid FBI informant, who was apparently trying to avoid prosecution for his own criminal acts by setting up and framing Aref and pizzeria owner Mohammed Hossain in a fictional crime. As a result of the sting operation, Aref was charged with Conspiracy, Money Laundering, Material Support for a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and Lying to the FBI.

Aref was sentenced in 2007 to 15 years of incarceration. His appeal was denied in 2008 while his petition to the Supreme Court was denied in 2009.

In March 2010 he filed a court motion to win a retrial of his case because he believes he was denied his Constitutional right to a fair trial due to his nationality (Iraqi Kurd) and religion (Islam). Aref felt his court appointed lawyer Terence Kindlon was negligent and ineffective. Because Kindlon was overconfident that the government had no provable case against his client, he did not act aggressively to demonstrate the innocence of his client. In the present motion Aref requests a "Stevens Review" for misconduct. In part this is normal in any case and such motions are routinely denied, but given the unusual nature of Yassin's case a more detailed analysis is worthwhile.

Aref states in his deposition dated March 8, 2010: "The FBI claim that they decided to give me a "test"…The "test" was rigged in such a way that the FBI knew I would be unable to understand what was happening and so would appear to fail…I had no awareness that anything illegal was occurring."

He continues: "Essentially the government's theory was that while I was witnessing a series of apparently legal loan transactions, I heard comments from one of the parties indicating the money for the loan came from the sale of a missile to a terrorist group to be used to assassinate the Pakistani ambassador at the UN. I then decided to become part of the plot without ever reacting in any way to this startling inflammatory idea, and without ever asking a single question about the plot." Yet the government claims "it was not possible to verify what I was told about a 'missile attack in New York City' or whether I was told the meaning of the code word." He continues:

"I testified that I heard Malik make some kind of a comment about an attack in New York City, and I became angry at Malik for making jokes like that, especially in my house which I believed to be bugged by the FBI. I testified I was 100% sure that the comment was an attempt at a joke because nobody who was seriously planning an attack in New York City would broadcast this to complete strangers a week before the attack."

The prosecution relied heavily on some of Aref's old diary entries that were both selectively quoted and mistranslated. The defense never found a translator to contradict the government mistranslation. Aref offered an Arabic translator, Prof. May Saffar, to contradict the government's fake translations, but the defense did not use her. A correct translation of the complete diary would have proven Aref's non-involvement in terrorism.

The lawyer also failed to hire a Kurdish translator to examine the government's fake translations. Additionally, the defense ignored all of the character witnesses who offered to testify that Aref never encouraged terrorism to his mosque congregation. [12]

Under government pressure, Judge McAvoy told the jury that the government had good reason to target Aref. This seriously swayed the outcome of the verdict despite the lack of evidence so the defense's assumption that the government would have to prove its accusations was false. [13]

The government claimed that Aref made 14 calls to keep in touch with terrorists even though Aref was only keeping in touch with friends at the general office of IMK (Islamic Movement in Kurdistan), a non-terrorist political party for which Aref had worked in Syria. The government refused to hand over transcripts of these conversations that would have shown that there was nothing of alarm being discussed and claimed that this evidence was "classified." Aref's conviction was based on the government's assertion that Mullah Krekar, who was later accused of forming a terrorist organization, Ansar al-Islam, had also called that number in the past. [14]

Aref repeatedly asked his lawyer to bring an expert to trial, who specialized in Kurdish political movements, especially IMK, because the government's expert, Evan Kohlmann gave totally wrong misinformation about IMK to the jury. In the trial the government witness also mixed up the HSK (Kurdish Socialist Party) and PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). Even though the mixed up information provided to the jury by the government "expert" was factually wrong, the defense provided no witness to contradict the government's claims.

In order to depict Aref as a terrorist because he was once employed by the Islamic Movement for Kurdistan (IMK), which the US government does not consider to be a terrorist organization, the "expert witness" Evan Kohlmann testified to an all but impossible collaborative connection between the IMK, the militant Kurdish Ansar al-Islam organization, al-Qaeda, and Saddam Hussein.

Zionist activists were involved in framing case against Aref

Did Zionists within the Bush administration officials actively look for an Iraqi Kurd resident in the USA for the FBI to target in order to prove the existence of a direct domestic threat to America from al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein? This seems clear from the evidence. The FBI informant was introduced to Aref by his co-defendant Hossain.

Aref's court motion reads: "However, it was not simply an introduction but was specifically orchestrated by the government. When the informant told Hossain that they needed a witness to the loan, Hossain responded by giving the informant a name of an individual. However, the informant said no to that individual. Again, Hossain gave another name, and again the informant said no. After the second name however, the informant stated, 'I don't want any Pakistani's, Yemeni's, Sudanese, or Bangladeshi's.' Hossain then asked, 'What about Imam Yassin?" and the informant became excited and proclaiming how great a man Petitioner [Yassin Aref] was, even referred to the Petitioner as "his man," implying that the informant had great respect for him, or even knew him. It is essential to understand that Petitioner is a Kurdish and when the informant excluded the two individuals initially proposed by Hossain, and went further to eliminate all Pakistani, Yemani, Sudanese and Bangladeshi's the informant almost certainly was left with only very few individuals that would have qualified to witness a business loan – in this case it was the Petitioner. As soon as the Petitioner was mentioned the informant did not have any more objections. This shows that the informant specifically eliminated everyone until Petitioner was mentioned. Why? The Petitioner and informant had never met, and there was no evidence whatsoever that the informant had ever even heard about the Petitioner.

"The government openly acknowledges it sought out Petitioner. The government contends that initially Petitioner came to their attention after Petitioner's phone number was found in certain areas in Iraq. However, even if the Petitioner's phone number was found that by itself does not mean that Petitioner was in violation of any law whether nationally or internationally. The government, however, began a 'sting operation.'" [15]

Tying Yassin Aref to Ansar al-Islam and the IMK (Islamic Movement for Kurdistan) was quite likely part of the Neocon propaganda effort to prove that Saddam was linked to al-Qaeda via the IMK and that the presence of alleged IMK agents in the USA showed that Saddam was a direct threat to the USA. Jewish Neocon Jonathan Schanzer started seriously promoting this absurd set of specious claims in 2003 at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) [16], described by Stephen Walt as "an influential organization in the Israel Lobby…pushing an agenda that is not in America's interest." [17] Then Treasury Department analyst Jonathan Schanzer seems to have been the main proponent and possibly the original fabricator of this fiction. Schanzer continued the dissemination of this false narrative to justify the Iraq war when he was contracting for the US government. [18]

Schanzer placed this Zionist propaganda into an April 3, 2003 Policy Review article:

"Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affiliate in northern Iraq, was rocked by U.S. missile and air strikes over the weekend, concluding an eight-day campaign against the organization. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) stated that, with help from more than 100 U.S. Special Forces operatives, they have "completely overrun" Ansar's stronghold. The PUK reportedly killed twenty-four Ansar fighters on Monday alone. Yet, the group may not have been defeated completely. Although its enclave was literally flattened, Ansar al-Islam is threatening new attacks, and will likely live to fight another day."

In his conclusion Schanzer elaborated:

"U.S. intelligence and Kurdish authorities are now sifting through a treasure trove of data left behind in Ansar's bunkers and are testing for what they believe to be evidence of chemical and biological weapons. Information gleaned from seized computer hard drives and documents (some containing addresses and phone numbers) could help prevent future terror attacks. Moreover, if these materials offer further evidence that Ansar has ties to Saddam or al-Qaeda, they could serve as a boost to U.S. war efforts." [19]

This claim is noteworthy because the prosecution asserted that there was an address book containing Yassin Aref's name and address found in the pocket of a dead alleged terrorist. Even if true, this would not implicate Aref in terrorism. Still, this empty claim was heavily promoted in the media in a sensational manner.

After Schanzer became a key staffer of the U.S. Treasury Office of Intelligence and Analysis, where he closely worked with Jewish Zionist US government officials Matthew Levitt and Stuart Levey, he elaborated upon the Jewish Neocon narrative:

"The roots of Ansar al-Islam extend back to the mid-1990s. The group appears to be comprised of the various Islamist factions that splintered from the Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK) in northern Iraq. As Iraq scholar Michael Rubin notes, they included groups called Hamas, Tawhid, and the Second Soran Unit, among others.

"On September 1, 2001, the Second Soran Unit and the Tawhid Islamic Front merged to form the Jund al-Islam. Jund al-Islam was soon renamed Ansar al-Islam. As the group grew, it bore the markings of other al-Qa'ida affiliates. Their cadres hailed from other Arab countries; some of them had experience in Afghanistan, and they based themselves in the part of Iraq under the weakest central authority: northern Iraq, also widely known as Iraqi Kurdistan." [20]

In order to make these types of outrageous claims seem convincing, and to justify the Iraq debacle, convicting Yassin Aref in a highly publicized trial that linked him with Ansar al-Islam, al-Qaeda, and Saddam Hussein was of supreme importance to Jewish Neocons.

Arch-Zionist David Remnik and Lawrence Wright at the New Yorker among others helped tremendously with the fabrication and incitement of  "al-Qaeda consciousness" in the US media. Remnick provided Wright with the incomparable resources of the New Yorker to create the docudramatic and generally fantasy work entitled The Looming Tower. [21] This book ties a lot of disconnected information together to fabricate a compelling script defining a vast Islamic fundamentalist terrorist conspiracy, which Osama bin Laden is supposed to head but really does not exist and which can only be fought by stripping Americans of their Constitutional rights. Wright's fictions are sophisticated and quite similar in style to the misrepresentation in the Aref-Hossain trial. The deception depends on subtle mistranslation or ellipsis and calculated distortion. The entire mythology of the War on Terror -- like the political show trials – is filled with the same sort of deliberate misrepresentations.

Jewish Zionists Stuart Levey, Jonathan Schanzer, and Matthew Levitt, an FBI consultant and pro-Israel propagandist, all worked for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the Treasury Department as "counter-terrorism experts" in theory to stop terrorist cash flows but in reality to staunch the increasing political clout of wealthy Muslims and Muslim countries. While serving the government they have constructed a vast terrorist conspiracy out of paranoid Zionist fantasies. They coordinated the legal attack on international Arab and Muslim charities and financial institutions with the media campaign. [22] These Jewish Zionists were all heavily involved in cooking up the nonsense about Aref and Ansar al-Islam. Their jobs involved manufacturing off-the-wall yet dangerous-sounding international financial connections, which was also a theme in the Aref-Hossain trial. Stuart Levey has continued in the same role under the Obama administration.

According to Obama's Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, "Stuart [Levey] has been the chief architect of our strategy to impose growing financial costs on Iran for its continued defiance and he has played a major leadership role on this issue internationally."

Jonathan Schanzer is now vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy think tank and pro-Israel lobby, whose original name was Endowment for Middle Eastern Truth (EMET), which calls itself a nongovernmental group that "tracks sanctions busters and terrorist financing" and reports to Levey. [23] In reality, the FDD never defends democracy but works only to protect and to extend Jewish privilege and special exemption from the laws of the United States.

As Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Levey is for all intents and purposes an American Jewish Committee employee lent to the US government to make sure that US foreign policy remains subordinate to Zionist goals. [24] Levey has a particularly important strategic role (with the assistance of Obama administration officials Lawrence Summers and Martin Feldstein) to make sure that wealthy Muslims and Muslim states remain impotent in the face of the power of Jewish wealth [25].

Jewish Zionist Evan Kohlmann, who served as a prosecution expert witness with no qualifications whatsoever during the Aref-Hossain trial and many other Islamophobic political prosecutions became acquainted with Matthew Levitt while they worked on FBI terrorism projects. After leaving the US government they have both been closely associated with the Counterterrorism Foundation. Kohlmann's connections to Levey and Levitt should have made it possible to address issues of ethnopolitical agenda in the Aref-Hossain trial. Clever cross examination of the expert witnesses could go a long way toward clearing Muslim detainees of the false charges used against them.

According to David Gersten, who is a Director at Homeland Security, the Department of Homeland Security has stopped working with the ADL because of its obvious Jewish Zionist political and ethnic agenda. [26] The FBI could be forced to make the same decision regarding its sources such as the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IP).

Kohlmann's career got its start at the Investigative Project, which is headed by the long discredited terrorism pseudo-expert, Steve Emerson. As a law student, Kohlmann interned at the IP and  worked alongside the delusional terror fantasist Rita Katz while he wrote his first book about al-Qaeda. He now serves as their senior terrorism analyst. [27]

Emerson has a longtime association with Martin Peretz, the publisher of the racist propaganda magazine The New Republic. [28] Not only has the Department of Justice employed a tremendous number of Jewish Zionists in senior roles for the last several presidencies, but the George W. Bush Administration put a lot of Zionist intellectuals with personal relationships to Emerson or Katz into senior positions. As these Zionists infected the US government bureaucracy with Islamophobia, the IP and the Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute headed by Katz gained influence within the middle and upper layers of the US government.

Even though no genuine terrorism scholar would ever take Emerson and his associates seriously, the FBI approached the IP to find a replacement for Rohan Gunaratna. Gunaratna, who holds the position of Honorary Fellow at Israel's International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, was the first "expert witness" at Aref's trial but had to step down due to his lack of knowledge on the topics he was hired to discuss.

Kohlmann's deposition revealed that he also knew nothing about the subject. [29]

Kohlmann spoke none of the languages in Bangladesh, Pakistan, or Iraq and was completely clueless with regard to the politics. He simply regurgitated the fantastic theory that Schanzer and Levitt had put together to justify the attack on Iraq and that described a collaboration between the Islamic Movement for Kurdistan, Ansar al-Islam, al-Qaeda, and Saddam Hussain.

In 2005 the Islamic Society of Boston brought a complaint of defamation against Fox News, the Boston Herald, and the David Project (DP), which is an Israel advocacy organization. Discovery documents revealed that the DP came up with a list of names of Muslims they planned to accuse of terrorism as part of their media and legal campaign against the Roxbury Mosque project. The DP then hired the IP to fabricate evidence against the Islamic Society of Boston in an attempt to halt construction of the mosque. The discovery documents clearly showed that the people were targeted first, and then the evidence was manufactured. [30], [31]

The same casuistry was equally obvious in Yassin Aref's trial because the government, or more accurately, Zionist agents working within the government had been trying to come up with a way to frame Aref for years before his actual arrest.

There were a number of potential witnesses with very interesting stories that the defense never called to the stand. One was Abraham Youssef, who said the FBI had interviewed him before Aref's arrest. Youssef was facing some potential felony charges, which the FBI told him they could make "disappear" if he would give a statement against Imam Yassin, "that one week prior to the September 11, 2001 attack, Ibrahim had seen two of the nineteen hijackers sleeping over at my house." Youssef refused the offer.

Another man, Ali Yaghi, was approached by FBI agents in Jordan and asked to testify against Aref in exchange for legal residency in the US so he could be reunited with his estranged American wife and their children. Yaghi refused.

Aref stated: "the testimony of Youssef and Yaghi were critical in showing that the government was attempting to frame me and were willing to give valuable consideration in order to get false but incriminating testimony." [32]

Defending the unjustly accused

Careful jury selection could make a difference to the outcome of preemptive prosecution trials. In the Aref case, Judge McAvoy told the jury that the government had good reason to be suspicious of Aref. He implicitly recommended that the jurors should convict. The defense lawyer must use peremptory challenges to favor jury candidates, who would be likely to wonder whether there is a good reason to be suspicious of the government. Because of the post-9/11 atmosphere where terms like "Islamofascist" pervade political discourse, one tactic the defense lawyer could use to weed out Islamophobic or pro-Israel jurors would be to ask the prospective juror whether he believes Muslims could be fascists and whether he believes a Jew could be a Nazi.

An increasing number of Americans are becoming aware that US Middle East foreign policy has no connection to US national interest but is created in order to maximize political contributions from hyper-wealthy Jewish Zionist subversives like Haim Saban [33] or Sheldon Adelson. [34] As soon as possible after the trial starts, the defense team must attack the common American judicial inclination to defer to US government claims that it withholds evidence for foreign policy or national security reasons.

Aref was half-right when he told Kindlon to bring in an expert on Kurdish politics.

Such an expert could show how Kohlmann was lying. A Jewish studies expert could explain why Kohlmann was lying. This combination could rework the trial into a case against the FBI and the Department of Justice. More aggressive lawyering would include an expert witness on the Israel Lobby and Zionist political manipulation of US policy, in an effort to put the FBI and US governmental bureaucratic Islamophobia on trial.

When Judge McAvoy prevented Aref's and Hossain's attorneys from challenging Kohlmann's credentials, the defense should have aggressively concentrated on Kohlmann's political agenda.

Respinning the Story/Media Pressure

In Islamophobic show trials prosecutors and the US government are well-positioned to commit great wrongs and to undermine the constitutional legal system of the USA due to existing prejudices against Muslims. To win in such a situation, supporters must present themselves as the last line of defense for the American way of life. The legal defense team, Muslim and civil rights organizations, and supporting political activists must act as a highly coordinated special forces unit much in the way that prosecutors and both left wing and right wing Israel advocates coordinate their efforts.

Muslims need to create a rapid reaction strategy. When the FBI and the US Attorney move to arrest and to indict, instead of engaging in apologetics as if the accused were already tried and found guilty, Muslim defense organizations need to make as much noise as possible about yet another US violation of Muslim or Arab American civil and human rights. The key words should be fairness, equal protection, and reciprocity.

US laws should be enforced uniformly for Jews and non-Jews. Why do the FBI and the US attorneys only pursue alleged Muslim extremism and material support of terrorism when Jewish Zionist extremism and material support of terrorism are open and blatant?

Even though Friends of the IDF (FIDF) is prima facie a criminal organization that aids and abets terrorists, it has 501(c)(3) status. FIDF leadership and most if not all the membership should be serving long prison sentences under RICO and anti-terrorism statutes.

Irving Moskowitz, a far-right millionaire in New York and his Yashar Lachayal organization, which supplies goods directly to IDF soldiers, are possibly in even more direct violation of US law. [35] The FBI should long ago have shut down his group, seized its assets and arrested both Moskowitz and also his staff by the standards of the treatment of Muslim charities.

Yick Wo v. Hopkins is as important today as it was in 1886 when the Supreme Court's decision established that it was just as unfair to enforce laws unequally as it was to write racial inequality into laws.

Muslims should pressure media outlets that refuse to cover the issue of unequal enforcement of anti-terrorism laws. The right of rabidly Islamophobic channels like Boston FOX 25 to broadcast spectrum must be challenged. Just as Jewish Zionist groups try to prevent al-Jazeera's honest reports of the Middle East from being carried by the cable TV providers, Muslim groups should increase their pressure campaigns to drive racist anti-Muslim content-providers off of every cable network whenever possible.

In some situations defamatory actions of media organizations have given individual Muslims and Muslim organizations reason to sue. Muslim defense organizations and the larger Muslim community should give the plaintiffs all possible material support.

Changing the General Atmosphere

Jewish Zionists will respond to any explicit or implicit suggestion that Jews inside and outside of government are collaborating to achieve Zionist goals with accusations of anti-Semitism and conspiracy-mongering. Muslim defense organizations must neutralize such Zionist propaganda campaign by using press releases, demonstrations, and other publicity tactics to point out that the USA has lots of laws against conspiracy precisely because conspiracies are real. It is racist to believe that Jewish Zionists are less likely than other groups to engage in them. An extremely public debate over the government's refusal to address Jewish criminality and Jewish conspiracy as such can help foster the development of public consciousness of the fairness issue in order to delegitimize Zionist orchestrated show trials and political prosecutions.

Zionist subversion is a Gesamtkunstwerk (a totally synthesized combination of efforts into one unified vision).  It permeates American society from elementary school through academia to the highest levels of government. Muslim defense organizations must conceptualize fighting Zionism as their own Gesamtkunstwerk that involves lots of little lawsuits, political mobilization, careful investment, and lots of PR. The composition will reach its climax when the first Zionist leaders are incarcerated, but much work will still remain. Any lesser goal means Muslims will probably lose because Zionists like Pipes are without doubt willing to do anything to put as many Muslims in jail as possible.

Addressing the political show trials of Muslims is only one battle in the struggle against the web of control that Zionists are trying to exert over all aspects of society.

Because Zionist organizations have targeted rising Muslim and Arab academics for denial of tenure and have tried to prevent any sort of rational education about Arabs and Islam, academics and educators targeted by Jewish Zionists such as Joe Massad, Hatem Bazian, Nadia Abu el-Haj, Debbi Almontaser and others probably have the best shot at a class action law suit if they are willing to band together to challenge those attempting to prevent them from working in their chosen profession.

Because Zionist machinations are hardly confined to the non-governmental sector, Muslim defense organizations must look carefully at the role of Jewish Zionist conspiracy within the federal government.

Jewish Zionists and their friends at the IRS have long misused their offices to attempt to deny the granting of 501(c)(3) tax-deductible contribution status to organizations critical of Zionism. For example, the Council for the National Interest, which lobbies for a balanced Middle East foreign policy, had tremendous difficulty in obtaining 501(c)(3) while the racist Investigative Project of Steven Emerson had no problems whatsoever.

Zionist machinations have enmeshed Harvard, Yale and many other universities in activities and programs that violate US government regulations. For example "[the] goal of the [Harvard] Wexner Israel Fellowship Program is to provide Israel's next generation of public leaders with advanced training in public management and leadership development, thus enhancing the quality of democracy and the institutional vitality of Israel's public sector." [36]

This educational opportunity provides rising middle level Israelis outside the private sector with connections to the upper levels of the US government through the Harvard Kennedy School. The fellowship discriminates against Israeli Palestinians and is unavailable to Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Recipients are expected to visit synagogues and take part in local Jewish activities, which creates a hostile environment for Arabs or Muslims and implies that non-Jews are unwelcome.

The program's discrimination against Israeli Palestinians and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories would lead to forfeiture of Harvard's 501(c)(3) tax deductible contribution status if the IRS applied same standards to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism as it applied to anti-Black racism when it stripped Bob Jones University of this status. Yet the US government fails to enforce the law in the case of Jewish Zionist racism.

Not only is the IRS thoroughly penetrated, but the Security and Exchange Commission, the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC), and associated US government agencies often make great efforts to undertake Zionist policies and to ignore Zionist infractions.

The most glaring recent example has been the effort of the US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) to thwart the effort to combat structural racism while at the same time it has made attacking campus anti-Zionist organizing a high priority. USCCR Vice-Chair Abigail Thernstrom is a long-time associate of Israel lobbyist Charles Jacobs.

Other agencies do similar things: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which comes under the jurisdiction of the FCC, spends a lot of time in fighting criticism of Israel while the Treasury combats boycotts of Israel even as it attempts to sanction Iran.

Muslim defense organizations must use the whole range of available legal, regulatory or political challenges to undermine Zionist control within the US government.

Muslim defense organizations must file a notice of claim (SF95) to indicate intent to take legal action against any government agency, whose improper or unequal application of US law and regulations is harming Muslim American citizens and residents. Such notice should be accompanied by the identification of US government officials, who have engaged in the misuse or perversion of office on behalf Zionism in order to harm Muslims.

The Bevins precedent [37] was a major topic in the lawsuit of Canadian citizen Mahar Arar, who was dispatched by Canada to Syria to be tortured at the behest of the US government. Bevins addresses the question of compensating persons, who have suffered unjust deprivation of Constitutional rights. Because the implications of Bevins belong to the cutting edge of US legal theory, a lawyer using reasoning derived from the Bevins decision must be ready for close and difficult questioning from the judge. Yet the Bevins precedent in combination with equal protection arguments could provide a means to attack the belief that far too many judges and jurors have in the government's good faith and that has been used so successfully in producing unjust convictions like those of Aref and Hossain in Albany.

While the Supreme Court in theory does not adjust its decisions with political vicissitudes, it practice it does, and with more public discussion of Jewish Zionist subversion of the US legal process, an opening may be created for Muslim political prisoners to win appeals against unjust conviction. This outcome would become more likely if Muslim defense organizations can create international pressure and link the release of political prisoners to US strategic foreign policy goals and better relations with the Islamic world. Obviously no Muslim country should trust the US as long as the US wrongfully incarcerates decent patriotic Muslim American citizens. Muslim Americans will have to start reaching out to Muslim countries that are being pressured by the USA to take action against alleged terrorist organizations or to aid US strategic goals. Turkey for example should start asking why the US is not arresting Jewish Zionists that supported the IDF in killing US and Turkish citizens.

Developing a public consciousness of the issues is essential to prevailing in a political prosecution, because there are so many factors that can influence prison sentences.

According to Aref's lawyer Steve Downs, "I do not think the issue in sentencing is the ability of the lawyers but particular judges and the amount of community support that the defendants were receiving.  (Most judges stick to the guidelines. Some judges as in Aref's case can be persuaded to deviate down, and some judges as in the Ft. Dix 5 are persuaded to deviate up)."

While 15 years is still a terribly harsh price for an innocent man to pay, Aref got half the time of the normal legal guidelines. Holy Land Foundation founder Ghassan Elashi got 65 years [38], while the Ft. Dix 5, who were falsely accused of conspiring to attack a military base, got life imprisonment. [39]. 

In addition to developing effective legal defense strategies to keep innocent individuals out of prison, there needs to be a wider-reaching offensive strategy, that will prevent future preemptive prosecutions and turn around the general attitude towards Muslims.

Witch Hunt

Not only must Muslims be willing to deconstruct the Zionist politics, ideology and mobilization, on which the Islamophobic prosecutions Americans have been based, but Muslim activists must have the ultimate goal of putting Jewish Zionist criminals into jail.

This would require hiring private detectives as well as a legal team. We'd need to find out who decided to target whom and why, which people exactly made the plans and carried out the plans. Who sent the press releases to the media claiming false claims to sway the jury against the defendants? Who funded the lawsuits and who coordinated the media to coincide with the lawsuits and who did the psychological analysis to decide what to do in court vs. what to say in the newspaper? In other words, who came up with the plan on how to exaggerate the actual legal battle and make it into something sensational? Who then went forward and used that fake story to back up their political agenda? Whose agenda?

We do know the names of many government officials, who are openly disloyal to the US in subverting the US government for the benefit of Israel, who published the fantasy framework documents in general, but who exactly are all the individuals who fed these authors the information, and who then advanced the plans to destabilize the US by using false intelligence to cover up their own crimes?

We actually have a fairly good idea because there are a limited number of players in the Zionist mafia. But we have to dig up the documents and that can only be done by initiating our own lawsuits and investigation as we evolve an aggressive strategy to find out who was feeding Rumsfeld and Ashcroft their twisted ideas. Whose game plan were they following? We know in general who did it, but you need exact names to accuse people of treason or seditious conspiracy.

The private detectives should also look among other things for financial and real estate improprieties unrelated to incitement of Islamophobia. Evidence of corruption could easily throw a monkey wrench into an anti-Muslim show trial.

What is necessary to uncover a conspiracy involving infiltration of the government is certainly more than a criminal defense lawyer's job description, however competent. It requires a full-scale investigation of Zionist organizations on the level of a "witch hunt." That's where Aref's witnesses would come in handy, as they were offered rewards by the government to falsely testify against him. It would be good to trace the line of command back to whose idea it was to incriminate Aref.

It is impossible to mount a defense that the prosecution was generated through improper influences without proof that this is so. Defense lawyers may feel that improper influences are behind a prosecution but the judge will not allow speculation about it. It requires proof, and given the nature of the challenge it would be very difficult and costly for an individual lawyer in an individual case to make any headway in obtaining such proof for an individual case. What is really needed is some money and effort to be spent uncovering all of the hidden influences that are working on our prosecution system right now, which could be used in all preemptive prosecution cases. 

Zionist Terror Prosecutions: Stopping FBI Entrapment Operations

To be successful in preemptive prosecution cases you usually have to mount an aggressive defense, related primarily to the bad faith of the government. However, some lawyers believe that if you go after the government aggressively it can backfire on their client. The judge may get angry and increase the sentence.  Some judges will retaliate against a defendant for an aggressive campaign against the government.

In order to change the government response on issues of terrorism and the question of who are America's enemies, it may help to differentiate between those in law enforcement who are truly interested in protecting US security from the Israeli agents who have infiltrated the US government on every level and in every branch. Because the FBI or Homeland Security are infiltrated by the very people committing the financial and political crimes against the US and pointing the finger at (and falsely framing) Muslims who never posed any threat to the US, these agencies have a vested interest in cleansing themselves of this corruption.

In some sense Muslims are fortunate that Zionist subversives overreached after 9/11 to manipulate Congress into enacting tough anti-terrorist legislation, for after the Flotilla Massacre this year, no one can rationally deny that Israel is a terrorist state and that American supporters of Zionism materially aid Zionist terrorism.

Instead of arguing legal technicalities, American Muslims can use US anti-terrorism laws as key elements of a comprehensive strategy to break the continuing sequence of show trials resulting from FBI entrapment tactics. If the FBI is running sting operations against innocent Muslims, it should certainly be running the same sort of operation Jewish Zionists, who are aiding and abetting Zionist terrorism.

Herein lies the key to stopping the entrapment operations and political show trials.  If Muslim organizations can persuade foreign governments to pressure the US to prosecute Zionist terrorism supporters in the USA, the non-Jewish non-Zionist segment of the US foreign policy establishment may use what little remains of its political clout to work to stop FBI stings and the Islamophobic show trials. Once American Zionist leaders realize that they are vulnerable to terrorism prosecutions, they themselves will use the full extent of their power to stop these trials as antithetical to fundamental Constitutional principles, to which they will suddenly develop a profound attachment.

Conclusion

In the aftermath of 9/11 the US Department of Justice and especially the FBI have had a policy of rooting out a phantasmagorical world-wide anti-USA Islamic terrorist conspiracy by arresting and by prosecuting Muslim American leaders on ridiculous charges. Developing tactics and strategies to fight such US governmental abuses of human rights requires honest documentation, understanding and discussion of the actions, origins, tactics, and strategy of the Islamophobic conspiracy that has moved from the Israel Lobby and the organized Jewish community to the highest levels of the US government.

There is no magic bullet that will fix the US justice system. It will take thousands of lawsuits over both large and small issues, and lots of PR. I truly hope that someone could come up with the money and the will to deal with this problem. It's certainly less money than destroying and rebuilding country after country, although it is no small amount of money that would be needed.

We know this for sure. As long as a subversive like Stuart Levey holds his post in the Treasury despite prima facie violation of Federal Seditious Conspiracy law, which makes preventing enforcement of the US criminal code in time of war a crime almost equivalent to treason, legal persecution of Muslims will continue while Yassin Aref and many other good and decent Muslims suffer in prison.